The New York Knicks were able to keep it going on Sunday night as they scored their fourth straight victory in a blowout win against the Sacramento Kings, 112-99. They had to finish the game without star forward Julius Randle, though, who got himself ejected in the third quarter after accumulating two technical fouls in quick succession. This was after the 28-year-old complained to the referee about a foul that was called against him. As it turns out, Randle was being a bit too vocal with his displeasure.

Randle hasn't been the most behaved Knicks player out there when it comes to dealing with game officials. His 12 techs last season is a clear testament to this fact. The one-time All-Star is well aware of this flaw, though, and he's worked hard to try and improve on this particular facet of his game. According to Randle, he believes that he was actually doing a job at it up until Sunday's incident:

“I was good until the last game, man. What the hell happened, right? I had a relapse,” Randle said (h/t Peter Botte of the New York Times), adding that he’s “absolutely” made a conscious effort to not argue with the refs as much this season. “I don’t want any beef or confrontation with officials. I could never do their job.

“Dealing with us as players, it’s like I’ve said I could never coach. It’s a lot to deal with. I understand they can’t get every play right. You know me. I’m a passionate player. I play with a lot of emotion, a lot of drive. So sometimes it gets the best of me. But that was a conscious thing going into the summer to try to limit that.”

It is clear that Randle is self-aware when it comes to his shortcomings in dealing with referees. Nevertheless, he still finds it hard to set his emotions aside when it matters the most. You always appreciate a player who plays with his heart on his sleeve, but as with everything else, too much of anything can't always be good — especially when it puts the team's overall success in jeopardy:

“I just can’t put my team in that situation,” Randle said. “I don’t want to talk about what happened, and whether it was right or wrong.

“Regardless, I can’t put my teammates in that situation and that was selfish of me. I got to be better.”

It's a good thing the Knicks were still able to hold on to the win against the Kings even with Randle out of the picture. For his part, Julius Randle finished with 27 points, eight rebounds, and three assists in 27 minutes of action.

“Hopefully, that last one gets rescinded. But we’ll see. I’m really trying my best,” Randle said. “Sometimes my emotions get the best of me. But that’s just kind of what comes with it.

“I’m just trying to be more invested and in tune with what’s going on with our team. How can I help my guys? How can I make the best plays for my team? Next play mentality. So the more I focus on that, the more all the outside distractions [don’t] become a thing.”

Randle obviously wants to do all that he can to help the Knicks win, and he knows that he will need to be better when it comes to dealing with the refs. It's one thing to say it, though, and an altogether different matter actually doing it.