Knicks guard RJ Barrett fouls Lakers forward LeBron James in the...

Knicks guard RJ Barrett fouls Lakers forward LeBron James in the first half of an NBA game at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke

When the game was over Tuesday night there were plenty of distractions. While trying to leave the court there was a huge contingent of Lakers fans — likely really LeBron James fans. They were surrounding the tunnel to shower James with a loud round of applause. Meanwhile the Knicks were sulking off after a disappointing overtime loss. Coach Tom Thibodeau bemoaned the defense. Julius Randle tried to explain away a terrible possession at the end of regulation.

But there was one oddly troubling situation that no one really wanted to acknowledge. 

RJ Barrett, who Thibodeau has repeatedly attached to every conversation about potential All-Star reserves, was removed from the game with 6:51 left in regulation. And he never came back. Barrett wasn't in there down the stretch of the back-and-forth finish to regulation, not even for the final four seconds of the game after a timeout when the Knicks had the ball and a chance to win it. And he never left the bench in overtime either.

And the amiable Barrett, normally engaging with media even under the most difficult circumstances, opted not to speak. While reporters waited for him he shouted across the locker room to Cam Reddish, imploring him to back him up on not speaking or he might say something the team didn’t want to hear. And as he left he responded to requests from reporters with, “I got nothing to say.”

Thibodeau brushed the matter aside when asked why Barrett had been benched.

“We were just looking for a group to get going,” Thibodeau said. “So the group that was out there was what we went with.”

And if it was understandable, getting Barrett on track is crucial with the Knicks clinging to seventh place in the Eastern Conference and the Miami Heat — one spot ahead of them — arriving at Madison Square Garden Thursday.

Barrett had started the loss to the Lakers by missing eight of his first nine shots, finishing 5-for-13 for 13 points. He had just one turnover but it was a sloppy one in the fourth quarter shortly before he went to the bench. And Barrett, who was on a path that he believed would earn him a spot on the NBA’s All-Defense team, has struggled on that end of the floor this season — displaced by Quentin Grimes as the player tasked with guarding the most dangerous perimeter player every night and even slipping behind Immanuel Quickley as a defender.

Quickley finished the game while Barrett sat Tuesday and he has often picked up many of the minutes down the stretch with Barrett coming on in the final minutes. Earlier in January when Barrett played just 26 minutes in a win in Detroit Thibodeau dismissed that as a rare occurrence.

“RJ’s going to finish 99% of the time,” Thibodeau said that day. “But the way the matchups were I liked the way that group was functioning. And he’s still getting his rhythm back. We’ll let him work through that, but 99% of the time we’re finishing with RJ.”

 Barrett has finished most games since that night. And now, with Miami in town the Knicks are well aware they need to be at their best.

“Very important. Got to find a way to just get over the hump,” Jalen Brunson said. “Obviously, they have great personnel, a culture that they talk about all the time. So they’re going to come in, they’re going to play hard. We’ve got to match their energy and pick it up on the defensive end. Offensively we’re scoring a lot of points. Defensively is where we’ve got to pick it up.”

Newsday LogoSUBSCRIBEUnlimited Digital AccessOnly 25¢for 5 months
ACT NOWSALE ENDS SOON | CANCEL ANYTIME