The Knicks’ offense was stagnant late in yet another game and they failed to hold on to yet another double-digit lead. It’s a recurring theme for New York this season. But the specifics were a bit different on Wednesday.
The Knicks built the lead – and eventually lost it – with several young players on the floor.
So the loss was an opportunity for players like Obi Toppin, RJ Barrett and Jericho Sims to learn on the job and play through mistakes.
Toppin, again, had a solid night on offense.
He finished with 19 points in 43 minutes. He went 7-for-13 from the floor and hit two of his four three-point attempts.
It was Toppin’s third straight game starting in place of Julius Randle, who will likely miss the rest of the season due to a quad ailment.
In the previous two games, Toppin had 20 points on 46 percent shooting, six rebounds and 3.5 assists.
So what can you learn from the three-game sample?
“Obi’s been great, just bringing a lot of energy, showing how comfortable he is. We’ve been needing that,” Barrett said on Wednesday. “The easy buckets he gets, especially how he helped a lot — helped me a lot — on defense today. Obi’s a really active body, a guy that can also score without needing to have the ball in his hands. That’s always a guy you want to play with.”
Toppin had three blocks and three assists but finished with just five rebounds. Rebounding and defense are two areas to watch for Toppin, the No. 8 pick in the 2020 draft.
Toppin scored on a few strong baseline drives in the first three quarters and moved the ball well.
“I think he’s learning,” Tom Thibodeau said. “He had a really good stretch where he drove the ball and really attacked the rim and then in the fourth, late, I want him to continue to attack like that.
“That, to me, is one of his great strengths. You’re not gonna finesse at that point of the game. Just attack the rim. And he’s got that ability. So, he’s making really good progress. I’m very pleased with him, overall.”
The Toppin/Randle dynamic is something the Knicks have to work through. They drafted Toppin with their lottery pick in 2020 but his playing time has been limited because he’s backing up Randle.
Randle had an All-NBA season in 2020-21, leading the Knicks to a surprising fourth place finish in the Eastern Conference. His shooting regressed this season, as has the Knicks’ winning percentage.
New York needs to find a way to get the most out of both Toppin and Randle moving forward. The Knicks can do that by playing them together on the court, staggering their minutes, or trading one of them.
We’ll find out more about which path they take in the coming months.
But that dynamic is one reason why Toppin’s performance in extended minutes is something worth watching in the final days of the season.