Fans will finally return to the garden in limited numbers starting Tuesday, two nights after the Knicks barely got an emotional win in their final game against an empty field.
Tom Thibodeau’s team took a 21-point lead in the second half, but eventually gave him the gift of a win in his first game against the Timberwolves since he was fired by Minnesota in 2019, securing a win. from 103-99 Sunday to open a four-game home.
In his last contest before the All-Star reserves were named on Tuesday, Julius Randle finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds as the Knicks improved to 15-16 entering their game that night against Golden State.
RJ Barrett added 21 and Alec Burks (13) sank four key free throws in the final 21 seconds for the Knicks, who had three days off between games due to Saturday’s postponement against San Antonio after several Spurs tested positive for COVID-19.
Karl-Anthony Towns scored a maximum of 27 points, Ricky Rubio 18 and rookie Anthony Edwards finished 12 for the Timberwolves (7-24).
The Knicks led 86-65 at the end of the third quarter, but Minnesota opened the quarter in a 20-6 run to close out two in a Towns triple with just five minutes to go.
A Towns inside cube put the Timberwolves ahead by one at 2:48 to finish, but Randle sank two free throws and Burks added four more from the line in the second finals.
Towns, of Jersey, was playing its seventh game after losing four weeks after a positive COVID test in January. Her mother, Jacqueline, and six other family members died last year from the virus.
“He is a fantastic player. He has suffered a lot of adversity and, obviously, you are first concerned about him as a person and his family: his father, his sister, ”said Thibodeau before the match. “When it comes to basketball, when he’s healthy, he’s one of the best players in the league. So he’s been a little unlucky in terms of his injuries over the last two years, but he’s a fantastic talent. “
The T-Wolves didn’t have former All-Star Nets D’Angelo Russell (knee), but that was the Knicks ’first look at Edwards, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 global draft outside of Georgia.
Quickley, Kentucky’s 25th national team, said before the game that he and Edwards were teammates in a camp of excellent prospects while still in high school. Last year they also faced off several times in the SEC.
Edwards came in second in the rookies on Sunday with 14.3 points per game, just behind Charlotte LaMelo Ball’s lead (14.4), with Quickley third at 12.4 points.
Quickley, who plays just 19.4 minutes per game in a reserve role, led the league’s freshmen in the player efficiency rating (PER), a metric that measures a player’s productivity for minute.
Towns and Rubio scored all of Minnesota’s points in a first game of 15-15, but the Knicks closed out the first quarter with a 15-3 lead (with five points from Burks, four from Quickley and one transition from Barrett) for 12- knit pillow.
Minnesota tied at four in the middle of the second, but eight Randle points at the end of the quarter, including a three-point lead just before the horn, helped the Knicks take a 61-50 lead at the break. . The five starters reached double-digit points before finishing third, as the Knicks led up to 21 and won an 87-71 lead entering the final quarter.