After the New York Knicks improved to 14-1 against opponents with losing records, Julius Randle provided an insight into the team’s mentality.
“Don’t play with your food,” Randle said Saturday following a 121-105 win in Washington. “Take care of what you’re supposed to take care of and just keep improving. Basketball gods got a funny way of rewarding you or humbling you. We just try to approach each game the right way and play basketball the right way. Let the chips fall where they may.”
Randle and the Knicks take a season-high four-game winning streak into another encounter with a sub-.500 opponent Tuesday night when they host the Portland Trail Blazers, who are coming off one of their best wins of the season.
New York’s only defeat against a sub-500 opponent was a 117-113 setback to Utah Jazz in the opener of a five-game road trip on Dec. 13. Since then, the Knicks have won their past three games against those opponents by a combined 51 points by beating the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 20 along with the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday and Saturday’s wire-to-wire victory over the Wizards.
Randle helped the Knicks get their latest win by scoring 39 points for his second-highest total this season and is averaging 30.3 points on 50.6 percent shooting (41 of 81) in the winning streak. On Saturday, he made 13 of 23 shots and tied a season best by getting to the free-throw line 13 times.
Besides Randle’s latest big game, Jalen Brunson added 33 on 10-of-18 shooting and is shooting 56.7 percent (34 of 60) in his past three games following a 5-of-23 showing on Jan. 1 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The win in Washington followed an impressive 36-point win in Philadelphia one night earlier. The Knicks led the Wizards by as many as 26 before allowing the lead slip to five in the third quarter.
“It was just not the pace. It was the all-around play,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, whose team is allowing 100.8 points per game in the winning streak. “Just being ready to play, playing with a lead, good defensive activity.”
Portland owns the NBA’s fifth-worst record and is playing the fifth game of a seven-game road trip. The Trail Blazers dropped the first three games by a combined 86 points to extend their road losing streak to seven, but they outplayed the Brooklyn Nets in the fourth quarter and overtime to earn a 134-127 win on Sunday.
Anfernee Simons, who scored 60 points in his previous two games against the Knicks, scored 38 points. Simons equaled his second-highest point total this season by shooting 13 of 25 after going 6 of 24 in the two blowout losses in Dallas.
Simons had plenty of help as Jerami Grant added 27 and had a critical block in overtime when Portland ended the game on a 10-2 run. Shaedon Sharpe contributed 21 and Malcolm Brogdon finished with 18, including the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime.
“I think we’re a young team, we’re inexperienced to put a full 48 minutes together,” Brogdon said Sunday. Tonight, we were able to put 53 minutes together, so I’m proud of this group.”
Sunday’s win saw the Blazers tie a season high for points. Portland also made a season-best 20 3s after shooting 30.9 percent (34 of 110) from behind the arc in the previous three games.
–Field Level Media