After hitting the lights on the opening night of the season, RJ Barrett stumbled through some difficult times, the second of which coincided with the middle of a losing streak.
But despite the Knicks’ winning streak on Friday night against Kings in Sacramento, California, Barrett rediscovered his touch and was making a big impact in the process.
“We are just trying to work hard and work hard every day,” said Barrett after scoring 28 points, the best of his career, in 10-of-17 pitches in Thursday’s victory over the Warriors. “This is really what we are trying to do. We are very focused. We have done our best and we will continue to do so throughout the season. ”
In Friday’s 103-94 loss to the Kings, Barrett had 21 points out of 8 out of 17 shots – including 2 out of 2 out of 3. In the last five games on Friday, Barrett averaged 21.8 points – in 51.4 percent of pitches and 38.9 percent of depth – to go with 6.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists. In the 10 games preceding this stretch, he was shooting just 33.1 percent from the ground and 12.8 percent beyond the arc – numbers that were driven by two games in the middle where the southpaw briefly got hot and hit 18 of 34 from the floor and 5 to 10 out of three.
“I think RJ played very well, I would say like in the last five or six games, playing at a very high level,” said coach Tom Thibodeau. “He started the season where he had a great opening night and I think the teams came after him very well. But he is adjusting and even during the stretch when he was not shooting very well, he was recovering a lot and was playing.
Frank Ntilikina lost his 13th consecutive game since suffering a sprain in his right knee on December 29. Austin Rivers was also out for the second consecutive night with pain in the Achilles tendon. … Sunday’s game in Portland was changed from 9 pm Eastern time to 10 pm
– additional reporting by Peter Botte