Julius Randle had the ball and the game in his hands. He dribbled up the right side at the end of regulation, score tied, and launched the kind of fadeaway jumper he has made hundreds of times in his life. 

Sure, he could have taken it hard to the goal against these young and restless kids from Oklahoma City. He should have taken it hard to the goal. But Randle has been playing like the 2020-21 Randle of late, and this 17-foot step-back was a shot he would’ve nailed last year. 

Of course he missed it, and, of course, he made some brutal unforced errors in overtime before fouling out. Of course he set an illegal screen and threw a pass into the crowd and heard the boos, because Randle’s team and the city have fallen out of love with each other. 

Nobody is quite sure how the Knicks beat Golden State on the road, because they can lose to anyone, anywhere, on any night, just like they lost to the Thunder by a 127-123 count. Randle blamed this latest defeat on pace, or lack thereof, and on a defense that allowed a 17-39 team to score 127 points in their building. 

“We’ve got to fix our defense,” Tom Thibodeau agreed. 

To his credit, Randle didn’t blame the late breakdown Monday night on any hangover from the West Coast trip. 

“I’m never going to blame it on fatigue,” he said. 

Only what does it matter at this point? If Evan Fournier’s steal of that OKC inbound pass didn’t make anyone forget about John Havlicek’s incomparable steal, it still should have put this game away. Randle’s triple-double (30 points, 13 rebounds, 10 assists) should have been enough to beat the Thunder, even if they have a teen phenom in Josh Giddey, who is about to grow into a frightening beast in this league. 

These Knicks are always going to find a way to lose. It’s what they do. They were supposed to take at least a little baby step toward contention this year, based on all the wonderful reviews they earned last year, and instead are busy proving that 2020-21 was something of a mirage — a temporary sanctuary from two decades of awfulness, followed by the kind of dispiriting basketball often played before Thibodeau arrived. 

But we are here to keep it positive for a change, if only as a public service. The Knicks are in 12th place in the Eastern Conference at 25-33, two games behind the last play-in spot, and their fans are desperate for something to hold onto. Randle should be that something. He appears to have finally rediscovered himself on the West Coast trip. It’s an odd thing, really, that the closest thing the Knicks had to a franchise player last year would stumble upon his long, lost game during a five-game stretch that saw his team go 1-4, punctuated by an unforgivable loss to a stripped-down Portland team that trailed by 23 points with 17 minutes and change to play. 

And yet who’s going to argue with it? The Knicks have nothing else to embrace, other than the return of Derrick Rose. After playing a Brooklyn team going without Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons, and Kyrie Irving, the Knicks will fall face-first into the All-Star break before returning to confront a nine-game stretch that could break them. 

Miami. Philly. At Philly. At Phoenix. At the Clippers. At Sacramento. At Dallas. At Memphis. At Brooklyn. 

The Knicks will need to win some of those games to stay on the fringe of the play-in race. They have that, and the hope that Randle will continuing to increase his value and show the rest of the league that last year’s Most Improved Player performance was not a total one-off. 

Randle averaged 29.2 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 6.2 assists in those five games out west by playing faster and more aggressively, and then responded at home with his 30-point triple-double. He has powered through his poor body language like he would tear-away sweats, suggesting that maybe, just maybe, the Knicks will be worth watching when RJ Barrett and Rose return from injury. 

But even if they keep losing, the Knicks will still get something out of Randle’s resurgence. They could look to move him in the summer as part of a package to land a better player to pair with Barrett. If so, that process would become easier to navigate if Randle is steamrolling opposing power forwards all across the league. 

He’s still only 27, with a contract that isn’t crazy by modern sports standards. Sadly, divorce now seems like the most logical endgame. The Knicks aren’t good enough to compete with Randle and Barrett as their best players. Something has to change, and the 21-year-old RJ isn’t going anywhere. 

So that’s what passes for good news for the bad-news Knicks. A resurgent Randle isn’t helping their team win, but perhaps he can be dealt for someone who can.