Getty RJ Barrett #9 of the New York Knicks celebrates late in the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
There was no magic potion nor secret sauce to RJ Barrett‘s sudden rise from bust to boom in what is shaping up to be a magical New York Knicks‘ playoff run.
Even after catching a lot of heat for his poor showing in the first two games of their Eastern Conference first-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Barrett stayed even-keeled.
“It’s unreal,” Jalen Brunson said of Barrett’s play to ESPN/ABC courtside reporter Lisa Salters. “I said before that in basketball, sometimes it doesn’t go your way, but his demeanor and mindset never changed, and it showed in the past couple of games.”
Brunson played a big part in getting Barrett back on the right track.
Barrett scored on a strong drive against Cleveland’s bigs Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen off a hand-off from Brunson for the Game 4’s opening play.
“Sometimes you don’t get [the first play], sometimes you do. It just depends on the game. [Sunday], I got it and did something with it, and then it just set the tone for the rest of the game, and we were all in attack mode. So, it was a lot of fun,” Barrett told reporters about their first play.
Barrett continued to play off Brunson, especially in the fourth quarter, where he scored 10 of his playoff career-high 26 points to lead the Knicks’ breakaway from a 75-75 deadlock.
“A lot of times they were doubling Jalen, so I was able to get the ball and make a play,” Barrett said.
He pointed out that in his dunk and a couple of layups in the fourth quarter, Brunson was in the middle of the paint and sealed off the Cavaliers’ defender to have an open lane.
“So I got an extra second to go,” Barret said. “It was a total team effort.”
Those kinds of plays turned Barrett into a catalyst in the Knicks’ sweep of Games 3 and 4 at home to take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
After averaging a paltry 10.5 points on a combined 6-for-25 shooting in the first two games, he bounced back with 19 points on 8-of-12 shots in Game 3 and his playoff career-high on 50% shooting in Game 4.
“I just wanted to continue to make the right play, make the right reads, and just do whatever to help the team win,” Barrett said.
Over the last two games, Barrett has picked up the slack, averaging 22.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists while shooting 56.7% from the field. More importantly, he was a combined plus-12 in both games.
Knicks’ Sixth Man
The Knicks’ passionate crowd also helped the Knicks
“It’s been amazing,” Barrett said. “It’s been helping a lot, especially just like when we’re going on those runs. It helps us even more. The crowd, they just helped us get back into the game after [the Cavaliers] threw a crazy punch there in the third [quarter].”
Behind Darius Garland’s 11 points and five assists in the third quarter, the Cavaliers erased what was once a Knicks’ 15-point lead. Cleveland briefly took the lead before Brunson ended the quarter with a 3-pointer for a 73-71 breather.
Barrett then took over in the fourth quarter.
Jalen Brunson Warns Knicks of Complacency
Brunson was the first to remind the Knicks that there is still work to be done after seizing a 3-1 lead which history says they have a 95.2% chance of winning the series.
“It’s not over,” Brunson told reporters during his postgame interview. “It’s not even close to being over. We’ll continue to keep focusing on one day at a time, and there’s nothing to celebrate. There’s nothing to be truly happy about, so, obviously, we’d won tonight and be one step closer, but we have to continue to have that same mindset, mentality that we have over the past couple of games.”
The Knicks will have their first of three chances to eliminate the Cavaliers on Wednesday as the series shifts back to Cleveland for Game 5.
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