Jalen Brunson was back on the court, but Julius Randle limped gingerly to the locker room with what the team called a sprained left ankle in the first half of Wednesday’s game against the Heat at the Garden.
Randle, the only Knick to start every game this season, came up limping after appearing to injure his left ankle while landing on Bam Adebayo’s foot with 2:38 left in the second quarter.
The Knicks still gutted out a pivotal 101-92 victory.
He did not return after halftime.
He walked it off and temporarily remained in the game to sink one of two free throws, before hobbling to the locker room at the next whistle.
“To me it’s all part of it. Injuries they happen, and the thing that we have to understand is when you have a guy who’s averaging 25 points and 10 rebounds and five assists and doing the things that he’s doing, you’re not replacing him with an individual player,” Tom Thibodeau said after the win. “But what we can do is we can play great defense. We can rebound the ball great. We can take care of the ball. We know if we do those three things great, we can be in position to win.
“So we gotta make up for [Randle] collectively. That was the challenge when Jalen was out, and if Jules misses some time, then next guy get in there.”
MSG cameras showed Randle doubled over in pain in the runway leading to the locker room after departing the floor.
Brunson had returned to the Knicks’ lineup, wearing a protective brace around his sprained right hand and wrist area, after missing the previous two games.