With the Rockets happily utilizing their fancy new “no bigs at all strategy”, this seemed like the perfect night for RJ Barrett to go off. Him, along with every other big on the Knicks roster, but since this is an RJ Barrett highlight video, we’re going to focus on him. Early returns were positive, as he scored 14 points in the first quarter, but things quieted down dramatically after that and he only scored 21. And that was with some threes, which he never hits these days.
How does that happen? He shouldn’t even have to try in order to score against whatever small forwards were defending the paint for the Rockets. He should just be able to waltz in there, throw up some lefty shot, and run back down the court two points richer.
I choose to blame his teammates (who are selfish and only seek to enrich their own statisticals). And the coaching staff (who don’t seem to realize that Barrett is the future). And the fans (who unreasonably demand that their high draft selection play competent basketball). Barrett himself? Blameless. He did all he could, and even went above and beyond by hitting some jumpers. I’ve been critical of him in the past, but I’m feeling like I want those sweet, sweet Canadian likes on this vid, so I’ll avoid any criticism tonight.
My entire existence is validated by those likes, so if you withhold them, who knows what’s going to happen.