Six seconds.
That was the precise time it took RJ Barrett to seize a rebound and dribble the space of the courtroom, rim to rim, and ship probably the most electrical and completely wasted bucket of this Knicks season.
It occurred on the finish of regulation, the Knicks on the point of collapse. They had allowed the Raptors, a struggling franchise, to recuperate from a nine-point deficit within the last 5 ½ minutes. They gave up a free ball foul to Scottie Barnes, who was on the foul line with a one-point benefit and 6.6 seconds left.
Barnes made the primary. …Raptors 110, Knicks 108. …Then he missed the second, and Barrett took over. Bounding down the parquet, it appeared, Barrett turned his defensive rebound right into a coast-to-coast dunk on prime of Barnes with 0.6 seconds left.
“At that point in time, the refs aren’t going to call a foul,” Barrett mentioned. “So I just got to go up strong.”
The equalizer was sensational, a spotlight of Barrett’s NBA profession. And a couple of minutes later, it meant completely nothing.
The Knicks ran out of fuel in extra time, and Jalen Brunson’s potential game-winner banged off the rim on the last buzzer of a 123-121 loss to the Raptors.
Brunson, a hero of an encouraging first half of the Knicks season, tried his 3-pointer in transition after grabbing a defensive rebound, attempting to duplicate Barrett’s second just some minutes earlier.
But it ricocheted arduous off the rim.
“I just kind of said, ‘Please don’t go in,’” Raptors coach Nick Nurse mentioned. “I had a really good view of it. I was right on the angle he shot it from, and was just hoping he was gonna miss.”
Tom Thibodeau favored the try.
“Oh yeah,” the coach mentioned. “[Brunson] was in the open floor. The defender was backpedaling. He’s a 39-percent 3-point shooter.”
So an MLK Day thriller grew to become a letdown regardless of Barrett’s 32 factors in 49 minutes. The dunk will function the spotlight, however the last rating was as a substitute decided by Knicks errors — by missed free throws within the last minute of regulation from Brunson and Julius Randle, and by Barrett permitting Barnes to seize too many offensive rebounds.
“It’s a tough one. Especially when you fight so hard to be in position to win the game,” Barrett mentioned. “We were down in the first half, fought all the way back and they were winning most of the second half. Then we fought back. It was such an up and down game. You want to come out with a win.”
Barnes, who scored 26 factors with six offensive rebounds, mentioned he had matchup benefit towards Barrett. Barnes is just about two inches taller however often operates towards frontcourt defenders, not like Barrett.
“I felt like with me being taller, with my size, I was going to be able to get a good look around the rim every single time,” Barnes mentioned.
The Knicks (25-20), who fell to under-.500 at dwelling, recovered from a six-point deficit within the last minute of extra time earlier than Brunson’s miss. It was a rollercoaster that ended on the backside for the Knicks.
“It’s frustrating,” Brunson mentioned. “Obviously we want to win at home. We have one of the best fan bases in the world, but this is obviously a historic place to play, so everybody’s coming here with their best foot forward. I think for us, we just got to focus on the little things. A lot of these losses come with or two possessions, marginal losses. We have to be one percent, two percent better.”
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Source: www.bostonherald.com