RJ Barrett was allowed to play just 19 minutes. He had to sit on the bench already in the third quarter of the game. This is how head coach Tom Thibodeau explained his decision, per Mike Berman of New York Post:
“Just searching. Just trying to find energy. That’s why we did what we did. Obviously, I’m very pleased with RJ overall. We’ll take a look at film and make corrections.”
And he added: “We never got established defensively from the start of the game. They’re a different team when Jimmy (Butler) plays. Offensively I liked the first half, but defensively we have to be a lot better. There were several possessions we had pretty good defense but didn’t finish our defense. Against a team like that, they’re going to keep moving and we have to play the whole clock.”
This season, the 20-year-old shooting guard is averaging 17.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 35.1 minutes per game.
