DETROIT — The night had already been a celebration for Julius Randle, pouring in a season-high 36 points on his 28th birthday, when he took a feed from Jalen Brunson cutting down the lane on a fast break.
Randle threw down a powerful dunk over Isaiah Stewart and paused to stare down the Pistons center. Stewart, whose most viral NBA moment came when he ran through more defenders than Barry Sanders to try to attack LeBron James, did not take kindly to it and shoved Randle in the chest.
But like we said, Randle wasn’t spoiling the party. He just put his arms up and continued on, exaggerating the shove as he nearly circled the court, unwilling to send any fine money to the league on his birthday. When play resumed with a technical on Stewart, Randle continued on until he finally went to the bench, the one-sided 140-110 win secured.
The Knicks, who put a season-high point total on the board, certainly weren’t taking any team lightly, not even a Pistons squad that has the worst record in the NBA at 5-18 and were missing their young backcourt duo of last year’s No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham and this summer’s No. 5 pick, Jaden Ivey.
It was a rare easy win for the Knicks, who were recovering from a pair of heartbreaking losses at home. In those two games, Brunson misfired on potential winning or tying shots at the end. This time Brunson, Randle, RJ Barrett and Quentin Grimes took the entire fourth quarter off as the lead ballooned to as much as 32 points.
Asked what change Derrick Rose needs to see from the Knicks if they are to emerge from their place outside of the playoff picture.
“It’s been a couple years now, urgency,” Rose said after the morning shootaround. “Just make sure we go out and play with the same confidence every game and just play together. We tend to go the other way when everybody is thinking too much. We’re trying to get guys to get out of the style of play.”
Over the Knicks’ previous three games entering Tuesday, Brunson had scored at least 30 points in each game — but the Knicks had lost the last two and the common denominator Brunson saw was: “Twice I missed game winners. That’s what it is. I’m just saying. Twice.”
It is that thinking that Rose believes needs to change for Brunson to become what he can be for the team.
“I love it,” Rose said of watching Brunson through the first 20 games. “But he was one of the players I was talking about, just thinking too much. You could tell when he’s overthinking on the floor. You can’t play that way. You’ve got some guys who can play that way, but the majority of the guys that play, it’s a reaction type of sport.
“Like when you’re out there overthinking, that’s when things tend to go bad. Just play, no matter if you miss up or you missed the last shot. Who cares?”
“Jalen’s built for this,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “This is who he’s been his whole career. It’s also what drives him. That’s what makes him special. I think he has the appropriate approach to everything. I think he has a great determination. He’s got great mental toughness. He’s got a great competitive spirit.”
It took little time for Randle to serve notice that this was going to be a different kind of night. He connected on four of five from beyond the arc in the first four minutes of the game. By the end of the first quarter, he was up to 17 points and he had 26 at the half, hitting 6-for-11 from three-point range.
The Knicks struggled to shake the Pistons for much of that time, allowing the pieced-together Detroit lineup to convert 66.7% from the field in the first quarter, including 62.5% from three. But they pulled away to take a 70-56 halftime lead. And it wasn’t just Randle who was contributing. Brunson had 13 of his 16 points and shot 5-for-7 shooting, draining both of his attempts from three, and Grimes was 3-for-3 from long range, finishing the game 6-for-7 for 16 points.
