There is only so much an NBA team can accomplish in January, when the focus is on process over results and the early jockeying for playoff positioning begins.
But if a dead-of-winter statement can be made, consider it made.
The new-look Knicks are not just winning games, but beating teams with deep résumés — and beating them soundly.
In back-to-back games, the Knicks have demolished the reigning NBA champions and outlasted the reigning Eastern Conference champions, respectively.
After crushing the Nuggets on Thursday, the Knicks pulled away from the Heat, 125-109, on Saturday in front of 19,812 at the Garden — a rocking venue that fell silent when a feel-good win was punctured by a worrisome injury.
The best feelings around the Knicks in maybe a decade were replaced by fear at 4:27 of the fourth quarter when Julius Randle bulled his way to the hoop and Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. attempted to draw a charge.
Randle barreled into Jaquez and went down hard, his right palm hitting the floor before his 250-pound body followed and awkwardly forced his arm to extend under him. He grabbed at his right shoulder in clear pain.
After a block was called, the notoriously tough forward did not try to talk his way into taking his free throws.
He slumped to the locker room as his teammates closed out another win.
ESPN reported immediate X-rays showed a dislocated right shoulder, though the extent would not be known until an MRI that came later.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau said he is “very” concerned.
“We were happy we won,” Jalen Brunson said of the mood in the locker room. “Hopefully he’s going to be all right. Still waiting to hear going forward.”
If Randle has to miss extended time, it would be a significant and poorly timed blow for the Knicks (29-17), who have won six straight and 12 of 14 since OG Anunoby arrived.
They have leapfrogged the idle Cavs for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
Thibodeau’s crew couldn’t outdo a 38-point destruction of Denver, but they will settle for a run-of-the-mill smacking of the team that knocked them out of the conference semifinals a season ago.
The Heat (24-22) — losers of six straight — are trying to find their way back.
Maybe with Anunoby complementing the two-way forces that are Brunson and Randle — at least when healthy — along with a strong supporting cast, the Knicks have found their identity.
The Knicks trailed by as many as 10 points in the first quarter and didn’t lead for the first time until early in the second, but they took control of the game with Brunson (32 points) leading a balanced attack.
The Heat, led by Jimmy Butler (28 points), turned what had been a 13-point deficit into a tie game by beating up on Knicks reserves late in the third quarter.
But Randle nailed a 3 at the quarter-ending buzzer, and the Knicks seized momentum with a strong fourth that quickly put the game away.
The Knicks scored 16 of the first 22 points of the fourth, Quentin Grimes (12 points) a spark off the bench who knocked down a triple to begin the period and another trey three and a half minutes later to bookend the spurt.
The Knicks were the better marksmen, shooting 51.5 percent from deep and seemingly hitting 3s whenever the Heat tried to respond.
The Knicks swelled the lead back to double digits and weren’t threatened the rest of the way.
“Stuck together when they went on their run,” said Brunson, who went 5-for-7 in the game-deciding fourth. “They’re capable of doing that at any point in the game. And we just knew we had to stick together.”
Brunson finished 12 of 22 overall and sliced his way into the lane at will.
There was his third-quarter blow-by of Terry Rozier and spin in the lane, which ended as an and-one and with “MVP” chants; there was his quick-trigger, feet-on-the-floor floater that surprised Miami and pushed the lead to 17 late in the fourth; there was his drilling 4 of 8 from deep, scoring in every way conceivable.
He led the charge. Josh Hart (14 points, nine rebounds, five assists, one spectacular dive into the stands for a save, a plus-30) was brilliant off the bench.
Anunoby added 19 points.
Everyone contributed for a team that has played its best basketball of the season before its biggest scare of the season.
“Right now, we don’t know what the situation [with Randle] is,” said Isaiah Hartenstein, who returned from a two-game absence. “But we won the game so that’s the most important part.”
