Three Knicks score at least 20 in rout of Hornets
RJ Barrett of the Knicks drives against Bryce McGowens of the Hornets during the second half at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
A few Knicks had their children on the court near the bench before the start of Sunday’s matinee against Charlotte. But when the ball went up to start the game, they were all business.
The Knicks scored the first seven points before the Hornets wiped the sleep from their eyes and led nearly wire-to-wire, building the advantage to 29 points before clearing the bench for a 129-107 win at Madison Square Garden.
By the time this one was over, the Knicks had reached down to the seldom-used players on the bench — a chance to exhale briefly before starting another torturous stretch of the schedule.
The win was the third straight for the Knicks (5-4) and sent them off for a five-game road trip that begins with the second half of a back-to-back set Monday night in Boston.
Until it was over, though, even if they had put on sweatshirts, the starters and stars were keeping one eye on Tom Thibodeau, waiting for the coach to signal them to report back in. As the game grew one-sided against the shorthanded Hornets, there was no hint provided until the final buzzer sounded.
“I thought I was going back in,” Jalen Brunson said. “Let’s be honest. Whenever we can win like that, it’s definitely a good feeling. I try not to check out at any point in the game. It is what it is.”
“No, he never tells me, bro,” Julius Randle said. “Mentally, I was ready. [If] they had one run, we was going back in for sure.”
Thibodeau told a story after the game that he’s recounted before. It’s the one about being an assistant in Houston when the Rockets’ Tracy McGrady scored 13 points in 33 seconds. The players have heard it, too.
“He’s got a lot of trauma, man,” Randle said with a laugh. “He’s got to work on that. He’s got to work on that.”
The story is true: It came 19 years ago and McGrady was a part of Thibodeau’s team and the Rockets won the game. But the leaders did their job on Sunday and gave the Knicks a chance to look ahead — even if they won’t admit it.
RJ Barrett scored 24 points, Randle added 23 with five assists and five rebounds and Brunson had 20 points, including 13 in the first quarter.
After the Knicks took the 7-0 lead, the Hornets hung around thanks to Brandon Miller, who shot 5-for-6 and scored 11 points in 9:05 in the quarter. But Miller’s day ended when he came down on Josh Hart’s ankle on the last basket and suffered a sprained left ankle.
LaMelo Ball took over from there, scoring 21 of his 32 points in the first half, but the Knicks still led 64-54 at halftime. Brunson led five Knicks in double figures with 15 points.
The Knicks then put the game away, building a 99-79 lead after three quarters, and got a chance to rest at the end — physically if not mentally.
“The fact that we were winning is good,” Thibodeau said. “But it doesn’t change the approach we have to have, which is to take a good, hard look at what we did well, what we didn’t do as well as we would like. The games keep coming. So you can’t exhale. You can’t relax. You can’t let your guard down.
“We’re being tested in a really good way. I like that our schedule is tough and has been tough. It tells us exactly where we are, tells us exactly what we have to work on. And if we’re doing the right things, the results will end up being good.”
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.
