In crunch time Monday night, while trying to hang on to what started as a four-point lead, the Knicks went nearly four full minutes without putting the ball through the basket.
The good news was that the Knicks also held the Thunder scoreless for three of those minutes, but their offensive drought ultimately proved costly in a 127-123 overtime loss at the Garden.
“Just a little too stagnant,” Julius Randle said. “Coach [Tom Thibodeau] always tells us to run late. For some reason, we’re not playing as fast and uptempo late, so it creates a lot of stagnant situations in the half-court. And they can really load up, and it makes it tough. So we gotta figure out a way to have the same pace late in the game.”
The Knicks had no issues pouring into points before the final minutes of regulation, as they had scored 94 points through three quarters. Randle played a key role in that, pushing the action up the court while recording his first triple-double of the season with 30 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists.
Julius Randle said the Knicks got “a little too stagnant’ late in their loss to the Thunder.Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
But Randle also had seven turnovers, four of which came in the final four minutes of regulation and overtime, while shooting 1-for-4 during that stretch.
“At the end of the game, you want Ju to have the ball,” Evan Fournier said. “You want to put him in action and you want to create something for him. But they did a good job switching and they scored as well because we couldn’t get a stop. So we always had to bring the ball up slowly, call a play, instead of pushing the ball and having a rhythm.”
Even with RJ Barrett in street clothes because of a sprained ankle, Cam Reddish got just eight minutes off the bench Monday. The wing, for whom the Knicks gave up a first-round draft pick, scored just two points as he continued in a limited role.
Obi Toppin also saw only eight minutes, with his playing time continuing to get cut back of late.
“Their bench hurt us,” Thibodeau said when asked about Reddish and Toppin’s minutes. “So that was a big concern how we were matched up with the bench. So we were searching.”
The Thunder’s bench outscored the Knicks’ 38-22. Alec Burks (11 points) was the Knicks’ only non-starter to score in double digits.
Kemba Walker, who finished with nine points and five assists, did not play at all in the fourth quarter or overtime. Instead, Thibodeau used Burks at point guard for those pivotal minutes.
