Knicks set for soft schedule into 2025

NEW ORLEANS — The Knicks broke through the big game and now enter an easy schedule.

Starting Saturday night against the Pelicans, the Knicks have five of their next seven games against the bottom four of the NBA standings.

It’s a remarkable pie with games against the Pelicans (5-23), Raptors (7-21), Jazz (6-20) and Wizards (4-21) twice.

Even the two opponents wedged between those tankers — the Spurs (14-13) and Magic (17-12) — are underdogs against the Knicks (17-10).

For Saturday, New Orleans is without perennially injured Zion Williamson (hamstring strain), Brandon Ingram (ankle sprain) and Jose Alvarado (hamstring strain).

The Pelicans, who were swept by the Knicks at MSG on Dec. 1, are among the expected top sellers at the trade deadline, with Ingram on the block, according to sources, and speculation mounting about the availability of Williamson.

The Knicks, meanwhile, have won seven of their last nine after dismantling the Timberwolves on Thursday, 133-107.

Not only did Julius Randle leave the court without shaking hands with his former teammates after Thursday’s game, he walked past the Knicks locker room on his way out of the arena — shades for eyes — and never stopped.

It’s safe to say he remains upset about the way his time in New York ended. In earlier eras this might not have been remarkable. But players are so nice today that even a cold meeting is rare.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Randle plays at MSG for the first time since being traded on January 17th.

Josh Hart looks like he’s back.

Hart, who missed Thursday for “personal reasons,” was not on the injury report for the Pelicans showdown. The T-Wolves game was his first absence of the season, with the Knicks starting Precious Achiuwa, who struggled defensively in his first shift but found a groove later in the contest.

Jericho Sims was added to the eight-man rotation and Tom Thibodeau did his usual postgame shoutout to just about everyone.

“Karl-(Anthony Towns), I mean, what could you say? It was just a monster game,” Thibodeau said, “as well as Mikal (Bridges) and I thought OG (Anunoby’s) defense was special. We got good play from Jalen (Brunson), I thought he just didn’t fight the game, he read the game really well and he created a lot of advantages. I liked that we had 39 assists, a lot of it was dribble penetration and then making the right one reading. The guys worked together, Deuce (McBride) gave us good minutes, Jericho really good minutes, and Cam (Payne) as well.”

Minutes later, Thibodeau interrupted a response about two women running onto the court midgame to announce, “Precious gave us a good game, too.”

So the coach came to everyone.

But with Hart back, it’s safe to assume Achiuwa will move back to the bench.