Barrett & Randle Monster Games But Lakers Beat Knicks in OT, 122-115

February 6, 2022 LouV 2021-22 0

RJ Barrett dominated the game early and late — hitting a HUGE 3 with 8 seconds left in regulation to send the game to Overtime, and Julius Randle had a strong game as his costar, but Malik Monk had a huge game and former Knick Trevor Ariza hit the big shot in OT to give LA the 122-115 win. In Los Angeles on a Saturday night.

Barrett had 36 points for the Knicks, and Julius Randle added 32 points, 16 rebounds, and 7 assists. LeBron James had 29 pts, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists, Monk 29, and Anthony Davis was tough inside for 28 points, 17 rebounds.

Coming in, both teams had similar records: NY was 24-28 and LA was 25-28. With the loss, NY falls to 24-29; LA improves to 26-28.

“Our defense didn’t hold up,” said coach Tom Thibodeau afterwards. “I thought we had a really great first half because we got stops, and it got us in transition, we got some easy scores, we shared the ball and that part was really good. But we got bogged down in the 3rd quarter, and missed some shots and let that take away from other parts of the game and you can’t do that.”

1. Barrett Stars Early and Late

The Knicks jumped out to a huge 1st quarter lead based on the strong play of Barrett, who was driving to the bucket at will and making almost every shot.

NY led 11-0, and 21-6 before LA started to wake up. NY led 36-18 before a late 1st quarter run led by LeBron James cut the Knick lead to 11 points before the end of the quarter.

Randle joined Barrett in the scoring and the Knicks pushed the lead to 20 points late in the second quarter, 61-41, with 4 minutes left in the half.

But Malik Monk went nuts in the 3rd quarter, with drives and 3’s — and LA erased the Knick lead.

LA was up 108-99 with 2 minutes left when RJ Barrett took over again.

  • Barrett drove to the basket and was fouled, and hit both free throws to make it 108-101 LA.
  • Randle hit two free throws after a drive, and Monk and Evan Fournier exchanged 3’s to put NY down 111-106 with 41 seconds left.
  • RJ Barrett drove for a Dunk to make it 111-108 with 40 seconds left. He was called for an arguable delay of game after touching the ball after dunking it. But Monk missed the technical — ball don’t lie.

Then Monk missed a jumper, Fournier rebounded, drove down court and flipped to Barrett who hit the game-tying 3 with 8 seconds left.

Barrett finished with 36 points (on 13-28 shooting, 4-10 from 3, 6-9 in free throws), 8 rebounds, and 5 assists.

2. LA Takes OT Topped Off by Ariza’s Killer 3

But the Lakers hit their shots in OT — Malik Monk with a drive, Talen Horton-Tucker with a drive, LeBron James with a drive, Anthony Davis with score inside (off a big offensive rebound), and a killer 3 by Ariza with 1:12 left to make it 120-113, Lakers. Meanwhile the Knicks missed their key shots.

It took Malik Monk a long time to catch on in the NBA — early on it looked like he wasn’t going to be more than a 10 minutes off the bench guy, despite his high-scoring college resume. But he steadily gained playing time in Charlotte, and he’s been a perfect fit his first year in Los Angeles, capturing their starting shooting guard position.

3. Randle Co Stars

Julius Randle had a strong game against his former team, although Knick twitter accused him of regressing in the 2nd half. But Randle was banging the boards and getting big buckets late and in OT — reflected in his 32 pts, 16 rebounds, 7 assists line.

4. Knicks Didn’t Get Firepower from their Secondary

Going into the 4th there was hope Alec Burks would have one of his “Poor Man’s Kobe Bryant” games but that didn’t happen — although Burks got to the basket numerous times and hit his free throws. Burks had a key turnover in OT, when his inbounds pass was intercepted for a score by LA. Burks finished with 12 points (2-7 shooting; 7-8 from the free throw line).

5. Robinson a +9; Noel a -15

Mitchell Robinson had 4 pts (2-4 shooting), 11 rebounds, and 3 steals (no blocks) in 30 minutes for a +8. Nerlens Noel had 5 points, 1 rebound, and 1 block in 23 minutes for a -15. They had a tough guard in Anthony Davis, who was 13-19 for his 29 pts.

Etcetera

  • RJ Barrett played 50 minutes of the 53-minute game.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401360618

 

 

Related Articles

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*