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Tim good morningESPN
New York Knicks striker Julius Randle had to be held back by his teammates to face Scott Foster after the veteran referee asked him for a trip in the final seconds of New York’s 117-112 loss to the New York Knicks. Brooklyn Nets Monday night.
“It was a conversation, but I think it’s best not to comment on the situation,” Randle said afterwards. “There was a lot of frustration behind it and, I mean on both sides, so I’ll let it be in the past and move on to the next game.
“It was frustrating. Viously, obviously, we struggled a lot to come back and try to win the game. So I felt frustrated. And it was almost all of that. But we have another chance to go there tomorrow. So just focus -se in this “.
Randle had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds when he got up to get a triple with five seconds to go. But Nets star Kyrie Irving managed to hit the ball on the climb and caused Randle to juggle it and fail to shoot.
“We had a play designed, obviously, and I thought Ky was going to come out and miss right away, so I tried to go a little faster,” Randle said. “But the play happened: what happened is what it is, and it is in the past.”
As a result, when he tried to dribble the ball down to the ground, Foster summoned him on a trip with 3.2 seconds to go.
After James Harden received the opening pass and annihilated a couple of free throws to seal Brooklyn’s win, which he has now won 13 of his last 14 games, Randle was still furious with Foster. He had to be held back by rookie Obi Toppin, among others, when he tried to go to Foster after the match.
Randle, who finished with 33 points, 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals in 41 minutes, was eventually forced off the field, in part by Knicks executive William Wesley, although he fell over a chair as he left the field. bottom bowl as he returned to the visiting locker room.
“Either he was going to be missing early, but I saw him lining up to make a jump,” said Irving, who led all scorers with 34 points. “I felt I could lend a good hand to him. Scott called the trip. I thought Julius made a good play after dropping him. Then I’ll need him to get him to the free throw line.
“That’s how it was. That’s how it went.”
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau on the other hand, had a terrible day.
“I thought it was a tough call,” Thibodeau said. “I thought we had a lot of tough calls during the stretch.”
Foster explained why the travel call was made after the game.
“The defender was considered to have touched the ball, but did not make it dislocated or loose,” he told the pool reporter. “After that, when the player starts up, he can’t deliberately let the ball go or dribble it or be the first to touch it after dropping it.”
The fury surrounding the call-up against Randle eclipsed a wild comeback from the Knicks, who bounced back 115-108 with just 28.6 seconds to force two jump balls tying Harden and Joe Harris into back-to-back possessions.
Ultimately, however, Irving’s work ensured that Brooklyn won the battle of the municipalities.
“I think the players feel it naturally,” said Irving, who was a growing Nets fan in northern New Jersey, about the rivalry between the Knicks and the Nets.
“But obviously being here is a slightly different feeling, because I have to go home and be close to the Knicks and Nets fans. It’s my family. So it’s basketball, it’s competition. It’s a sport. “So it’s nothing more than respect. But obviously you want to come here and have fun facing the New York Knicks. They’ve been playing well this season. It’s a well-trained team and I just appreciate the opportunity.” .