BBNBA: Julius Randle and Malik Monk shine on Christmas

Four former Kentucky Wildcats played in yesterday’s holiday slate of NBA games as eight others sat out. But the guys who did play made a splash. Let’s talk about it.

Randle with 25 & 12 to get Knicks back on track

I reprimanded the Knicks on Friday’s NBA post for losing to an undermanned Hawks club despite getting 67 combined points from Julius Randle and Kemba Walker.

Christmas was groundhog day for New York, as the Knicks hosted that same Hawks team that’s missing Trae Young — and they got great performances out of Randle and Walker that resulted in a win this time around.

Julius cashed in from deep, hitting six threes on his way to a 25-point, 12-rebound double-double. Walker didn’t quite reach the 44-point mark he hit in the loss the other night, but he did record the first triple-double of his career with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.

Randle also helped lead a spirited defensive performance to hold Atlanta to just 87 points as the Knicks outlasted them 101-97.

Malik Monk steps up in Lakers Loss

An already poor Lakers season got even worse on Christmas as Los Angeles fell at home to a Brooklyn team that was missing Kevin Durant as they broke in the Crypto.com Center. Sure, LA was missing Anthony Davis, but with 39 points from LeBron James and most other key guys healthy, they should’ve taken care of business vs. the depleted Nets.

Alas, they did not and fell to 16-18 on the season. Luckily the Western Conference is an utter mess at the moment and the Lakers sit at the seven seed. So plenty of time to make up ground and leap back into the top four or five.

More performances like last night’s from Malik Monk would aid that effort. Monk came off the bench to lead all non-LeBron Lakers in scoring with 20 points on 8-13 shooting.

He’s been an up-and-down player this year with a few explosive performances mixed in with a mostly inconsistent debut season in Los Angeles. After just getting out of COVID protocols, he has a chance to insert himself as a major rotation piece while the rest of the roster experiences some health-related turbulence.

Booker’s win streak finally ends

Devin Booker had won 20 consecutive games that he’d played in prior to the Christmas Day matchup with the Golden State Warriors. But his winning streak finally fell in yesterday’s contest between the NBA’s two best teams by record.

It wasn’t the prettiest game. Booker and Steph Curry combined to shoot 15-46, though Curry still managed 33 points while Booker finished with just 13. Every game this season between the two of them has been excitingly competitive — like a playoff atmosphere, if you will.

Golden State outlasted the Suns this time around but it’s a good bet to say we may see these two west coast foes lock horns in May or June.