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The New York Knicks lost their first game of the NBA In-Season Tournament against the Milwaukee Bucks and Julius Randle was called out by Kendrick Perkins. In the post-game discussion at ESPN, Perkins pointed out that he is a big reason why the team has been underachieving.
With the Knicks losing their first game against the Bucks, the more glaring thing right now is that New York holds a 2-4 record. According to Perkins, the team needs to work on getting more players involved and accused Julius Randle for ball hogging:
"First, how about pass the ball to one another," said Perkins on ESPN. "There is too much individual basketball and it starts with Julius Randle. Not only the Knicks fans should be frustrated the way he plays the game but if I'm on his team, I'm frustrated.
"There is no way in hell that them film watching their games and noticing that he is ball-hogging like he has to be unselfish, get off the ball trust his teammates and play team basketball."
Julius Randle shot 5-of-20 from the field and a miserable 1-of-9 from beyond the arc. Despite that, the big man finished the game with 16 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and two steals.
The New York Knicks are now on back-to-back losses and will try to avoid going on a losing streak when they host the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, Nov. 6 at Madison Square Garden.
Julius Randle by the numbers so far in the 2023-24 season
Six games into the season, Julius Randle has been averaging 13.2 points, 10.2 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. This is quite far from his performance last year doing 25.1 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. His field goal percentage drastically went down from 45% to just 22.7% this season.
His best performance so far in the season was against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 31 where he was able to tally 19 points, 10 rebounds and two assists. The next day, the Knicks battled the Cavs again but were only to contribute six points, six rebounds and four assists.
Despite the struggles, Randle is confident that he will get his basketball rhythm back soon:
"It'll fall eventually. It's a long season," Randle said after the loss to the Cavs. "I trust the work that I've put in on a day-to-day basis, so there's no point in me being frustrated."
While Randle is struggling, Jalen Brunson has been the team's leader in points with 20.6 along with 4.4 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game. RJ Barrett follows with 21.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
