The Knicks face one of the NBA’s most terrifying schedules for the remainder of the season, only adding to the importance of Saturday’s visit to Oklahoma City to maintain their position in the playoffs.
Tom Thibodeau’s team recovered from a loss in Milwaukee on Thursday with a redeeming 119-97 victory over the understaffed Thunder at the Chesapeake Energy Arena for their 20th win of the season (20-19). Their overall win represents one less victory than last season, when they finished 21-45 under first David Fizdale and then Mike Miller, now an assistant coach of Thunder.
RJ Barrett scored 32 points in his career on 12-of-21 shots for the Knicks, whose next two games take place with the two Eastern Conference front runners: the Nets on Monday and the 76ers the following night.
With point guards Elfrid Payton (hamstring) and Derrick Rose (health and safety protocols) both, Frank Ntilikina got his second start of the season, but only played for seven minutes (with zero points) after committing two early errors.
Immanuel Quickley played with a sore groin despite being doubtful for the game. The rookie guard finished with 21 points in a career-high 33 minutes off the bench.
All-Star forward Julius Randle endured his worst game of the season with just seven points in Thursday’s loss to the Bucks, but he posted his second triple-double of the season on Saturday with 26 points, 12 rebounds and a career best of 12 assists. The last Knicks player to record multiple triple doubles in a single season was Mark Jackson in 1988-89.
Al Horford scored 16 to lead the Thunder (16-22), which missed top scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (quad contusion) and veteran guard George Hill (inches), among others.
The Knicks came off a rough outing on Thursday-evening in their return from the All-Star break, taking their most points of the season (134) and their biggest loss (33) against the Bucks. But Thibodeau’s team had shown resilience after such bad outings in the first half of the season.
That’s what you have to do. The games just keep coming, and you have to analyze why you won or lost, and you have to make corrections and prepare for the next game, ”said Thibodeau before Saturday’s game. “Every game counts the same, so that’s the most important thing to understand.
“We cannot look back, we cannot look forward. We need to be locked up in this team. … You have to be ready to play and that’s a big part of that. Having a good routine in which you build the right habits and how to prepare for each game is an important part of winning. “
It took Randle only 3:12 of the first quarter to match his point total from the game against the Bucks, but the Thunder shot 70.6 percent off the floor in the session for a 31-22 lead.
Ntilikina sat down with two errors at barely five minutes into the game, but Quickley downed three of his first four shots for six points in the quarter.
The rookie added two early 3-pointers in the second quarter to double that total, Alec Burks contributed nine (of his 15 points total) in the half and Randle increased his total to 14 when the Knicks were 11-point behind wipe out for a 56 -54 advantage at break.
Thibodeau stayed with Quickley over Ntilikina to open the second half, and the Knicks defense spurred a 16-8 run to open the third quarter to extend their kiss to 10, before taking an 88-78 lead. in the fourth.