For now, until told otherwise, Knicks fans are allowed to breathe again. For now, until told otherwise, it seems the news about Julius Randle’s season may land softer than Randle himself did Saturday afternoon at Madison Square Garden, when he fell on his right shoulder, dislocating it and sending a ripple of fear throughout the faithful.
The Hornets were a helpful aide in permitting the Knicks and their constituents to get acclimated to their new normal Monday night. The Knicks smothered Charlotte with a second-half turkey shoot that resulted in a 113-92 win at Spectrum Center in front of a gathering of 15,546 that included Patrick Ewing and about 10,000 folks wearing No. 11 jerseys.
The one No. 11 that counted, Jalen Brunson, was his usual superb self, 32 points and seven assists, a reminder that if you want one player to have your team’s back when it’s vulnerable — and the Knicks were also shy OG Anunoby — Brunson isn’t a terrible pick.
“You’re not just replacing Julius,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said after watching his team win its seventh game in a row, its 13th in 15 January games, and stay perfect on the season against teams with losing records. “It has to be a collection of everybody playing together.”
It was Monday. It’ll have to be for the foreseeable future. Sources confirmed to The Post’s Stefan Bondy that it’s “probably safe” to say Randle’s recovery should be measured in weeks, not months, although there is still significant caution attached to all of this, with avoiding surgery still “not conclusive” yet.
So you can pause for a beat. You can exhale.
And if you aren’t yet prepared — smartly — to declare this crisis over until the Knicks officially release both a diagnosis and a prognosis, it’s OK to hope for the best again, without wondering if that’s a complete waste of time and energy.
“No one person is going to step in and give you 25 points and 10 rebounds and five assists,” Thibodeau said. “But collectively we can. And that’s got to be where our focus lies. We have to rely on our defense, on our rebounding, sharing the ball, and if everyone does that we will find a way to win.”
They did Monday, against a Hornets team that would be a good candidate for relegation if the NBA played by Premiership rules. There will be stiffer tests ahead on the six-game homestand that kicks off Tuesday night against the Jazz.
But, then, that has been the credo all year with this group, a plug-and-play mentality that’s allowed them to thrive despite the extended absence of Mitchell Robinson, their most dominant defensive asset, and lately a few games without Isaiah Hartenstein.
It’s different having to replace Randle, who is such an intricate piece of the Knicks’ core and is essential to everything they do on both ends of the floor. He is their biggest source of interior offensive firepower and is a stalwart on the boards. Replicating that in the short term is going to be an enormous challenge.
But it does beat the prospect of having to face the rest of the season without him, which is certainly something that hung over this development, and still will no matter how optimistic the news turns out to be. This is the kind of injury that can compromise a player anyway, certainly one who relies on being as physical as Randle. There will be minefields aplenty whenever he does return, even if it’s his non-shooting shoulder.
“We’ll do,” said Donte DiVincenzo, who poured in 28 points, “what we do.”
The Knicks can do that because they are better suited for absences because every core player buys into the grind. They were able to survive last year when Randle went down with an ankle injury five games before the end of the season, winning the first three without him and wrapping up the five seed in the East. This will be a longer stretch and a sterner test. But is also a group that tends to enjoy those kinds of challenges.
If the news is indeed as it was mostly described Monday — a question of weeks — then this probably happens at the most opportune moment possible for the Knicks. Between now and Feb. 14 they still have a Garden-heavy schedule of nine games and then they get eight full days off for the All-Star Game.
If Randle can be back soon thereafter, and stay whole, maybe this really will only be a hiccup. And for now, the only thing to remind yourself is this: for now, until told otherwise, it could have been much worse. You may breathe again.