Knicks' Josh Hart: Julius Randle missed even more in playoffs
Knicks injured forward Julius Randle (30) watches from the bench during the first quarter against the Atlanta Hawks at Madison Square Garden in on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Credit: Brad Penner
PHILADELPHIA — As the Knicks embraced a next-man-up mentality and have succeeded for the most part, reaching Thursday night’s 118-115victory with 50 regular-season wins, the second seed in the Eastern Conference and advancing to play Indiana starting Monday night in the second round, there is a piece that they clearly miss.
The 76ers have worked to slow Jalen Brunson (he scored 41 points Thursday night anyway) and too often he has not had a steady second option, and the absence of Julius Randle has become glaring at times.
"Where do we miss him the most?” Josh Hart said. “Ooh, that’s tough. Where do I start? I mean: he’s an All-Star. He [averaged] 24 and 9 and 5 or whatever it is, so that playmaking, shot making, is something that we’re missing. It’s funny: when people talk about us they somehow forget the big void we have of 24 and 9 gone. It’s not like he’s out there with us 70-80%. He’s not out there. So that’s something that’s a big void that we knew was gonna be hard to fill, but his playmaking, his shot-making, his energy is something that we definitely miss.”
Randle was there on the bench with them for the first time since his shoulder surgery -- and then was waiting outside the locker room to hug them as they came off the floor Thursday night.
Sleepy-eyed
The NBA’s decision to push the Knicks and 76ers into prime time, starting Game 6 at 9:12 left the Knicks wondering how to shift their daily schedules around.
“My nap — pregame nap — is a little bit later,” Brunson said. “Besides that, nothing.”
“No idea what I'm about to do,” Hart said after the morning shootaround. “Just gotta nap. I don’t even know. I don’t even know. Yeah, I have no idea what I’m gonna do. Im gonna eat, sleep and then I don’t know.
“If I have bad sleep, I nap hour and a half. Good sleep, 30 minutes. Today, I had good sleep but I might sleep like three hours or something. I got nothing else to do. So 9:00 definitely (stinks) on the East Coast but it is what it is.”
Deep thoughts
Brunson was asked what he thought of the offensive process during Tuesday’s overtime and he replied, “Not good.”
So what can be better?
“My decision making,” he said.
Can you be more specific?
“Keeping it with the New York Knicks and not throwing it to the fans in the front row,” Brunson said. “That would be very helpful.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
