MEMPHIS — The Knicks were not only run out of MSG the last time they faced the Grizzlies. Their star, Julius Randle, was forced to leave early after a dustup with guard Desmond Bane.
It wasn’t a personal beef, as Bane noted ahead of Friday’s rematch. Randle was trying to be cheeky and eavesdropped on the Grizzlies huddle during a timeout. Bane shoved Randle and both were assessed technical fouls (Randle was ejected because of a second technical later in the game).
“Pretty simple,” Bane said. “We’re still conversating, talking about what we were doing. So it’s just a respect thing.”
Is that common in the NBA?
“I ain’t seen too much of it,” Bane answered.
The exchange is a small storyline to a juicy matchup between the upstart Grizzlies and the resuscitating Knicks, who’ve salvaged some play-in intrigue by winning three straight games.
At the time, over a month ago, it prompted Ja Morant to boast about his team’s toughness with a witty line — “We climb up the chimney, we ain’t ducking no smoke” — but now it’s an afterthought.
“Go out and compete. I’m focused on us,” Bane said. “I’m focused on the Grizzlies and whatever it takes to win a basketball game. So there’s no bad blood there.”
No animosity but a significant contest in Memphis on Friday night for both sides. The Knicks are trying to salvage a play-in spot and need to make up 3 ½ games with 16 to go. The Grizzlies (45-22), perhaps the most positively surprising team in the NBA, can maintain their position as the two-seed in the West, which is significant to avoid a potential first-round matchup against Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Donovan Mitchell or even Steph Curry.
Morant has elevated to superstardom but Bane represents the unsung hero with solid production as the starting two-guard, an unlikely role given his draft status (30th overall pick in 2020).
The Knicks, like almost every other team, passed on Bane in the draft. They took another guard, Immanuel Quickley, five spots earlier and apparently didn’t put much consideration into the stocky 6-4 guard out of TCU.
“I interviewed with them,” said Bane, who is averaging 17.9 points in 30.1 minutes this season. “We didn’t really know what direction the Knicks were going to go. We knew there was a little bit of interest, but that wasn’t necessarily a team that had a real strong interest.”
Now the Knicks have to deal with Bane, and the Grizzlies have to slow down Randle, who is averaging 26.1 points and 10.3 rebounds in his last 14 games.
“He’s physical. You got to know what he does, make it hard on him,” Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. said. “He’s a good player. Got to just respect his game and make it hard for him to score, not allow yourself to get in foul trouble versus him so you can’t play physical. You know how physical he wants to play.”
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