Tuesday night produced quite a spectacle in Madison Square Garden as the New York Knicks hosted LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Unfortunately for Knicks fans, they watched their team suffer yet another heartbreaking loss at home, as the Lakers escaped with a thrilling overtime victory, 129-123.
Knicks players were understandably upset after another deflating defeat, but perhaps the most frustrated among the bunch was none other than RJ Barrett. The fact that coach Tom Thibodeau decided to bench him down the stretch clearly had a lot to do with Barrett's strong post-game reaction:
“I have nothing to say,” Barrett said before walking out of the locker room, per Stefan Bondy of the Daily News.
Barrett also reportedly passed on a message to Knicks teammate Cam Reddish saying that it wasn't a good idea for him to speak in his current state. While Barrett did not say anything outright, it's not hard to read between the lines.
I guess you would be very disappointed too if you were forced to watch your team from the bench for the final 12 minutes of the game, including the entire overtime period. It would have been a very discouraging experience for Barrett to watch from the sidelines knowing full well that he could be out there helping his team. Apparently, coach Thibs thought otherwise.
To be fair, RJ wasn't having the best of games against the Lakers. He finished with 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting, to go along with three rebounds and two assists in 27 minutes of action.
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