NEW ORLEANS — The Knicks breezed through the big game and now enter an easy stretch of schedule.
Beginning Saturday night versus the Pelicans, the Knicks have five out of the next seven games against the bottom four of the NBA standings.
It’s a remarkably cake stretch with games against the Pelicans (5-23), Raptors (7-21), Jazz (6-20) and Wizards (4-21) twice.
Even the two opponents wedged between those tankers — the Spurs (14-13) and Magic (17-12) — are underdogs against the Knicks (17-10).
For Saturday, New Orleans is missing the perpetually injured Zion Williamson (hamstring strain), Brandon Ingram (ankle sprain) and Jose Alvarado (hamstring strain).
The Pelicans, who were wiped out by the Knicks at MSG on Dec. 1, are among the projected biggest sellers at the trade deadline, with Ingram on the block, according to sources, and speculation ramping up about the availability of Williamson.
The Knicks, meanwhile, have won seven of their last nine after dismantling the Timberwolves on Thursday, 133-107.
Julius Randle not only left the court without shaking hands with his former teammates after Thursday’s game, he walked by the Knicks locker room on his way out of the arena — shades over his eyes — and never stopped.
It’s safe to say he remains upset about the way his New York tenure ended. In previous eras, this might not be noteworthy. But players are so chummy nowadays that even just a frosty encounter is rare.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Randle plays at MSG for the first time since being traded Jan. 17.
Josh Hart looks like he’s back.
Hart, who missed Thursday for “personal reasons,” wasn’t on the injury report for the Pelicans showdown. The T-Wolves game was his first absence of the season, with the Knicks starting Precious Achiuwa, who struggled defensively in his first shift but found a groove later in the contest.
Jericho Sims was added to the eight-man rotation and Tom Thibodeau did his usual postgame shoutout to almost everybody.
“Karl-[Anthony Towns], I mean what could you say? It was just a monster game,” Thibodeau said, “as well as Mikal [Bridges] and I thought OG [Anunoby’s] defense was special. We got good play from Jalen [Brunson], I thought he just didn’t fight the game, he read the game really well and he created a lot of advantages. I liked that we had 39 assists, a lot of it was dribble penetration and then making the right read. The guys worked together, Deuce [McBride] gave us good minutes, Jericho really good minutes, and Cam [Payne] as well.”
Minutes later, Thibodeau interrupted an answer about two women running onto the court mid-game to announce, “Precious gave us a good game as well.”
So the coach got to everybody.
But with Hart returning, it’s safe to assume Achiuwa will move back to the bench.