The Knicks had yet another winnable game slip from their grasp thanks to questionable decisions and play down the stretch. But this loss to the Celtics wasn’t without an RJ Barrett-shaped silver lining.

The coaching tree of Jeff Van Gundy grows nothing if not low-hanging fruit. Whether the Other Brother, Steve Clifford, or, most pertinently, our redeemer Tom Thibodeau, are stalking the sideline, the mantras of JVG’s disciples remain the same: win the turnover battle, win the rebounding battle, get back on defense. The Knicks have generally controlled those variables this season, which in large part has allowed them to overcome severe talent deficiencies and achieve overwhelmingly pleasant averageness. The Knicks have won half of their games this year on those very margins. When they fail to do so, like in their past two contests, and thus find themselves in a talent-off in the closing minutes... well, those fruits way up in the canopy have not yet ripened. 

That’s not to say some aren’t blossoming rapidly. In this contest against the struggling Boston Celtics, RJ Barrett got going early, and never looked back. He started Boston off with his patented lefty finger-roll. 

He got out in transition, where Julius Randle, increasingly seeking RJ out, found him with this laser. 

And, oh yeah — small thing — RJ went 6-6 from 3-point land, and has now hit 16 of 22 threes in his last five games.

There is a palpable confidence now to RJ’s 3-point game that is just as convincing as the numbers say it should be. Teammates are looking for him more because of it. Closeouts from opponents are getting more desperate due to the threat of it. That development alone is worth the heartache of these brutal losses (almost). 

Outside of RJ, though, the Knicks shot just 4-16 from the field in the first. Randle’s jumper continued to evade him, a recently-scorching Reggie Bullock shot just 1-5, and Elfrid Payton had zero stats other than two turnovers and one personal foul. Cool.  

More troubling than routine offensive struggles, though, was the Knicks’ failing to rectify the poor defensive rebounding that plagued them against Brooklyn — the Celtics grabbed seven offensive boards in the first (New York had none).  

Thankfully, Derrick Rose casually closed the quarter with a buzzer-beating three off of a great pass from Randle, ending an otherwise lifeless quarter with a bang. Despite their struggles, the Knicks were down just three.  

The bench mob injected some much-needed life into the team immediately at the start of quarter number two. Immanuel Quickley had his best stretch in weeks. He began the quarter by making a floater. 

Then, he found Obi Toppin for an open corner three, instinctively followed Obi’s miss, and hit a wide-open Alec Burks for three off of the offensive board.  

He followed that by knocking down a three of his own.  

Then got Obi involved in transition with a nice alley-oop dish. 

And generally played spirited, if not always perfect, defense. 

The bench pushed the Knicks into the lead, but the continued struggle in the possession battle cost the team dearly. The Celtics secured six more offensive rebounds in the second, and at the half had cashed in 18 second chance points to the Knicks’ three. RJ banged two more threes in the last minute and change of the second, with Randle contributing a wild straight-on banker from three to keep the Knicks within one at the half. 

Randle finally found his groove in the third quarter. Notably, he did so especially in transition, where he was downright balletic. 

He tallied 13 points in the quarter, and finally got a (non-banked) jumper to go, a play that started with an opportunistic post-up from RJ on everybody’s favorite chew-toy Payton Pritchard. 

(P.S. — POST RJ UP MORE, PLEASE AND THANK YOU.)

On the defensive end, the Knicks’ attention to detail was slightly amiss in the third. The Celtics have limited offensive options at the moment, but their best options by far are Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, and the Knicks’ defenders were helping way too far off of both of them, yielding open threes. Both Boston wings went 4-6 from the field in the quarter and scored a laughable 21 of Boston’s 23 total third quarter points. Still, the Knicks were up three heading into the fourth, promising another nail-biting finish. 

Once again, New York’s offense bogged down in the final quarter. Burks, perhaps asked to create more than his capability, shot just 1-6. Quickley, despite his great stretch in the second quarter, was not given the opportunity to provide desperately-needed space and playmaking, playing just 4:26 total in the second half. Randle again looked tired as the fourth quarter wore on, which is becoming a worrying (if not predictable) trend, and shot just 1-4 in the closing period. Rose, absurdly asked to play from halfway through the third quarter until almost all the way to the finish (I wonder if we can come up with a solution), also predictably petered out in the closing minutes, forcing Thibs to go back to Elfrid Payton, who had been... Elfrid Payton all game.  

Barrett was the one Knick looking fresh and confident, and he delivered again and again, including this clutch tying three in the final minute dedicated to Anthony Edwards.  

The seemingly inevitable dagger came from, of all people, Marcus Smart, who splashed the go-ahead three after Reggie Bullock opted to double Tatum.  

You can question the strategy (which presumably came from the bench), and I’d always prefer to force a contested shot when possible rather than concede a wide open one, but I find it difficult to lay blame on the final defensive decision.  

Ultimately, the Knicks failed to reach 100 points again. Randle’s midrange shots are no longer saving New York’s offense, and with the current personnel getting the majority of the playing time, it’s not clear how they can generate better looks. They gave up 20-plus second chance points for the second straight game, underscoring the immense impact of Mitchell Robinson’s absence. These Knicks were always going to win or lose on the thinnest of margins, and lately, they are too often failing to pluck that all-important low-hanging fruit.  

Notes

• Immanuel Quickley needs to play more. He especially needs to play more when he plays like he did tonight. He never plays point guard on his own anymore, and consequently is running fewer and fewer pick-and-rolls, which is bad in the short term because he is good at it, and bad in the long term because it stunts development.

• Relatedly, Elfrid Payton. That’s all that really needs to be said, but let’s say more anyway. Thibs continuing to start Payton (whose first half was maybe his worst half of the season), then asking Derrick Rose to close the game after subbing in midway through the third, is asinine. It is downright damaging to this team. That’s the low-hanging fruit that Thibs needs to pluck all by himself. ENOUGH.

• Obi Toppin wasn’t great tonight by any stretch, and air-balled another corner three. However, his play just seemed more confident, and that continues to trend in the right direction. I particularly enjoyed this on-target jumping skip-pass to an open IQ after a Taj Gibson offensive board.

• Julius Randle’s midrange game has really cooled off of late. I think he needs to convert some of those attempts into more fruitful rim-attacks, which can yield buckets, free throws (only two attempts tonight), and assists. One such example early in tonight’s game stood out: Robert Williams gambled to steal Payton’s entry pass, providing Randle an open lane to the rim. But Julius hesitated, allowing Timelord back into the play, and settled for a tough jumper, which Williams blocked.

• Somebody show this clip of Tatum sealing early in transition to Barrett and Randle. That’s beautiful.

This game was very significant in the Eastern Conference standings. The Knicks fell to two below .500 and into the eighth seed, one behind Boston, and now just one ahead of Indiana, who currently sits in ninth. New York now enters a three-game home stand vs. the Grizzlies, Raptors, and Lakers. Two out of three has to be the goal. Hopefully the Knicks can grab the low-hanging fruit offered to them and come out on top of a close game at some point, too.