PHOENIX — Late Friday night, Julius Randle embarked on a topical mission: Capture the basketball, however possible.
As the seldom-used Ryan Arcidiacono dribbled out the clock in the final seconds of a 139-122 win at the Phoenix Suns, Randle sprinted to the point guard and wrapped him up. It was as if a defensive lineman had a free lane to a helpless quarterback. Randle bear-hugged his buddy, swiped the ball from him, palmed it and held it up above his head in victory.
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This basketball meant something — but not to Randle. No, this was for Jalen Brunson, who went for a career-high 50 points Friday against the Suns.
“I don’t trust Ryan with the game ball,” Randle said. “They might look at him and think, ‘We can take that.’ I had to make sure I got it and I secured it.”
The bit was on theme with the NBA’s scandal of the week, which included two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo dropping a career-best 64 points only to lose the basketball after the game to Indiana Pacers rookie Oscar Tshiebwe, who had scored his first career points in the same game.
Randle would not allow the same to happen to his friend. And clearly, he did not trust the sheer brawn of a 190-pound, stylishly coiffured point guard to protect it. Yet, even after the sacking of Arcidiacono, an act that sounds more like a medieval war than a New York Knicks celebration, Brunson says he won’t keep the basketball. Instead, it will go to his parents, who keep a trophy room of their son’s greatest accomplishments.
Brunson downplayed his 50-point performance after the game, but the reality is that whatever is in that trophy room, this basketball must be high on the hierarchy. There’s a reason Randle was so anxious to retrieve it.
Brunson didn’t just go for half a hundred; he got there in special ways.
He did it on 17-of-23 shooting from the field, as well as 9-of-9 shooting from 3-point range and added six rebounds, nine assists and five steals.
His performance from deep ties the record for most 3s made in an NBA game without a miss. Former Knicks guard Latrell Sprewell did it in 2003, and former NBA Sixth Man of the Year winner Ben Gordon did it twice.
“The ball either goes in or it doesn’t,” Brunson said. “So it’s all about trusting your mechanics and staying confident and not trying to get too down on yourself.”
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On Friday, it went in a whole lot more than it didn’t. And come the second half, Brunson eliminated all clanks.
He didn’t miss a shot in the third or fourth quarters, going for 35 points in the second half on 12-of-12 overall shooting and 8 of 8 from 3. Brunson didn’t even realize he had churned out a perfect half until after the game ended — and by that point, he was insisting it wasn’t perfect.
“I mean, I missed a free throw,” he said before taking a droll dig at the man who became the easiest target in the Knicks locker room Friday. “According to Ryan.”
If only Randle remembered that inexcusable missed free throw, maybe he wouldn’t have felt the urge to blitz Arcidiacono.
“You want your players to achieve all the things that they wanna achieve, but you want them to do it within the context of winning,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “And that’s the most important thing. And that’s what I love about our team. There’s the individual things that come that are a byproduct of winning.”
The victory came at a time when the Knicks needed it. The game against Phoenix was the first of 10 consecutive matches against teams currently above .500. New York just lost to the Utah Jazz (9-16) on Wednesday, a disappointing way to begin a five-game road trip, which includes three threatening West Coast foes, including the Suns.
The game was closer than the final score shows. Phoenix held on to a two-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but the Knicks’ bench roared at the beginning of the final period until Brunson took over at the end of it.
The Knicks’ defense was porous for the first three quarters. They struggled with Phoenix center Jusuf Nurkić down low. Kevin Durant caught fire in the second quarter. Devin Booker sliced them up.
They needed a spark. Instead, they got a forest fire — and it came organically, not because Brunson chose to chuck up shot after shot.
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“It just naturally happened through the flow of the game,” Randle said. “I don’t think he was trying to go get 50 or whatever. He just was coming down, making the right play, getting to his spots and hitting his shots.”
Brunson didn’t force jumpers when Phoenix double-teamed him late. After all, making the correct basketball play is a good way to stay perfect — though he did throw up a couple of heat checks down the stretch that confirmed, yes, he was still hotter than the Suns.
On one fourth-quarter play, with a couple of defenders heading his way, he found Isaiah Hartenstein for a bucket. On the next possession, with a career high in sight, Brunson pickpocketed Nurkić and sprinted the other way. He was a step or two from a wide-open layup, a gifted couple of points.
Yet, he chose not to take them.
Instead, Brunson turned around, and with Randle trailing behind him, handed the ball off to his co-star. Randle slammed it in with two hands.
Maybe that’s why Randle was so motivated to go get the basketball for his point guard. After all, he owed him one.
“That’s just the type of player he is,” Randle said. “He’s unselfish, plays the right way. Usually, you play that type of way, good things happen.”
(Top photo of Jalen Brunson: Rick Scuteri / USA Today)
