RJ Barrett and the Knicks put together one of their more dominant efforts of the season against an extremely vulnerable, shorthanded Blazers team.

The New York Knicks’ 128-98 blowout victory over the Portland Trail Blazers was an opium den of delights whose pleasures were exceeded only by their unlikeliness, wondrous visions we know are less likely to translate to reality than the better worlds we can (and prefer to) imagine. And yet the most obvious dreams are no closer or further from reality than the wildest. Translation: I don’t know if the win means anything. But it was fun.  

Quoth Mike Tyson: “You can’t stop reality from being real.” Last night Rowan Barrett Jr. was the real, and there was nothing the shorthanded Blazers (no Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkić, Eric Bledsoe, Joe Ingles, or Nassir Little) could do to stop it. 

Barrett was slashing and swishing from deep, and yes, scoring 31 gives him nine games of 30-plus this year after just one his first two years, and yes, that’s dope. Doper still: the recent rise in Point RJ sightings. With five assists last night he’s hit that mark seven times in a dozen games, something he did only five times in 46 games before that. The more comfortable he grows playmaking on drives, the more effective he’ll be driving, which will make him more comfortable driving, which will make him more effective on drives.

Juxtaposition: Julius Randle had a rough shooting night. He fought to get to the line 12 times, making 10, as well as bring nine rebounds and seven assists to the pot luck. Gonna take more than a little club soda to clean the stain Randle brought upon Drew Eubanks and his ancestors. 

Barrett’s game is on the ascent. The more he can do with the ball in his hands, the less Randle will have it in his. It won’t be long before Barrett’s due to break the Charlie Ward Second Contract Curse (he’s eligible for his rookie extension before the start of next season), and when he does, will he want the max? Do you like the fit of RJ and JR at a combined $65 million a year going forward? Phrased that way, maybe it doesn’t sound very appealing; there’s always been a question whether the Knicks’ best players’ best fit is apart. But Randle is not a one-dimensional player. If the question expanded to how you like the fit of RJ and JR as the Nos. 2 and 3 behind Superstar X making $40 million per… so now Randle’s not the lead option, but a secondary/tertiary one who also grabs 10-plus rebounds a night and is devastating downhill on 4-on-3s… would he embrace a narrower role on a better team? Would you embrace him if he did?   

Vision is a blessing these Knicks are not blessed with. I’m not sure there’s a plus passer on the team. But on nights like this, when they score 40 baskets off 31 assists, beauty abounds. 

One thing the Knicks are blessed with is youth. Their second-year starters have been turning it up of late; in this game, Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley combined for 31, eight, and eight in 39 minutes. IQ right now is like Luke Skywalker at the beginning of Return of the Jedi. He’s been through some shit in the name of growth, and he didn’t come out unscarred — there were low points. But he came out the other side with a skill set and ability to manipulate space and time in ways he couldn’t before. 

Toppin deserves credit not only for the uptick in his play but for the mental perseverance that must have required. In his early career, Toppin has existed in a strange land where there was slim to no connection between his play and his playing time. It sounds like a kind of purgatory, to reach the pinnacle of opportunity in your incredibly, globally-competitive career, then be expected to perform to your best abilities knowing that doing so has no bearing on your chances at advancement. 

Juxtaposition: it can be hard to imagine a Randle/Barrett pairing as the hub of a good Knicks team in the future. Add Toppin to the calculus and it’s even harder to see. Barrett is a physical wing; he could very well end up playing the role Randle does now; RJ’s versatilities allow infinite possibilities for the kinds of bigs and guards you can put around him. 

Still, it’s difficult to imagine Toppin succeeding as a 5 or a 3. Yeah, sure, position-less yada yada; if you find the language archaic, think of it this way: is there a role for Toppin that successfully mixes the things he does best alongside Randle and Barrett doing the same? Tom Thibodeau has recently shown more faith in a JR/RJ 5/4 pairing than Randle/Obi. Tick, tick, tick. Enjoy him while you can.  

This win was very “enjoy him while you can.” Enjoy RJ, because it’s a pure, rare thing, watching your team’s best player grow up before your very eyes. It’s also far simpler when he’s making $10 million and not $35 million, surely. The Knicks have a ton of youngsters who should be playing; the franchise is also looking to use free agency or a trade to bring in someone better than everyone on the roster. The current cast won’t be together for long. The season was lost months ago, as far as the playoffs/play-in., once Derrick Rose went out. You can’t stop reality from being real, so enjoy nights like last night. Your favorite team won by 30. Your favorite player scored 31 and is only 21. That’s good enough for now.