Julius Randle torched the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, as the New York Knicks forward scored no less than 17 points in a scorching hot first-quarter performance. Randle was simply unstoppable in the first frame, as he completely exposed Atlanta's weaknesses on the defensive end.

Randle missed just one shot in the first quarter against the Hawks, while also draining three triples against a hapless Atlanta defense:

Here's a look at one of Randle's three-pointers (h/t SportsCenter on Twitter):

The Knicks managed 39 points in the first period alone. However, their defense wasn't exactly stellar as well, as they allowed the Hawks to drop 28 points on them in the same quarter. This could have easily been a blowout game for the Knicks had their defense been able to hold up.

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Kudos to Randle, though, who absolutely caught fire for the Knicks. The 26-year-old is in the midst of another outstanding campaign for New York this term. He entered Monday's matchup with across-the-board career-best averages of 22.4 points (on 46.9 percent shooting), 11.1 rebounds, and 5.6 assists, while also connecting on 1.6 triples per game on a highly-efficient 39.1-percent clip. The lofty numbers appear to be sustainable for Randle, as he's put up these averages in 28 appearances for his team so far this term.

Randle has been so good that he's been recognized as one of the top frontcourt players in the entire Eastern Conference. In the second batch of All-Star fan vote returns, Randle ranked eighth among East frontcourt players with 387,114 votes. He isn't a shoo-in to the All-Star quad at this point, but it would be hard to argue against the notion that he deserves it.