Sunday night’s contest with the Houston Rockets was probably the easiest contest remaining on the Knicks’ schedule. They have three home games to close the season, but the opponents — Spurs, Hornets, Celtics — are no pushovers. The Knicks absolutely needed to take care of business in Houston.
tl;dr They did.
New York led by 10 after one, pushed the pedal to the metal in the third, and cruised to a 122-97 victory. Julius Randle didn’t even have to play in the fourth quarter! The Knicks’ star forward put in more than enough work in three frames, dropping a tidy 31 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
The third quarter started off a bit rough, as the Knicks weren’t played their top-level D and committing a few lazy fouls. The Rockets briefly got their deficit to single-digits, and Kelly Olynyk was being annoying as always. But then, suddenly, Julius decided that he had officially had enough of Houston’s shit.
On back-to-back possessions, he did this:
Followed by this:
And that was pretty much it for the Houston Rockets. The Knicks haven’t swept the season series with this team since 2002-03, so it’s been awhile.
Also, let’s give some kudos to Derrick Rose, who chipped in a preposterously efficient 24 points on 8-11 shooting. RJ Barrett also managed 21 points. It was fun!
Recap to come.
