On January 27th, 2024, 11 months ago to the day, notorious tough guy Julius Randle took a spill against the Miami Heat.
The game wasn’t particularly close; I’ll forgive you if you already had turned the channel. Fueled by revenge, the Knicks were making easy work of Miami, who had torn them apart with surgical precision the postseason before. In fact, the game was in its waning minutes, seemingly already decided.
The Knicks were up 17 with under five minutes to play, but in typical Tom Thibodeau fashion, the starters were still getting some run.