PHOENIX — When the New York Knicks lost in Philadelphia on Wednesday, Julius Randle calmly sat for a postgame interview and talked about a need for the team to show fight. He said they just needed a win to right what has seemed like a sinking ship.
But the fight he was talking about was effort and a defensive mindset, not what he put on display Friday night in an ill-timed tantrum. Randle started a scuffle with Phoenix’s Cam Johnson and was ejected, putting on display how much the Knicks still need him.
They subsequently took a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but Johnson wound up banking in a three-pointer from far beyond the arc -- about 30 feet -- at the buzzer as the Suns handed the Knicks a heartbreaking 115-114 loss.
With Randle gone and Johnson scoring 21 of his career-high 38 points in the fourth quarter, the Knicks (25-38) suffered their seventh straight loss and 17th in the last 20 games.
Mitchell Robinson tipped in a missed shot by RJ Barrett with 15.6 seconds left to give the Knicks a 113-112 lead, and after the Suns' Cam Payne missed a driving layup, Alec Burks hit the first of two free throws with 7.1 seconds left. He missed the second, setting the stage for Johnson.
Randle scored 25 points in 28:08 in less than three quarters. Barrett added 20 despite shooting only 6-for-26. Robinson had 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Johnson did his damage in only 28:13 off the bench, shooting 9-for-12 from three-point range. Mikal Bridges added 20 points and Payne had 17 points and 16 assists for the Suns (51-12).
The play in which Randle was ejected began with little hint of trouble, a shot went up and Randle and Johnson came together jockeying for position under the rim. Randle turned and went right at Johnson, the two nose-to-nose. When referee Dedric Taylor got between them Randle reached past him and shoved Johnson hard as both teams rushed into the fray. But Randle was still hot, shoving Burks away as he tried to get him calmed down.
After a review the officials assessed double technicals to Randle and Johnson and then a second technical to Randle, resulting in an ejection with 2:40 left in the third quarter. Randle already had 25 points and was playing with aggression from the start of the game, outplaying Jae Crowder and even taking DeAndre Ayton to the rim repeatedly and scoring.
Johnson delivered the game-tying three with 3:10 to play. Robinson gave the Knicks the lead again with a follow dunk. And after Cam Payne misfired on consecutive trips, Immanuel Quickley buried a three for a 109-104 lead with 2:09 left. Johnson cut it to two again with a three with 1:30 left. After Barrett converted one of two from the line Crowder was fouled by Robinson with 1:08 remaining, but Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau challenged the call. He won the challenge, but still lost because the foul was just changed to Quickley, still sending Crowder to the line where he made one of two.
Crowder then gave the Suns the lead with a three with 30.2 to play, putting them in front 112-111. Robinson tipped in a Barrett miss with 15.6 left for a one-point lead and the Suns had one last chance. Payne missed a layup and Burks went to the line, but missed on the second. The Suns rushed it up court and dropped it back to Johnson, who banked in the game-winner.
Phoenix was without its All-Star backcourt of Chris Paul and Devin Booker, but that has done little to slow them as they brought a 50-12 record into the game — and beat Portland by 30 in their last game without of them.
With Robinson running down a long Crowder outlet for a steal and a save leading to a three by Evan Fournier and then Randle following with a three, the Knicks were up, 65-60 just more than a minute into the second half. But it took just more than a minute for the Suns to recover with six straight points to take the lead back and send the Knicks to a timeout.
But they kept coming, Barrett feeding Robinson for a lob dunk and then converting a floater in the lane. A Robinson follow gave New York a 75-67 lead with 6:46 left in the third quarter. Burks and Fournier hit three-point field goals around a Randle baseline drive and the lead was stretched to 83-75.
The Knicks were up 86-76 at the time of the ejection and they stretched the lead to 14 before settling for a 12-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter. A Barrett drive upped it to 14 again in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, but as has been all too common of late, that quickly disappeared. In a span of one minute and 16 seconds it was cut to 95-90. With 7:44 left Johnson drained a three and it was 97-93 Knicks.
