The Knicks face a win or stay home scenario in Game 5 as they play host to the Hawks for the third time in their first round series, trailing 3-1 after splitting the first two at Madison Square Garden and then getting pretty much dominated in the two games in Atlanta. As the series shifts back to Manhattan, the Hawks have started to get more vocal about how they feel about the series, with Clint Capela saying they’re going to send the Knicks on vacation in Game 5.
New York’s stars chose to shrug that off and not get into a war of words, but after how things went in Atlanta, it’s hard to blame the Hawks for feeling very confident they can close the series out. On the other side, the Knicks are desperate to figure things out, particularly offensively, for Game 5, and that will start with Julius Randle and RJ Barrett simply making some of the tough shots they had all regular season. Those two have struggled so far, combining to go, on average, 10-for-31 each game from the field, which just isn’t a pathway to success.
Even so, Barrett and company are keeping the mindset that they’re going to find it and win Game 5. When a reporter posed a question to Barrett after shootaround on Wednesday about how he’ll view this season should the Knicks lose, he shut down that line of thinking saying he’s not thinking about that and that they’re winning tonight.
RJ Barrett on how the Knicks will view their season if the series ends tonight:
"We're winning tonight, I'm not thinking about that" pic.twitter.com/vJ8BwFMI0Q
— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) June 2, 2021
As we have entered a space where we are talking more about the press conference/scrum experience for players, it is questions like this that draw much of the ire from players. This is a solid exit interview question after the season posed too early — one that maybe would play with a coach who is more likely to be willing to talk big picture at this time of year — but a player is always going to scoff at any notion of a question that starts with “if you lose” because their entire mindset is to focus on how they’re going to win not the ramifications of a loss.
Barrett was understandably not pleased with it and shut it down with that “we’re winning tonight” to keep it moving.
Source: https://uproxx.com/dimemag/rj-barrett-shut-down-question-knicks-lose-game-5-hawks-video/