Before t🌜he Knicks celebrated the golden anniversary of the franchise’s most-recent NBA title Saturday night, Jalen Brunson grabbed the microphon💜e to address the Madison Square Garden crowd.
He listed the admirable traits of that 1972-73 NBA championship squad that t🌳he current Knicks have hoped to emulate as they continue their march back to relevance: hard work, selflessness and sacr🌌ifice.
Those qual♑ities were on display once again for the surging Knicks, who seized their fifth consecutive victory since the deadline deal for Josh Hart with a 128-106 waxing of the sinking Pelicans. For good measure, the Knicks scored 73 points in the first half to honor their or🔜ganizational forebears.
“I mean, it obviously wasn’t planned, but hey, it worked,” RJ Barrett said a💜fterward. “Man, it was great just to see them here and ju🅺st even see all the videos up on the Jumbotron and stuff.
“Just the energy that was in there tonight was amazing. They’re legends. It’s very inspirational, especially the way they were able to win a champions꧑hip, bring a championship back to New York. That’s something that we’re trying to do, so it was great to have them in the building.”
Julius Randle followed up his 46 points frꦕom Friday night in Washington, which tied a career high, by netting 28, including 16 in the opening quarter, as the Knicks (35-27) closed within a half-game of the Nets for the No. 5 playoff position in the Eastern Conference🥃.
“We knew we had this challenge coming off the break. We knew that before we went to break. So I think men🎉tally we prepared for it. It was g🅘ood,” Randle said, before adding that the 73-point first half was a “pretty cool” coincidence to honor the ’73 squad.
Brunson finished with 20 points and five assists, and Barrett played an effective overꦑall game with 25 points on 8-for-13 shoo﷽ting and a season-high seven assists after he sat out down the stretch of the win Friday over the Wizards.
Hart (15 points) and Immanuel Quickley (13) contributed again off the b꧙ench, while Mitchell Robinson registered his second straight double-double (11 points and 13 rebounds in 28 minutes) after he returned to the lineup Friday for the first time since Jan. 19 thumb surger💃y.
Brandon Ingram scored 1✃9 points to lead the Pelicans, who fell to 6-17 in the 23 games for which All-Star forward Zion Williamson has been ༺sidelined since he suffered a hamstring injury on Jan. 2.
Randle, who threw down an exclamation point dunk on a pass off th♚e backboard from Quickley late in the fourth quarter, certainly is showing no signs of complacency after his second All-Star designation in three years. He’s continuing to put his rocky 2021-22 season behind him with an overall scoring average of 25.1 points per game.
“I think the biggest thing is to never stop,” coach Tom Thibodeau said about Randle. “Obviously, [two] years ꦺago he had an unbelievable season. And then to be mentally tough when you face adversity is probably the most important thin♎g in life. So he didn’t stay down. He battled back and I think each situation teaches you something.”
A 3-pointer by Obi ꩵToppin with 38.1 seconds left in the first quarter pushed the Knicks’ cushion to 42-22. They went 8-for-15 from 3-point range in the opening quarter — including a 4-for-6 start by Randle — and led 42-26 heading into the second.
The Knicks led by as many as 23 early🐟 in the second quarter before reaching intermission with a 73-52 advantage. Randle nailed his fifth trey in the period and had 19 points at halftime, with Barrett adding 13 and Brunson totaling 12.
After multi-generational fan favorite Clyde Frazier addressed the crowd during the halftime ceremony — which featured a video message sent by former captain Willis Reed — the current Knicks went back to work. They extended tꦆheir lead to 27 with 7:24 left in the third quarter on consecutive 3-pointers by Brunson and Quentin Grimes and carried a 102-82 lead into the final period.
“Coming off of [Friday] night, back to back for us, they’re sitting there waiting for us, and so we wanted to make sure that we got off to a good start,” Thibodeau said. “I thought our defense got going and I thought we created good sho♌ts and found a good rhythm particularly with the 3.”
