RJ Barrett's performance in Games 3 and 4 silences the critics
Knicks guard RJ Barrett dribbles by Cavaliers guard Caris LeVert in the first quarter during Game 4 of the first round of the NBA Eastern Conference playoffs at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
CLEVELAND — RJ Barrett tried his best to perform his own version of the LeBron James postseason mode of going dark, cutting off all social media, avoiding television and hearing none of the extraneous noise that would take his focus from the task at hand.
But after two struggling performances to start the first-round series against the Cavaliers, he couldn’t avoid one critique. No matter how hard you try some friend or family member will tell you and what he heard was an ESPN take from Stephen A. Smith.
“RJ Barrett, you might need to sit him down,” Smith said on "First Take." “He might need to sit down this series. Every series ain't for everybody. The great ones, the really good ones, they can play in any series. But there are others, you just don’t have that kind of game . . . For this series, he don’t need to be seeing the floor. He ain’t made for this series. He just don’t have that kind of game. Not yet.”
Barrett won’t credit the criticism that slipped through as a motivation or a reason why, but Barrett has abruptly shifted the conversation in the series and really in his career.
“I didn't [hear the criticism] until after Game 2,” Barrett said after the Knicks' morning shootaround Wednesday. “Heard something when I was getting interviewed. Other than that, I haven't been on Twitter, haven’t been on anything, not really paying attention to stuff. Trying to stay locked in to the team and what we need to do. He’s going to talk about whatever he wants to talk about, good or bad. I didn’t hear anything he said after Game 3 or 4. I don’t know. Not trying to pay attention.
“Bad games are going to happen. It’s the NBA. Everybody has bad days in life. They're going to happen. It’s really how you bounce back, how you try to play good or do things you need to do to be prepared constantly.”
The 22-year-old Knicks wing has been questioned before, but his efforts in Games 3 and 4 helped the Knicks to take a 3-1 lead in the series with a chance to close it out Wednesday night.
There was a 19-point effort in Game 3 when Barrett set the tone early, attacking the Cavs' defense and converting 8 of 12 shots in a one-sided Knicks win. He topped that with 26 points in Game 4 Sunday, taking the ball repeatedly to the rim against the Cavs’ vaunted pair of shot blockers, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
And he was a part of the Knicks' defense that held the Cavs to 79 points in Game 3 and kept them below 100 points in three of the first four games. It has silenced the criticism and even appeased some Knicks fans who might have wished the Knicks had packaged him in a deal for Donovan Mitchell in the summer.
Barrett is admittedly still learning and he has taken what he saw in the playoffs two years ago when the Knicks lost to Atlanta in five games.
“I think who you are shows in the playoffs,” Barrett said. “Your compete level, what you have inside of you shows in the playoffs. I think that’s what’s happening. After the game, you got to do what you got to do. Sleep and sleep early. Get your treatment. Get your body right. Got to just consistently be locked in.
“We’re playing hard. That’s who we’ve kind of been all year. I think the things that show are — you’re talking about my shooting. I didn’t shoot great last game. I missed six threes. I missed five free throws. But I’m just playing hard, competing. So, it doesn’t even matter. I think that’s what it is. Just your compete level, your fight, in the playoffs.”
“Seeing how RJ handles everything, I probably sound like a broken record how many times I’ve said, you can never tell with his demeanor whether he’s too high or too low, upset or happy, at least when he’s on the court,” Jalen Brunson said Monday of Barrett. “He’s always level-headed, knowing it’s one possession at a time, whether it’s good or bad, having a short-term memory. He’s always controlled that. I haven’t really seen him [deviate] from that path.”
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.
