On Sunday, Julius Randle and the New York Knicks improved to 5-4 on the young 2023-24 NBA season with a comfortable home win over the Charlotte Hornets. Randle had one of his best games of the campaign against the Hornets, scoring 23 points, pulling down five rebounds, and dishing out five assists en route to the 129-107 win in front of the Knicks fans in Madison Square Garden.

In fact, so comfortable was the Knicks' victory over Charlotte that head coach Tom Thibodeau, who has become known to push his players to their breaking points in terms of the number of minutes per game they play, was able to give his starting lineup some much-needed rest minutes during the fourth quarter of the blowout.

After the game, Thibodeau spoke about why he is usually reluctant to do that, citing a bit of NBA history in the process.

“I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen 13 points in 35 seconds,” said Thibodeau, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “So people will say, ‘He needs to get the starters out of there.’ Yeah? Well I know what experience tells me.”

In 2004, Tom Thibodeau was an assistant coach for the Houston Rockets when Rockets star Tracy McGrady scored an astonishing 13 points in the final seconds of a game against the San Antonio Spurs, leading his team to a stunning victory.

However, no such comeback was to be had on Sunday afternoon. Julius Randle, who has been among the league leaders in minutes per game over the last few seasons, only recorded 27 in the big win.