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Julius Randle's Place Was Proven in Knicks' Game 1 Loss to Heat

Just because the New York Knicks have proven they can win without Julius Randle doesn't mean they should go out of their way to try, as Game 1 against the Miami Heat displayed.

Geoff Magliocchetti

Julius Randle's Place Was Proven in Knicks' Game 1 Loss to Heat
Julius Randle's Place Was Proven in Knicks' Game 1 Loss to Heat /
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Many a New York City-based romantic comedy's third act has been resolved by the protagonist(s) not realizing what they had until it was gone.

 Platonic as the New York Knicks' relationship with Julius Randle may be, they might've fallen victim to the trope on Sunday afternoon.

Randle was among the many celebrities seated courtside for the Knicks' first Eastern Conference semifinals excursion in 10 years, forced into sweats after sustaining an ankle injury during the team's quarterfinal-clinching victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The All-Star could only watch as the Knicks lost en route to a 108-101 loss that created New York first series deficit of the 2023 postseason.

The countdown to the Knicks' doom began when Sunday's hosts bizarrely abandoned their quest to drive and penetrate, instead opting for increasingly futile activities from the outside. Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett, and Josh Hart went a combined 1-of-16 from beyond the arc. Obi Toppin's quartet from three (on 11 tries) hardly beautified the total effort of 7-for-34, the resulting success rate of just over 20 percent being the worst in a playoff game where the Knicks tried at least 25. 

Attacking the rim (with Barrett and Mitchell Robinson being particularly effective) helped the Knicks drain the will of the favored Cavs and the strategy appeared to work in Sunday's opening stanzas as New York scored all but 10 of its 32 points of the opening frame in the paint. The Heat took over the physical game from there on out, notably getting to the foul line on 16 occasions in the fourth quarter alone, which allowed to seal the deal after jumping out to a third quarter lead thanks to deep outlet passes and a little more success from deep.

Isn't that where the services of a 6-foot-8, 250-lb. All-Star could've come into play?

The Knicks said the relatively right things in defeat, blaming themselves for not living up to the "next man up" mentality many an injury-racked team has heard ad nauseam. Fully committing to the bit, however, appeared to prove difficult.

“I think everybody just has to step up their level of play,” Quentin Grimes, who returned from a two-game absence, said, per Steve Popper of Newsday.  “Not one person is going to come in and just make up for everything that he does. So we had to come in collectively as a unit. Everybody was stepping up the whole series last week when I went out, but I felt like (the Heat) kind of got the upper hand on us.”

The chronicles of Randle have been drastically rewritten in just a week's time. The amateur general managers ... who truly define those that Frank Sinatra sang about when he said New York was a "city that never sleeps" ... were in full force when a supposedly healthy Randle was held out of the entire fourth quarter of a crucial Game 4 victory over Cleveland at The Garden. 

Head coach Tom Thibodeau claimed that aftershocks of a prior injury ... Randle previously hurt the same ankle in the final stages of the regular season ... were the culprit behind Randle's conspicuous absence. But that departure had some observers reopening themselves to the idea of a trade and, barring a Larry O'Brien Trophy hoist, they'll undoubtedly resurface in full in some form during the offseason. 

The (unlikely, yet reasonably plausible) idea of calling Mark Cuban and offering the Dallas native Randle for an established superstar (and Brunson buddy) in Luka Dončić would give Stephen A. Smith and his debate partners material for at least a month. Randle unofficially losing the title of franchise face to Brunson only further fueled such ideas and his potential shift could potentially land the Knicks a bona fide superstar they would put them on the fast track toward the Eastern Conference penthouse.

But the Knicks proved that while they could win sans Randle in the closer against Cleveland, that shouldn't suggest they should go out of their way to try and do so.

Randle's physicality, ability to provide a reasonable rebounding prescience at the cusp of the paint, was sorely missed as the Knicks' lead slipped away. Some might've also pined for Randle's ability to get to the foul line, his 6.72 attempts ranking 10th amongst Eastern competitors this season. 

Miami's muscle got them to the line 29 times on Sunday, helping lay the foundation for a seven-point win after the Knicks got there on 20 occasions (sinking only 12, while Randle's 75 percent success rate was on the bench). Randle also appeared to be getting a handle on the Knicks' distribution duties in the Game 5 win over Cleveland, credited with a game-best six before the halftime horn. The Knicks had only six beyond seven each for Barrett and Brunson while four players on Miami put up at least four.

While a glance at the box score indicates that the Knicks prevailed in the rebounding battle (48-39, with 14 boards secured by Robinson), the Heat took advantage of the misses they managed to clean up. Miami crowded the paint, throwing bodies at the interior and at Robinson to create outlet passes that made up most of the scoring opportunities of the fateful third.

"It’s not that easy to keep that 7-1 off the glass, 270 [pounds] whatever he is,” Miami rebounder Kevin Love said of Robinson, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “But I think we sent bodies at him, and other guys clean up, or myself, when Bam (Adebayo) is on him, I think that’s part of it. We certainly want to get easy triggers, easy buckets, and buckets in transition if we can. But, you know, we felt like that just worked for us."

From its origins, the Knicks-Heat postseason rivalry has been equally decided by those missing from the hardwood as those on it. The Knicks, for example, played the latter two games of the original 1997 conference semifinal matchup without a combination of the suspended Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, Larry Johnson, John Starks, and Charlie Ward after a bench-clearing brawl in the fifth of seven games.

New York took advantage of a suspended Alonzo Mourning to prevail in an opening-round rematch the next season. The forgotten reboot of the rivalry in 2012 was partly marred by Amare Stoudemire suffering a hand injury after a bizarre, punchy encounter with a fire extinguisher's glass casing.

Apologists in both Manhattan and South Beach have de facto doctors' notes locked, loaded, and ready to fire no matter which way this series bends, futile as such an endeavor may be. The Heat are missing sharpshooter and 2020 postseason energizer Tyler Herro and their victory in Sunday's opening stanza of the 2023 conference semifinals was rendered bittersweet by Jimmy Butler being rendered mostly immobile over the final five minutes by a late ankle injury. 

The Knicks will likely refuse to use Randle's injury as a crutch no matter how dire the series against the Heat potentially becomes. Brunson, to his credit, was more than willing to shoulder the blame for it in light of his Sunday struggles from deep. 

But defensive slugfests, like the ones that likely await the Knicks over the rest of this series, can use the powers of a talent like Randle. If they have to keep trucking sans Randle, the Knicks will have to get big in a hurry.

There were hardly any blue-and-orange-based winners on Sunday, pretty much all of them limited to the seats thanks to over/under bets. Randle was the rare winner on the New York bench, his teammates' shortcomings against the bullying beachgoers solidifying his case for continued metropolitan endeavors.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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