RJ Barrett kicked off the new season by taking his first nine shots off the floor, including all three of his three-point attempts, in the Knicks starting loss in Indiana.
Tom Thibodeau’s team will return to the scene on Saturday night, and Barrett will try to rediscover the shooting attack after his percentages in the four plus games thereafter dropped dramatically.
The second-year guard was hardly the culprit in Thursday’s 100-83 defeat to Toronto in Tampa. The Knicks finished a miserable 3-for-36 from long distance against the Raptors, including an NBA record of 23 times without making the top five.
Barrett, the no. 3 overall picks in the 2019 draft of Duke, has coupled at just 26.3 percent (19-for-72) off the field since his spicy start on Dec. 23 against the Pacers. He also made 21 consecutive attempts from outside the three-point arc.
In fact, Barrett (0-for-8) and the start of little forward Reggie Bullock (0-for-9) became the first teammates in NBA history to each go 0-for-8 or worse. three points in the same game. .
Barrett was not made available to the media after Thursday’s game, and the Knicks (2-3) did not practice or make available on New Year’s Day before Saturday’s visit to Indiana.
Thibodeau said earlier in the week that Barrett “was great” and “played an overall game” in headwinds against Milwaukee and Cleveland. Despite his poor shooting numbers, 20-year-old Barrett averaged 15.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists through five games.
“He played well without shooting well. We know the shooting is coming, “Thibodeau said on Wednesday. ‘He does a lot of things for us in defense, and he moves well without the ball. He touches downhill.
‘There is a lot of room for him to grow. He was diligent with his work. Just the wing to do things he can do, his versatility is a great asset to the team and willingness to make plays for people. ”
Thibodeau said after Thursday’s loss that he wanted to review the feature film before commenting directly on Barrett and the team’s poor shooting game, especially since the Knicks led the league in a 3-point percentage (45.9%).
“I think if teams play zone, you’ll get a very open look, but we’ll look into that,” Thibodeau said. ‘This is the right play. To me, it’s like if you get the right game, if you get the move, if you force the defense to collapse, you kick it out, and if one of your shooters is open, that’s all I’m going for.
“So if someone is wide open, there’s no one within five feet, you have to shoot it.”
Thibodeau noted that the Knicks had a seven-point lead in Thursday’s third quarter – and that they were still within three with less than nine minutes left in the fourth – due to their defensive commitment. The Knicks allowed 105.2 points per game, the fifth lowest in the NBA.
“You always think you can do better. [Toronto] did not shoot a large percentage. If you keep such a team up to 100 points, you have to have a chance to win it, ”said Thibodeau. “If we had made some of our tries, we would probably have had a good chance of winning it.
“Our defense is something we have to keep going on – beams, ball pressure. We are not perfect. I think if we make an effort, we fly around, put pressure on the ball and our weak side is aware, we can cover up [our] mistakes. ”