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It was a tough night for RJ Barrett and the Knicks.
Not only did New York fall 129-123 BC LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday night, but their young star was seemingly benched down the stretch.
With 6:51 left in the fourth quarter, and the Knicks down 104-98, Barrett was replaced for Quentin Grimes. Trainer Tom Thibodeau decided to go with Grimes’ group, Immanuel Quickley, Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle And Isaiah Hartenstein to try to get back into the game.
The combination worked as this group helped New York recover and force overtime.
“We were just looking for a group to start. So the group that was out there was the one we went with,” Thibodeau said of Barrett who was not on track after the game.
In 27 minutes, Barrett scored 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting, and had two assists and three rebounds. Barrett scored six points in the fourth quarter before being pulled, but with him down, the team’s defense suffered.
From the start of the fourth quarter until Barrett was replaced, the Lakers shot 8-for-8. For the remainder of the quarter, the Lakers shot only 3-for-11.
When contacted by reporters after the game, Barrett declined to talk.
Perhaps if the result had been different, Barrett’s behavior after the game would have been too. Unfortunately for the Knicks, this group couldn’t shut down the Lakers and they ended up losing their second straight game.
Brunson, who tied the game at 114, called his team’s performance in OT “disappointing,” and when asked what they could have done better, the first-year Knick was brutally honest.
“Play better in defense. Put more points on the board, really. They just kicked our a– for the last five minutes.
But what does this bench mean to Barrett?
Thibodeau has Barrett, Quickley and Grimes at his disposal and can really only play two at a time. Quickley became the Knicks’ top option off the bench, but Thibodeau felt it best he and Grimes were out there down the stretch. And it almost worked.
This bench is likely temporary, and Barrett will likely be in the top five when the Miami Heat hit MSG on Thursday. Brunson calls the game “very important” as the Heat sit two games ahead of New York for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference.
But Brunson knows it won’t be easy and it will take a team effort to win.
“They have a great staff, a culture they talk about all the time,” said the Heat’s Brunson after Tuesday’s game. “They will come in and play hard. We need to match their energy and pick it up on the defensive end. In the offensive phase we are scoring many points, in defense it is where we have to recover”.
