Knicks’ Julius Randle suffers dislocated right shoulder vs. Heat،
New York Knicks forward Julius Randle suffered a heavy fall Saturday and suffered a dislocated right shoulder in the final minutes of the team's 125-109 victory over the Miami Heat, said a source to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
X-rays did not show much damage, but an MRI scan is scheduled for later Saturday, the source said.
With just over four minutes left, Randle drove to the basket when Miami wing Jaime Jaquez Jr. slid defensively in hopes of drawing a big call on the Knicks star. Randle lay on the Madison Square Garden floor for a while in pain, then asked his teammates to help him up using only his left arm.
When he stood up, he grimaced, signaling to the Knicks training staff that he couldn't move his right arm. Anthony Goenaga, the team's head coach, appeared to try to help Randle by returning his right arm to its socket, but Randle, leaning over him, then ran toward the locker room, unable to make the free throws he he had won. Jaquez's fault.
It was a clear sign that Randle, one of the toughest and most physical players in the league, was suffering from unusual pain. “You knew he would do this [it might be serious]” said coach Tom Thibodeau, who spoke before the team had a clear idea of the severity of the injury. “He's a guy that plays through things and that's what you love him. He's a warrior. » When asked how concerned he was about the star forward, Thibodeau replied: “Very.”
It was an 'Oh shit' reaction,” fellow teammate Jalen Brunson said of Randle's fall. “We don't want to see that from anyone, especially him with the way he's playing. He means a lot to us. So for him to go back there, it's obviously not ideal.”
The timing of Randle's injury is less than ideal for the Knicks, who have been the hottest team in the NBA since the calendar turned to 2024 and have gone 12-2 in that span with Saturday's victory. Randle, coming off an All-NBA campaign last season, is an All-Star candidate this season and is recording 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists per game for the fourth-place Knicks.
It was not immediately clear how much time Randle would miss due to his injury.
When Brunson played for the Dallas Mavericks, he dislocated his right shoulder during a game in February 2020 and missed weeks as a result before opting for surgery to repair a torn labrum on the same arm . “It was pretty painful, I can’t lie,” he said.
