From Marc Berman:
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle knew what his club might be in for with Julius Randle back in his hometown of Big D.
“He’s an All-Star who loves coming back to play here,’’ Carlisle said before the game.
And how. Friday was Randle’s best game yet — and one of the Knicks’ most impressive victories this season.
It has been an eventful week of homecoming games for Randle, and he capped it with a spectacular 44-point outing that paced the streaking Knicks to a terrific 117-109 victory over the Mavericks before a pandemic crowd of 4,000 fans at American Airlines Center.
The Knicks won their season-high fifth straight game to go a season-high three games over .500 at 30-27, and Randle missed tying his career high by one point. The Knicks, who are 3-1 against their former star, Kristaps Porzingis, the past two seasons, hadn’t won five straight in seven years.
Yeah, I agree, the Grizzlies win was very nice, but this was a much better win. This was a dominant road win over a team that is a good deal better than Memphis. Randle just demolished them. Wow.
The Knicks are now in the #6 spot and have a real chance of sticking there and avoiding the play-in game entirely, which would be wonderful. Heck, they could even move up to the #4/5 series, but that’d be tougher. But doable! Especially if they just keep winning every darn game!