The Knicks took a Sunday afternoon stroll all over the shorthanded Hornets.
Tom Thibodeau’s squad buried the third opponent in its three-game homestand — trouncing Charlotte in the Garden matinee, 129-107 — benefiting from a balanced scoring attack and its typical stalwart defense.
Jalen Brunson (20 points), Julius Randle (23), RJ Barrett (24) and Immanuel Quickley (17) filled the box score efficiently for the Knicks (5-4), who led by double digits for the final 29 minutes. The blowout reached the point where Thibodeau rested most of his starters for the entire fourth quarter, a luxury the coach rarely utilizes because, he said, “no lead is safe.”
“I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen 13 points in 35 seconds,” added Thibodeau, who was a Rockets assistant when Tracy McGrady pulled off that remarkable comeback for Houston in 2004. “So people will say, ‘He needs to get the starters out of there.’
“Yeah? Well I know what experience tells me.”
Randle, who played just 27 minutes, joked that his famously anxious coach might need therapy.
“He’s got a lotta trauma, man,” Randle said. “He’s gotta work on that.”
Jalen Brunson, who also logged 27 minutes, was skeptical he’d remain on the bench down the stretch, even with the second half of a back-to-back game Monday in Boston.
“I thought I was going back in. Let’s be honest,” Brunson said. “Whenever we can win like that it’s definitely a good feeling. I try not to check out at any point in the game. It is what it is.”
But Thibodeau was relaxed enough Sunday to roll with the reserves. The lead was never in jeopardy in the second half against the Hornets (3-6), who were missing several players and lost prized rookie Brandon Miller to an ankle sprain in the second quarter.
“They were a little undermanned and I think just for a 12 o’clock game, whoever plays hard, whoever comes out right at the beginning of the game is the one who wins the game,” said RJ Barrett, who was a game-high plus-26 in his 31 minutes. “So, we were able to do that.”
Sunday’s contest lost its drama early. The Knicks finished the first quarter on a 7-0 run in 88 seconds, capped by a step-back 3-pointer from Quickley at the buzzer. It provided the home side with a seven-point lead, prompted Quickley into one of his animated celebrations, and the Knicks never looked back.
They shot 54 percent overall — including 42 percent from beyond the arc — in the wipeout.
The Knicks, who were one of only three teams last season with a better record on the road than at home, are now 3-2 at MSG. On the completed homestand, they beat the Hornets, Spurs and Clippers by at least 14 points each.
“[MSG] is obviously a historic and great place to play so when teams come here they want to play well,” Brunson said. “So I think for us we’ve just got to turn up a little bit, have that same focus we do on the road.”
The depleted Hornets got little offensively outside of LaMelo Ball, who finished with 32 points, seven rebounds and six assists. As the Knicks’ lead bulged — and with the reserves also dominating their minutes — Thibodeau got comfortable enough to leave his starters on the bench (even if he’ll never be relaxed enough to sit down himself).
“I’m glad it worked out the way it did,” the coach said.