Knicks go down in second half, take the L in Sacramento, fall under .500

Julius Randle scored a game-high 26 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and RJ Barrett followed with 21 buckets and 7 boards but the Knicks couldn’t connect four wins and after a bad second half, lost 94-103 to the Kings in the second game of the west coast road trip.

The biggest lead for New York, was by six points late in the second quarter but the engines slowed down after halftime and the Kings simply shot the ball better whether it was from the field or from the free throw line. The defense was on point though, but the offense crumbled.

“From mid-first quarter, and second quarter I thought we played well. The third quarter started OK, but then we got stuck and obviously didn’t finish well. They were swarming and we obviously weren’t making shots. And when you’re not making shots, sometimes it gets tough. I did like the fight, but obviously we’d like to close it out better than we did.”

– Tom Thibodeau

Mitchell Robinson finished in double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and the bench was led by Alec Burks’ 9 points and 5 boards while Immanuel Quickley scored 8.

The Kings were led by De’Aron Fox with 22 buckets and 7 dimes. Harrison Barnes scored 21 points while Tyrese Haliburton, the guy that the Knicks passed on when selecting Obi Toppin with the 8th overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft, scored 16 points, collected 5 rebounds, blocked 4 shots, sent 2 assists and also had 2 steals.

However, it’s worth mentioning that these numbers came after 31 minutes of playtime. Toppin, in the 12 minutes he was on the court dropped 6 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist.

Next-up: The Knicks (8-9) continue their west coast trip on Sunday when they travel to Portland to take on the Trail Blazers (8-6) from 9:00 pm.