A couple of prods at young studs RJ Barrett and Mitchell Robinson by Tom Thibodeau led to both breaking out in a big way and leading the Knicks to a losing-streak-busting win.

Prologue

After being one of the most stringent coaches in basketball last season with starting lineups, Thibs was at it again.

With how poorly the Knicks’ starters have generally played relative to the bench this season, the changes haven’t exactly come out of left field. However, Thibs showed he was close to the proverbial panic button entering tonight at 11-12; not two weeks after taking Kemba out of the rotation, he did some mulling about another starting unit change.

Well, a lot of mulling.

After all that, just a small move — change the big.

A minor tweak, but one whose writing has been on the wall. Not only had Mitchell Robinson commented publicly about conditioning issues, but he simply hadn’t been performing up to his standards — even when compared to Nerlens Noel, who’s been largely injured to start the year.

Would the switch give some much-needed juice to the starting lineup? The Spurs entered having won four of their past five.

Chapter 1

Man, no Breen?

Man, how about Clyde, though.

The game opened with an Evan Fournier pass off the hands of Nerlens, followed by a Jakob Poeltl floater in Nerlens’ face. Yikes.

RJ Barrett hit a pull-up jumper off a screen, hopefully good for his confidence.

And then a trey!

Meanwhile, the Spurs caught the Knicks off guard by doubling and forcing an 8-second violation. Thibs was… not happy with the refs.

RJ continued his hot start with a coast-to-coast layup, attacking a 1-on-1 in transition the way that he had been in his promising start to this season:

The half court offense left some to be desired, especially from Julius. After air-balling a pull-up mid-ranger, he drove right into the waiting arms of Poeltl and was swatted.

Mitch came in off the bench and immediately grabbed two offensive rebounds.

Next thing you know, two quick fouls for RJ — but Thibs left him on the floor. Interesting, considering Thibs’ recent trend of letting him play more with the bench unit.

Fournier had a really tough start — 0-3 from three on a few tough shots, and some poor defense; a concerning theme for him:

Quickley has grown this season, but still shows a significant aversion to going to the rim. He turned down a wide-open layup to kick it out for an eventual turnover.

Mitch’s offensive glass masterclass continued, even getting a “persistence personified” from Clyde.

Alec Burks ended the quarter with a drawn foul — he played the entire quarter. Meanwhile, a common occurrence — Mitch was slow to get up after hitting the deck.

After an insane fading contested corner three from Doug McDermott, a 28-28 knot after one.

Chapter 2

Another Mitch offensive put-back.

Derrick White started to heat up on the other end with a couple of smooth mid-range pull-ups.

IQ said anything you can do, I can do better, raining a three and hitting a pretty bailout midrange spinning fade.

Oh, Alec Burks is still in?

RJ finally replaced Burks, and then immediately another put-back from Mitch.

RJ got back on track with a three, and the Knicks were up by seven before another beautiful Doug McDermott bucket. Newly-minted Knicks Killer?

Off the careem from another Poeltl block, RJ hit again.

Meanwhile, Derrick Rose continued a quietly fantastic half with a pull-up triple. He was a +11 (classic) with nine points early.

Although RJ’s 3-ball was percolating, the finishing still left much to be desired.  “Barrett, once he gets to the basket, what’s his shooting percentage?” — Clyde Frazier.

Next thing you know, a nice scoop inside:

Daily reminder to get Obi the rock!

A nugget: Randle had attempted only two shots with 2:30 to play in the half, and the Knicks were up six.

Then RJ hit again.

Nineteen first-half points on 4-4 from three for Rowan.

Interlude

Up six at the half.

Really, a wholly encouraging half of basketball, though anything would look encouraging compared to Saturday’s “game” vs. Denver.

The three was going down for RJ, but the biggest development? Mitch.

The big guy was dominant in his 11 minutes. Was he motivated by being benched? Did he jive better with the bench unit? Did he feast against lesser competition?

It could have been anything, but he was all over the place, and his impact was felt well beyond the box score heroics, getting deflections and contesting shots left and right. 

Rebecca Haarlow mentioned on the broadcast he was down to 265 pounds after entering the season at 280 as he tries to return to his old form.

Randle, meanwhile, was 0-3 from the field, but hadn’t turned the ball over while adding three assists. He’s been looking to find the balance between scoring and playmaking that seemed so natural to him last season.

Chapter 3

Different half; same result from RJ.

Barrett followed it up with a nice read off the screen and roll to find Burks in the corner pocket, and the Knicks were off and running!

The Spurs tried another half court trap, but this time New York was ready. Nice!

Randle sighting! He had two consecutive step-back treys before a nice steal to get out in transition.

So nice, he’ll do it thrice. Julius was 3-3 from three in the first six minutes of the quarter, as first-half star Mitch reentered.

Mitch continued to have an impact, getting down the floor for more rebounds and deflections, then another emphatic put-back slam.

Toppin put up one of his patented airballs from the corner, and before you knew it, Mitch was on the floor once again, grasping his lower back after going for yet another loose ball and going down hard. 

Mitch returned with a minute to play in the quarter, up 11. He earned two free throws. He hit both of them.

RJ missed dunks are bad for the agenda.

Chapter 4

A stress-free game?

A bit of a poor game from Obi, mishandling a couple of transition lobs.

San Antonio stuck around, courtesy of a couple of poor turnovers from RJ/Mitch and a microwave trey by Dejounte Murray.

Obi heard me! A couple of layups, one easy and one off-balance.

Another quiet-but-steady Burks performance; he was up to 18 points a “conventional” 3-point play.

IQ has been shooting more corner threes this season — a pretty game flow here into this one:

With the Spurs still within striking distance, the Knicks went back to what they’ve done all season when leading late — Randle isos. He was hitting them tonight, and was up to 13 second-half points to keep the game at double digits.

And RJ just kept hitting again and again.

Daggers.

Epilogue

Overall, a really encouraging game from the Knicks. Was great to see RJ progress to the mean on his 3-point shooting, and despite still-poor finishing, his offensive reads and defensive rotations looked crisper tonight, too.

We’ve already said plenty about Mitch, but what a satisfying bounce-back from one of the team’s most important players after being relegated to bench duty.

It was a nice outing from Randle, who played within the flow of the offense whether it meant a quiet first half or a loud second, and IQ put up an efficient 16, which helped keep San Antonio at arm’s length in the fourth. The only really “poor” game was from Evan Fournier, who is still looking to find himself within the team concept on both ends.

It might have been nice to get a *little* more rest for the starters at the end of the game (Gregg Popovich removed his with about three minutes to play) with a back-to-back at Indiana tomorrow night, but hey — that’s Thibs. The Knicks played a truly complete game tonight, pulling away a bit in the second quarter and mostly extending that lead throughout the rest of the game.

Still mulling?