Julius Randle knows he can’t bully Bobby Portis.
“He’s one of the few people who, I guess, is not scared,” Randle said.
Randle, a physical force, has known this for a while since he and Portis have faced off “my whole life” as power forwards in the same high school class from the South.
Still, Randle tried to trash-talk his longtime rival in the second quarter of Saturday’s Knicks-Bucks matchup — when the Knicks All-Star converted an and-one and proceeded to flex his chest — which only seemed to activate Portis.
From that moment, Portis scored 19 of his 23 points — displaying his usual boisterousness while yelling at Randle and celebrating wildly — as the Bucks rolled to a 130-111 victory.
Portis, who has been on a tear for a couple weeks, is pumped for the Knicks rematch on Christmas afternoon.
“It’s one of those things on a yearly basis, you watch all your favorites — the Kobe Bryants of the world, the Kevin Garnetts of the world, the LeBron James of the world,” Portis said. “And to be able to play on Christmas at the Garden, the Mecca of basketball, I’m excited.”
Randle, a physical force, also played well offensively Saturday while scoring 26 points but was killed on the glass.
He and Portis were teammates in New York for a season after both were signed during the 2019 free agency.
It was a poor fit because they played the same position and Portis later labeled it “the most miserable season of my career.”
Now they’re back to being friendly rivals.
“We’ve been doing it for a while,” Randle said. “But it’s always fun.”
With greater minutes comes greater responsibility.
With injuries decimating the center rotation, Isaiah Hartenstein went from backup to indispensable and it killed the Knicks in Saturday’s loss to the Bucks.
Hartenstein managed just two minutes before committing his second foul and being removed for Taj Gibson.
The Knicks trailed by nine when Hartenstein returned in the second quarter and never recovered.
“That’s just something I can’t do, especially given the situation we’re in right now,” Hartenstein said. “Before when we had [Mitchell Robinson], we had the luxury of: if one guy was not doing good, or if one guy was in foul trouble, I don’t think there was any drop-off at all. So I feel like especially in a situation where Taj is coming back trying to get his feet under him, I can’t do that. I think I put us in a bad situation, especially against a team like that, where even when I come back, it’s kinda hard to get the lead back. So for the future, I’ve just gotta be better in that situation, and I will be better in that situation.”
It’s unclear how long this will last. Jericho Sims, who sprained his ankle, is expected to return in about a week — maybe longer — but Hartenstein would still get the majority of minutes. Robinson is out for an extended period, perhaps until the end of the season.
Unless team president Leon Rose awakens and completes a trade, Hartenstein, who is bloodied in almost every game these days (he got stitches in his lip from an elbow last week against the Nets), can’t get in foul trouble.
“We played out of a hole from the start of the game,” Tom Thibodeau said. “I thought we got behind when Isaiah got into foul trouble to start and then it snowballed from there.”
The Knicks are playing their 56th game on Christmas, the most in the NBA after competing in the league’s first Xmas contest in 1947.
They’re 23-32 all-time on the holiday, with their last victory in 2021 against the Hawks (when Kemba Walker produced a triple-double).
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