Timberwolves 102, Knicks 101: Scenes from the tragic return of Elfrid Payton



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The Knicks have been playing with fire all year at the point guard, and it scorched them a lot in the fourth quarter Wednesday night in Minnesota.

New York methodically built a seven-point lead in the first quarter and then really paid it off against the Wolves bench, taking an 18-point advantage early in the second. Minnesota quickly returned to the starters, and after some quick Wolves triplets, Thibs followed suit. But this time around, the Knicks’ starting lineup played like an ass on both sides of the ball, especially on D. Wolves reduced their deficit to just one point at halftime.

Suddenly, Knicks fans panicked. The team came out of halftime like a stinky ass recently. Would they want to continue the trend against an unsuccessful Wolves side? Not this time. Elfrid Payton did pretty well in the third quarter, and RJ Barrett caught fire as they recovered the lead by a but.

Unfortunately, Immanuel Quickley couldn’t make a shot, and Alec Burks was sloppy with the ball early in the fourth quarter. Thibs made the choice to put Elf back into the roster for his opening minutes of the fourth quarter in a seemingly forever tight game.

From there, things turned out pretty much as you would expect Elf minutes at the time of the crisis: he almost immediately had his pocket plucked, then turned the ball around, and suddenly the Wolves couldn’t miss.

The Knicks had a chance to win in the end thanks to a clutch steal from Reggie Bullock, but RJ Barrett missed the buzzer and Minnesota came away with a one-point victory.

It was a cool game from RJ, who had 23 points in the evening.

Julius Randle had 26 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists. It didn’t matter.

Recap to come.

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