Obi Toppin scored a career-high 35 points Friday night as the visiting New York Knicks overcame the loss of star guard RJ Barrett to cruise to a 114-92 victory over the Washington Wizards.
The Knicks also overcame an early double-digit deficit in the penultimate game of the season for both teams.
Toppin shattered his previous career-high of 20 points, set Saturday and Sunday against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic. Toppin, who hadn’t hit more than four 3-pointers in a game entering Friday, was 6-of-9 from beyond the arc against the Wizards.
Immanuel Quickley added 23 points and 10 assists off the bench for the Knicks (36-45) while Evan Fournier had 17 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer in the second quarter. Taj Gibson added 10 points.
Barrett scored 14 points before he suffered a sprained right knee while dishing to Jericho Sims for a dunk with 3:10 left. Barrett tried staying in the game before exiting with 1:43 remaining.
Rui Hachimura scored 21 points for the Wizards (35-46) while Deni Avdija had 11 points. Raul Neto added 14 points off the bench while fellow reserve Thomas Bryant recorded 10 rebounds.
Hachimura scored five points as the Wizards opened the game on a 10-0 run, a span in which the Knicks were 0-for-7 from the field. New York got within four points twice before Washington ended the quarter with a 31-23 lead.
The Wizards twice expanded their lead to 12 points early in the second before the Knicks mounted a decisive 26-10 run to end the half. Toppin scored nine points in the run, including an individual 7-0 run that concluded the quarter and gave New York a 59-50 lead.
The Knicks put the game out of reach by opening the third quarter with a 13-0 run in which Fournier and Toppin combined to make three consecutive 3-pointers. New York led by as many as 26 in the third and never led by fewer than 15 in the fourth.
–Field Level Media