Will the real Elfrid Payton please stand up?
One night after the Knicks starting point guard put forth his worst performance as a Knick in a scoreless disaster, he emerged Sunday to bludgeon the powerhouse Bucks in a 130-110 stunner that gave Tom Thibodeau his first victory as Knicks head coach.
It wasn’t a dream. Payton, whose slow start to the season had social media buzzing for his benching, racked up 26 points, making all three of his 3-pointers and shooting 12 of 16.
“One of the best things about basketball, you don’t have to wait a week after you have a tough game,’’ said Payton, who was 0-for-6 Saturday, missing all three of his 3-point shots and logging just one assist.
Payton hadn’t ingratiated himself with the Knicks diehards after two suspect outings.
“I don’t read about any of that stuff,’’ Payton said. “I don’t read about myself ever. I didn’t know anything about it.”
Payton also dished out three assists. His two late 3-pointers in the third essentially salted the game away. Payton’s biggest weakness is his wretchedness from beyond the arc from where he shot just 21 percent last season.
After the loss to Philadelphia, Payton was one of five Knicks players to come back onto the court and put up extra shots at the empty Garden.
“Trust my work, honestly,’’ Payton said. “We were staying in the city. It wasn’t that long a drive. I had an opportunity.”
“He played a terrific all-around game,’’ Thibodeau said. “That’s part of this league. The games keep coming. You have to have a short memory. His all-around play was terrific. His defense was outstanding. He kept us organizing offensively. He made shots. He was aggressive going to the basket. He hit spot-ups. It was a terrific all-around game from him.”
Payton wasn’t the only Knick who looked like a new man as “The Greek Freak” got a heaping helping of humble. Even Sunday’s backup point guard Frank Ntilikina came off the bench to drill all four of his 3-point shots.
RJ Barrett also put Saturday’s clunkfest behind him with 17 points. And Julius Randle continued his stellar play (27 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists) and didn’t get embarrassed while defending Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was taken out early in the fourth quarter in a sign of surrender.
“They’re a playoff team,’’ Payton said. “It was good to have a complete game. We feel we can play with anybody if we played together. We’re not surprised by this.’’
Too bad the Garden was mostly desolate because this one could go down as one of the season’s few highlights as the Knicks moved to 1-2 after double-digit losses to Indiana and Philadelphia in which they collapsed in the second half of each game.
In retrospect, Thibodeau said the Sixers’ 20-point loss wasn’t so awful.
“I told the guys before the game — after watching the film [Saturday] — the Philadelphia game, I felt better about how we played in that game after we watched the film,’’ Thibodeau said. “I can see the growth from the start and to carry it over against a quality team like Milwaukee. We played well in the first half and today we carried it over and I thought played well in the second half. There’s a long way to go. We have a lot of work to do. But it’s a good start.’’
Instead, the Knicks only got better in the second half Sunday, mounting a 28-point bulge early in the fourth after taking a 61-45 halftime lead.
“It was a great bounce-back,’’ Barrett said.
Antetokounmpo was “held” to 25 points, 13 rebounds and five assists as the Knicks broke their four-game losing streak against Milwaukee.
The Knicks won’t play at the Garden again in 2020 as they begin a four-game road trip Tuesday in Cleveland and continuing to Tampa for a New Year’s Eve battle versus the Raptors before finishing out the trip in Indiana and Atlanta.
The Knicks put together an 11-0 run late in the first half that was capped by Alec Burks’ 3-pointer. Then Randle buried an off-balance, last-second 3-pointer as the Knicks took that 16-point lead at intermission. Then there was no collapse.
“We knew they were going to come out with aggression,’’ Randle said. “That’s the first thing we talked about at halftime. That’s exactly what they did but we responded to it and stayed together.’
Antetokounmpo scored on the first possession, receiving a bounce pass from Khris Middleton and laying it in. But the Knicks mostly controlled the “Greek Freak,” keeping him from destroying the rim.
The Bucks also were a horrendous 8 of 38 from the 3-point line. The Knicks shook off a terrible 3-point shooting performance Saturday to drill in 15 of 26 versus Milwaukee.
“The biggest thing is the way he attacks the paint,’’ Thibodeau said beforehand of the Bucks superstar. “You can’t guard him individually — we have to guard him with our team. So it will require great effort, multiple efforts.”
The effort was there this time for four quarters.
