Julius Randle scores 46 as Knicks rally past Wizards 115-109

WASHINGTON (AP) — Julius Randle answered Kristaps Porzingis’early flurry, and by the time the New York standout was done, he’dmatched his career high in scoring.

Randle alsoled the Knicks to an impressive comeback victory.

Randlefinished with 46 points, and New York rallied from a 19-pointdeficit to beat the Washington Wizards 115-109 on Friday night.

“Just cameout aggressive,” Randle said. “That time of the year, got to lockin.”

Jalen Brunsonbroke a 109-all tie with a bank shot in traffic with 42.1 secondsremaining, and the Knicks held on from there in a pulsating matchupbetween two teams coming out of the All-Star break in the thick ofEastern Conference playoff race — but in far differentpositions.

The Knicks,who are trying to finish high enough to avoid the play-in round,now lead Miami by 1 1/2 games for sixth place. The 10th-placeWizards would make the play-in if the season ended now, but theirlead over Chicago fell to 1 1/2 games.

Bradley Bealtied the game for Washington with a 3-pointer with 59.5 secondsremaining. Then Brunson drove into the lane, picked up his dribbleand appeared to be stuck amid a group of players when he was ableto flip the ball up off the glass and in.

“That was abig win for us,” Randle said. “We needed this, especially comingoff the break. We know they’re a team that gets off to fast starts,so they did that and we responded.”

Porzingismissed a 3-pointer at the other end, and Randle found MitchellRobinson for a layup that pushed New York’s lead to four with 11.2seconds to go. Then Washington’s Kyle Kuzma stepped out of boundswhile receiving an inbound pass, essentially sealing his team’schances.

“They rampedup their defense a little bit,” Washington’s Monte Morris said.“Julius was balling. Feel like we could have gave him a couple moredifferent looks at times. Just hitting him more, doubling him morea little bit. Any player in the league get it going like that, it’shard to put out the fire.”

Porzingis andKuzma scored 23 points apiece. Porzingis made all five of his3-point attempts on his way to a 19-point first quarter, thendidn’t attempt another shot until the fourth.

“They ampedup the pressure, they started switching earlier with thepick-and-pops,” Porzingis said. “We have seen that before, ofcourse, especially when we get going early in the game. I feel likewe went away a little bit from that maybe two-man game withBrad.”

BIGRALLY

The Wizardsled 57-38 in the second quarter, but New York came charging backbehind Randle, whose dunk started a 12-2 run by the Knicks to closethe half. Randle scored 11 points during that stretch, andWashington was up only 64-60 after two quarters.

“Once we gotlost in the game and started getting some stops and the reboundingwas good, and then the movement without the ball,” Knicks coach TomThibodeau said. “We got some easy buckets and then that got usgoing.”

Randlepreviously scored 46 points on March 7, 2022, at Sacramento.

TIP-INS

Knicks:Randle went 7 of 14 from 3-point range. ... Immanuel Quickleyscored 16 points and RJ Barrett had 14. ... Robinson (right thumb)played for the first time since Jan. 18. He had 10 points and 12rebounds.

Wizards: Bealscored 16 points and Delon Wright added 15.

UPNEXT

Knicks: HostNew Orleans on Saturday night.

Wizards: AtChicago on Sunday.