It was not easy, but the New York Knicks are currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
The red-hot Knicks ran into an equally red-blooded group of Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night with fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Our guys played out pretty spooky from the start to the end. To top it off, both of their remaining rotation centers, Nerlens Noel and Taj Gibson, were injured and left the game. Hard to look at, it was.
But these are not the tissue-soft Knicks of yesteryear. They trailed by 10 in the fourth quarter, but they got a break when Trae Young injured his ankle. Rookie Immanuel Quickley succeeded on one of his patented late-binges to pull New York back into it.
Once again, Derrick Rose’s steady play gave the team a boost after Elfrid Payton cracked over himself in the third quarter.
Julius Randle helped propose the Knicks with three: 08 left, but the Hawks got a try from Bogdan Bogdanovich to send it to OT.
That was when Julius Randle took over. Jules was good throughout – he scored 40 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out 6 assistants – but he was really special in the extra time, with the shot and the pass.
Credit Nerlens Noel, who came back in the fourth game after catching an elbow in the face and playing most of the fourth and the entire OT. These guys are tough.
Summary to come. Eight in a row!