Knicks' RJ Barrett demonstrates that he can play defense, too

There was a time, before the focus turned to finishing at the rim with his right hand or his up-and-down three-point field goal percentage, that RJ Barrett had a goal: earning a spot on the All-Defensive Team.

That seemed mostly forgotten over the years, and last season, Quentin Grimes took on the task that formerly belonged to Barrett — defending the most dangerous perimeter threat on the opposing team. During the summer, the Knicks added Donte DiVincenzo, who also excels on that end of the court, and Barrett seemed an afterthought on defense.

But when you play for Tom Thibodeau, that end of the court matters. And so it was that Barrett found himself not only helping to spark the offense Friday night as the Knicks staged a frantic fourth-quarter rally against the Miami Heat, but also tasked with guarding Jimmy Butler.

Butler  not only is one of the NBA’s best players but arguably the best in the game in clutch situations, or at least worthy of consideration for that title. In the final three minutes, Barrett defended him four times, and each time, Butler came up empty, arguing a call or shaking his head as he misfired.

That included the final play of the game. With the Knicks clinging to a hard-fought two-point advantage, Butler isolated in front of the home bench and tried to launch a step-back three-pointer for the win. But Barrett hung close to him, defending him as tightly as possible without fouling, and the shot rimmed out, giving the Knicks the 100-98 victory.

“I love it,” Barrett said. “Jimmy’s obviously a good player, so being able to get that stop and secure the win definitely feels good.”

“Defense I think is very difficult to measure because it’s more than one guy,” Thibodeau said Saturday after the Knicks held the Heat to 3-for-21 shooting   in the fourth quarter. “Particularly when you’re talking about those type of players because you’re double-teaming the post, you’re blitzing the pick-and-roll, you’re doing a lot of things. But I thought his effort in the third and fourth quarter was very good, and I think that’s also what gets him going. So then offensively, he found energy from that. So he got into the open floor some, attacked downhill, so it all worked together.

“But I think the thing I like about RJ is he’s got great size and he’s strong. But sometimes you can defend a player great and he still can make, or you don’t defend a player as well as you think and he misses the open shot. But overall I liked the hustle.”

The Knicks, who came back from an 83-62 third-quarter deficit, fell behind  96-87 with 3:50 left. While the focus may have been on the eight points that Barrett had in the fourth quarter, or the scoring outburst of Immanuel Quickley that got the Knicks back into the game starting late in the third quarter, or the clutch scoring of Jalen Brunson in the final minutes, the Knicks wouldn't have gotten  the comeback win done if they hadn't limited the Heat to 11 fourth-quarter points. And that work was done by Barrett teamed up with the second unit for much of the rally.

Mitchell Robinson, the team’s defensive anchor, was on the bench for much of the night with foul trouble. Isaiah Hartenstein played the final 15 minutes  and came up with a huge stop on a dunk attempt by Bam Adebayo as well as blocking another fast break from behind.

“So probably the best play of the game was we had a turnover and Isaiah chased it down and had the block,” Thibodeau said. “I think when you see a play like that, it inspires the team. Things can change that quick in the NBA, so we went on a little run there and that gave us some confidence and then we got going.”

For the Knicks to get where they want to go, they'll have to stake their chances on the defensive end. And that means not just Robinson or Grimes but Barrett and whoever else is thrown into the line of fire.

“I think we have to play defense as a team,” Hartenstein said. “I think there's a lot of guys where this is a game that we really have to be game-plan-disciplined. Thibs and everyone does a great job of getting us prepared . . . we're always prepared for everything. So going into [Sunday's game against the Suns], we're pretty confident. If we stick to the game plan, we should be good.”

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.