Knicks 112, Lakers 108: Rowan with the good fare
All’s quiet on the Western front. At least till tomorrow.
Same city, same building, same predicament, 24 hours apart. The New York Knicks trailed the L.A. Clippers by two after three quarters on Saturday; they trailed the L.A. Lakers by one after three Sunday. Look back at the fourth quarter of the Clipper game and the set-up for what was so different about the Laker game stands in starker relief.
On Saturday, RJ Barrett missed the Knicks’ first shot of the fourth, a driving lay-up. Less than a minute later, he’d been subbed out for Quentin Grimes. Six minutes later Barrett returned. He’d miss another lay-up. Those are the only moments his name pops up in the final frame of the Clipper game: miss; subbed out; checks in; miss. One reason the Knicks fared so well in the same situation yesterday, holding on for a 112-108 win, is how differently RJ played late.
This time around, he replaced Grimes to open the fourth. A little over a minute later, Barrett scored to give the Knicks the lead. 90 seconds later he did it again, adding another bucket 30 seconds later to put New York up four. 30 seconds later, he did it again with his fourth field goal of the frame. Two minutes later, he threw Obi Toppin a lob on a breakaway.
90 seconds later, RJ threw down the backbreaker.
He’d score once more with just over 2:30 remaining, restoring the lead to 10 and ensuring just enough of a buffer for New York to survive their usual late-game Ziegfeld Follies. Barrett was a beast beasting, his strength coupled with terrific touch on his drives. That’s the more perfect union Knick fans wanna see unionized: a love strong enough to show anywhere, but soft enough to make and-ones and free throws. Fans and athletes are always buying time with each other. When RJ plays like Good RJ, time gets all soft and gooey. In a good way.
On an Oscar night when little separated the two teams statistically – the Knicks were better at the free-throw line; the Lakers’ had more assists but their turnovers were more costly; the rest was pretty even-steven – and each were led with 33 points from a left-handed former Laker (D’Angelo Russell & Julius Randle), the biggest difference was the Best Supporting Actor. Barrett got to the line six times and nabbed five boards as part of his 30-point effort. Anthony Davis was great on the glass: 16 rebounds, six offensive. But he missed four of five free throws and ended the evening with just 17 points. He was better than Street Clothes, but hardly red-carpet material.
A ton of the credit for that belongs to Isaiah Hartenstein, who played the majority of the second-half and finished the night pulling a Ntilikina: zero field goals made with a plus/minus of +19. He helped make the glass a Knick gestalt. Josh Hart had another Josh Hart night, doing something of everything — scoring, defending, rebounding, dishing, balancing the budget, feeding the hungry, discomforting those in power — while Immanuel Quickley bounced back after some recent struggles. Randle had people wondering how he’d follow up boiling over in the Clipper game. How’s 33, eight and five for an encore?
With Jalen Brunson still out amidst the vagaries of the human ankle and the Knicks facing questions with the playoffs looming in less than a month, there was no better answer for them Sunday than a win, and no better reminder of their undetermined ceiling than a Good RJ game. Hopefully this is the start of something that carries on for the little while left to the season
