The New York Knicks headed into their Tuesday-night, road matchup with the Denver Nuggets after playing two away games in the previous three days. The workload was immense heading into one of the NBA's toughest arenas.

Barrett, who played over nearly 100 minutes in the Knicks' prior two games, left the 132-115 loss to the nuggets when it was well out of reach and with an ankle injury. Tom Thibodeau explained why he left Barrett in during the last few minutes of a blowout. Via: Alex Smith of SNY:

Thibodeau provided a brief update on Barrett after the game, though he didn’t want to say much because Barrett was still in the process of being examined by the training staff.

“I talked to him for a second, seemed like he was okay,” Thibodeau said. “I don’t want to say anything until they look at him … He said he twisted it a little bit.”

Thibodeau also explained why he had Barrett in the game at that point.

“We sat most of the fourth, we got it down to 13 and we wanted to see if we could make a run,” said the Knicks head coach.

Thibodeau's comments don't track, though. New York cut the deficit to 13 midway through the fourth quarter but didn't make a dent in it down the stretch, as they were down by at least 15 points. When Barrett left the game with 18 seconds remaining, the Knicks were down by 17 points. The Knicks' inability to make the run Thibodeau hoped they could do should have been a signal to rest the starters.

Barrett has been New York's saving grace recently, averaging 22.9 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists over the Knicks' last 15 games.