Immanuel Quickley headed back to his role as the Knicks’ sixth man Wednesday night after making seven consecutive starts due to injuries to Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett.
Still, the third-year combo guard was on the court for the entire fourth quarter — with starter Quentin Grimes playing only the final 1:15 — as the Knicks held on for a key win over the Pacers after nearly blowing all of a 25-point second-half lead.
“I feel like today felt kind of similar just to starting and being out there early,” Quickley said after the game. “The last 10 games, or when I was starting, it gave me a good taste of what it feels like to play with those guys, and then having RJ back was big for us.”
Barrett logged 41 minutes in his first game since suffering a dislocated and lacerated right index finger on Dec. 27 in Dallas, finishing with 27 points on 9-for-23 shooting and 4-for-12 from 3-point range.
Tom Thibodeau said afterward that he “wasn’t going to take RJ out,” but the more surprising part of the rotation deployment was leaving Grimes — regarded as the team’s best perimeter defender — on the bench for nearly the first 11 minutes of the final quarter while the Pacers slashed into the Knicks’ lead.
“Just the way the game was unfolding, I wanted Quick out there. We ended up putting Quentin back in. I wanted RJ to work through some things too,” Thibodeau explained. “We can close with Quick. We can close with Quentin. … The pressure that we were facing, I thought Quick gave us a little different look than Quentin. I’m comfortable with Quentin in those situations.”
Grimes netted five of his 18 points after reentering the game, including a key 3-pointer off a kick-out from Quickley for a six-point lead with 25.1 seconds remaining.
“You never know when your number is gonna get called. Mine was kind of the last minute of the game, had to be ready and knock that down after sitting on the bench for 11 minutes,” Grimes said. “So, I gotta be ready. Big shout-out to the coaching staff, for sure, for getting me ready for those positions.”
With Barrett returning one game after Obi Toppin had made his first appearance since fracturing his fibula in early December, the Knicks had their full complement of players available for the first time in more than a month. But Thibodeau leaned heavily on six players — the five starters plus Quickley (26 minutes) — with Toppin and Isaiah Hartenstein playing nine minutes apiece, and Miles McBride seeing just six minutes of action.
With Brunson scoring 34 points, Quickley finished with 11 after averaging 20.3 in his seven games as a starter as the Knicks closed out their fifth win in six games to improve to 23-19 and move back into the No. 6 playoff position in the Eastern Conference entering road games Friday against the Wizards (18-24) and Sunday against the Pistons (12-33).
“Q.G. hit a big shot. We got a big defensive stop. You don’t wanna be in that position being up 25, but I’m glad we got the win, though,” Quickley said. “I think we got to stay aggressive [in those situations]. We gotta stay aggressive, just continue to trust the pass to get easy shots. Somebody’s open, so just try to continue to make the right play.”
The Knicks had squandered several double-digit leads already this season, including a 17-point cushion the previous game in a loss to the Bucks.
“We know we just gotta keep our foot on the gas,” Grimes said. “We gotta be better and more alert with [teams] trying to come back, because in this league, it’s easy to come back with a lot of 3s, with the 3-point shot-making that we have in this league. So you can’t really get comfortable with a 25-point lead like that for the rest of the season.
“It’s time to pick it up even more. Time to turn it up another notch.”
