Knicks 'Super Proud' of RJ Barrett's Miami Mastery
It's not every day you join an exclusive NBA brotherhood that includes LeBron James, Luka Donćič, and Ja Morant.
True to the New York Knicks' star-crossed luck in the new century, it involved a unique brand of futility ... but yet RJ Barrett's unique, if not bittersweet, box score contributed to a crucial victory.
RJ Barrett became just the fourth player this NBA season to score 30 points while going fruitless on at least five attempts from three-point range. That output still managed to lead the Knicks in a crucial showdown with the Miami Heat on Thursday night, a tally that paved the way to a 106-104 victory at Madison Square Garden.
"(The) media won’t see a lot of the things going on, but we really worked together a lot tonight," Barrett said of the win, per Phillip Martinez of SNY. "That’s really a credit to the whole team.”
Barrett's barren night from deep could've provided a troubling sense of deja vu: the Knicks' homegrown franchise face also missed all three attempts in Tuesday's narrow loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Frustration boiled over for Barrett in that loss, as he immediately left the locker room without making any public comments after sitting for the final 11-plus minutes of the overtime defeat.
He'd cherish every minute bestowed and then some on Thursday, scoring 20 of his 30 points in that latter half. Nine alone came at the onset of the third quarter, when Barrett accounted for all but two points in an 11-0 run that set up New York's largest lead of the night at 14.
Barrett couldn't help but point out the futile similarities to the Laker loss and admitted he was frustrated by his forced departure from that game. However, he brushed it off with a one-game-at-a-time approach that applies in both victory and defeat.
“I’m human, I get frustrated like everybody. My momma told me if you don’t have anything good to say don’t say anything at all," Barrett said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. "This is the NBA, man, I have my family, this team, always support each other, have those guys for sure. It’s the NBA. It’s one game, just like this is one game.”
Even if Barrett wants to downplay his contributions, his clutch effort came at a crucial points on the Knicks' timeline: not only did New York (28-25) gain vital ground on Miami, the current holders of the sixth and final automatic Eastern Conference playoff seed, but they did so without the services of primary point guard Jalen Brunson, who missed Thursday's game with an illness.
The Knicks currently sit one game behind the Heat (29-24) entering weekend action. Barrett's role in narrowing that gap did not go unnoticed.
“It just shows his growth,” teammate Julius Randle, he of a 23-point, 10-rebound double-double, told the Post. “You can pout and kind of sulk because you didn’t play the game before, but I think everybody here is all in on winning, and for him to come in and constantly, I think, throughout the game make the right plays, that was big, so I’m super proud of him.”
Head coach Tom Thibodeau chalked up Barrett's lack of a Hollywood ending against Los Angeles to not being part of the "best group" he had in mind for the final minutes. He had no hesitation in allowing Barrett to resume his late-game duties on Thursday.
"The thing I love about RJ is I always believe he’s going to bounce back. And I saw it immediately the next day after the Laker game. I said, ‘We’ll be fine,’ ” Thibodeau said. “I know it’s important to RJ and I knew he’d come out aggressive.”
Barrett and the Knicks tip off a busy weekend on Saturday when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers (7 p.m. ET, MSG).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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