The Knicks struggled with the wind during a three-game losing streak that reached Detroit on Saturday night.
This time, however, they managed to quickly build such an insurmountable advantage that coach Tom Thibodeau even let Julius Randle rest for the entire fourth quarter.
Randle came out on fire and provided a lightning first quarter to lead the Knicks to a 125-81 win over the Pistons at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena.
Randle, who battled a home loss to the Mavericks on Friday, finished with 29 points and Reggie Bullock added 22. The two combined to draw 17-for-28 and 11-for-19 from the 3-point range, much of it coming as the Knicks opened up a 30-point lead in the first half. RJ Barrett, who also had a night off on Friday, won 14 points, and Elfrid Payton had 11 points and nine assists.
The Knicks (25-25) shot 53.8% (and 47.4% deep) to get a three-game losing streak and return to .500. They have a showdown against the Nets that awaits Monday after Sunday’s well-deserved day.
Randle was at the forefront of the Knicks’ struggles in the first half of the back-to-back, scoring just 14 points in the 5-for-20 (including 1-for-7 deep) shoot on Friday on an unusual night for All-Star. He was not alone, as the Knicks shot just 36% of the field against the Mavericks, the third weakest mark of the season, and gave a double-digit advantage for a second straight game.
But Randle immediately made sure Saturday would have a very different ending.
On Knicks’ first two possessions, Randle drained a 3-point corner and then drilled another from the other corner. In two goods, he had made three triples more than he had done all Friday night. And it was just beginning.
At the beginning was the show Randle and Bullock. The two combined to score 28 of the Knicks’ first 30 points, including a pair of three each during a 14-0 round in the first 3 ¹ / ₂ minutes. Randle needed just 6:53 to beat his Friday night total. He finished the first quarter with 20 points, while Bullock won 14. The two combined to shoot 8-for-12 from beyond the arc in the first 12 minutes.
The result: The Knicks scored 41 points this season in the first quarter as they took a 41-15 lead in the second.
The lead increased to 30 points in the first half, when a Derrick Rose jumper brought the Knicks 51-21 early in the second quarter. The Pistons finally started to fight back from there, going 13-3 to reduce the Knicks lead to 60-41 until the break.
Perhaps most importantly, the Knicks came out in the third quarter and showed few signs of giving up. After a nine-point lead against the Heat on Monday, an 18-point lead against the Timberwolves on Wednesday and a 13-point lead against the Mavericks on Friday, the Knicks held their foot on the gas pedal in the second half. The Pistons reached 17 points in the third quarter, before the Knicks pushed their lead to 27 to 88-61, heading into the fourth.
Before the game, Thibodeau showed that the lack of movement of the ball hurts the Knicks as much as the key players who do not shoot well in the 99-86 loss of Mavericks. On Saturday, they received both.
“The important thing is that when our main boys don’t have a good night, we still have to do everything else to lift each other up – from shielding to moving the ball to finishing our distance and things like that,” Thibodeau said. “But it is something we are capable of, we understand that. It requires energy and effort. It’s a long season and you have to go through things. ”