Shorthanded Knicks pull away from Wizards for first in-season tournament victory

WASHINGTON — On the bench as the game began at Capital One Arena, RJ Barrett was clapping for his teammates, dressed in a cream-colored sweatsuit. A few seats over, Quentin Grimes was in street clothes, too. He was unable to clap, though, because his left arm was encased in a large soft cast.

But whatever the reasons for the missing pieces, Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau has always maintained that the team will turn to the next man up and insist, “We have more than enough.”

That mantra was put to the test Friday as the Knicks took on one of the league’s worst teams and recorded a 120-99 win that improved them to 7-5 overall and 1-1 in the in-season tournament. The Wizards are 2-10, 0-3.

“We’re gonna say this every single time something happens like this: Next-up mentality,” Jalen Brunson said. “Next man up. It’s not just one person stepping up. It’s everyone stepping up. We have a lot of great pieces on this team. A lot of great individuals that can do a lot of great things. We can put that all together and play together, and that’s something special.’’

The Knicks had a 21-point second-quarter lead cut to five early in the fourth quarter. Until Brunson — who led the Knicks with 32 points, seven rebounds and seven assists — hit a three-pointer from the top of the key with 4:44 to play, pushing the lead to 13, it never felt safe, even if the Wizards hardly seemed to have the firepower to pull out a game down the stretch.

After a Washington timeout and an empty possession, the Knicks had two chances and then a third as Brunson dived on the floor between three Wizards players, forcing a jump ball and winning it. Julius Randle sank two free throws with 3:36 to play before a three-pointer by Immanuel Quickley with 2:59 left pushed the Knicks’ lead to 18 and gave them a chance to exhale.

“I like how we kinda responded from their run when they cut it to five,” Randle said. “That team can score the ball. Despite their record, they’ve got a lot of talent over there. The margin of error in the NBA is very small, so you can never really look at someone’s record and define them, so I’m kinda happy the way we responded to their run and closed out the game.”

Quickley had 27 points off the bench in front of family and friends from nearby Maryland. Randle added 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds.

With the lead back to 20 and 2:19 left, Thibodeau emptied the bench — at least what was left of it. The Knicks already had to use much of the bench just to get through the game, with Evan Fournier making his first appearance of the season and playing nearly 16 minutes. And in in-season tournament games, point differential comes into play as a tiebreaker — as if Thibodeau needed motivation to play to the final buzzer.

“[Shoot], when did we come out? With 2:16?” Randle said. “And he was even debating it then. So I think we got enough run tonight.”

With Barrett and Grimes sidelined, the Knicks inserted Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo into the starting lineup, and although they had barely played at all this season as a group with Randle, Brunson and Robinson, it seemed just fine at the start.

The Knicks didn’t need time to acclimate to the new lineup, taking a 16-4 lead in the opening minutes and building the lead to 21 in the second quarter.

“They’ve been mixing and matching, so they’re comfortable,” Thibodeau said of the plugged-in starting lineup. “That’s the beauty. Quick is comfortable with both units. I think Donte is comfortable with both units. So there’s not much of an adjustments for those guys. And Isaiah [Hartenstein], I’d like to find him more minutes, but Mitch has played at such a high level, there hasn’t been minutes.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.