HOUSTON (AP) — Julius Randle scored 35 points and Immanuel Quickley added 27 as the New York Knicks snapped a five-game skid with a 108-88 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.
“It’s the nature of the league,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You win eight in a row and then you have some tough losses … that’s part of it. How do you respond to it? We took a haymaker … and we bounced back.”
The Rockets led for most of the first half, but the Knicks went on top just before the break and lead by double-digits for most of the second half.
Houston cut the lead to eight points on a basket by Tari Eason with about nine minutes to go before the Knicks scored the next seven points, capped by a 3 from Evan Fournier that made it 91-76.
The Rockets scored the next four points, but New York answered with an 8-0 run, with 3s from Quickley and Quentin Grimes, to extend the lead to 99-80 with about four minutes to go.
Thibodeau was asked how his team bounced back after falling behind early.
“I thought our ball pressure was a lot better which led to turnovers that got us in the open floor,” he said. “Guys played very hard and very unselfishly.”
Kevin Porter Jr. had 23 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Rockets, who have dropped three in a row. Houston opened the game strong, scoring 35 points in the first quarter, but had a terrible second, managing just 14 points to allow the Knicks to close the gap.
The Rockets had 24 turnovers and made just 6 of 34 3-pointers after hitting 8 of their first 12.
“It’s hard to win with (24) turnovers as a team,” Porter said.
Houston veteran Eric Gordon was asked if he’s seen improvement from the team since the beginning of the season.
“There’s no improvement,” he said.
Randle had 12…