Immanuel Quickley is much more worried about the New York Knicks continuing downslide than the heated incident he had with Julius Randle in the team’s 111-106 defeat against the Orlando Magic.
Quickley restrained Randle upon a no-call in the final seconds of the match’s first half, as the big man was hit by a technical over his fuming heading to the dugout.
Randle went against Quickley as the two teammates engaged in a brief verbal argument.
“Honestly, everybody’s trying to win. Heat of the moment. That’s basically what it is,” Quickley said, via Peter Botte. “We all want to win. We’re all trying to get dubs.
“That’s all I can really say. Sometimes that happens. It’s part of sports, part of what it takes to be a professional athlete. It’s not just basketball. It’s other things with that. But everybody is trying to win.”
As they are trying to solidify their stand for a playoff position, the Knicks are meanwhile downgrading. They have taken their third-straight loss, with Randle having a technical foul on each of the games.
Frustrations are piling up for Randle as the postseason plot thickens. He had 22 points in an inefficient 35 percent shooting (7-for-20) against the Magic, following up his mediocre 15-point output in a loss against the Miami Heat on Wednesday.
These performances of his seem to have faded his fire after dropping a sizzling 57 points on Monday against the Minnesota Timberwolves, which unfortunately wasn’t able to convert into a victory.
The ongoing three-game losing skid slashed New York’s lead against the blazing Miami Heat to 1.5 games for the East’s fifth-seed. The panic time button has already been pressed by the Knicks as they only got nine games remaining on their regular season schedule.
“There’s emotion involved, so you want the emotion to get out of it. And then sometimes when you talk, it clears the air, so that’s good,” Thibodeau said. “You allow for idiosyncrasies, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of winning. Nothing can get in the way of winning. The team always has to come first. And so everyone’s responsible for that.”
The Knicks got a golden opportunity to end their losing skid as they will go home to meet one of the league tailenders in Houston Rockets on Monday.
