RJ Barrett practiced in full on Wednesday for the first time since suffering a sprained ankle in the final minute of a blowout loss to the Nuggets, and the 21-year-old emphasized that he is still feeling the injury as the Knicks come out of the All-Star break.
"Of course I feel something," Barrett told reporters on Wednesday. "I'm in pain. I am in pain. But just getting back into it, it's gonna be sore. Just tying to be mentally tough to get through that. I can move a little bit. So being able to go out there and practice and scrummage, that's a good sign. Have another one [Thursday], so just continue to see how it feels."
Barrett missed New York's final four games before the break after suffering the injury with the Knicks down 17 with less than a minute left against Denver on Feb. 8. Head coach Tom Thibodeau was widely criticized for the move, which he said was because the team had trimmed the deficit to 13 earlier in the period, and he wanted to see if his starters could complete the comeback. But Barrett suffered the ankle sprain long after the comeback was determined to have fallen short.
Still, he didn't place any blame on the decision to leave him on the floor, risking the health of the team's best offensive player before the injury, as Barrett had been averaging 22.6 points per game over his last nine contests before limping off the floor.
"I always want to be out on the court," Barrett said. "It doesn't matter when. Spraining my ankle like that, I could have hurt it 10 seconds into the game, so it doesn't matter."
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