Knicks Drop 3rd Straight Home Game

The struggles of Julius Randle, New York Knicks All-Star and reigning Comeback Player of the year continued in the team’s 102-91 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans at Madison Square Garden last night.

Randle finished with only 4 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and was a team-worst -26.

Despite the poor performance, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau defended the team’s leading scorer and rebounder.

“Julius is going to take a lot of blame, he gets a lot of the credit, but that goes with the turf, but it’s a team game and we didn’t get into it with any one individual and as I said we have to get out of it as a team, so I don’t think it was any one particular play or one incident, things just weren’t going our way and that’s part of it,” he said. ”Sometimes things go your way, sometimes they don’t and when they’re not going our way, I just want us to be mentally tough and be able to work through it. It’s a long game, it’s a long season, you have to come in day after day and stick with your routine.”

Veteran Taj Gibson also came to Randle’s defense. “You’re going to lose your temper from time to time, it’s human nature but he’s still a young man,” Gibson said. “He’s still learning the game, learning different aspects of the game, so I’m not really worried about Julius, because he’s a professional, he’s a great guy.”

New York trailed by 10 (27-17) after the first quarter as the Pelicans jumped out to a 12-4 lead. After a Taj Gibson dunk closed the lead to 4 (20-16) the Hornets closed out the quarter on a 7-1 run.

RJ Barrett continued his stellar play scoring 9-points in the second quarter as the Knicks outscored the Pelicans 25-19 to get them within 4 (46-42) at the half. Then, the wheels fell off in the third leading to the blowout.

New Orleans went on a 32-13 run (81-57) and never looked back taking a 81-57 leading into the fourth quarter. New York outscored the Pelicans 34-21 in the final frame but the damage had already been done. Said second year head coach Tom Thibodeau of the third quarter malaise, “the first five minutes of the third we were in mud,” he began. “We played hard but we didn’t play with the toughness we needed to in terms of fighting through things. The last 6 games we have this inconsistency we have to fix.”

Pelicans Jonas Valanciunas led all scorers with 18 as all 5 starters scored in double figures. They got bench help from Brooklyn born point guard Jose Alvarado making his Garden debut who chipped in 13 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. The Knicks were led by Evan Fournier and Mitchell Robinson who scored 17.

New York looks to right the ship when they host the Los Angeles Clippers Sunday (1pm) before traveling to Cleveland Monday night. The Knicks are looking to avoid a 4-game home losing streak.

Sports Editor Andrew Rosario contributed to this article.