{"id":254961,"date":"2021-05-21T00:26:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-20T21:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/knicks-struggling-guard-elfrid-payton-confident-for-nba-playoffs\/"},"modified":"2021-05-21T00:26:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-20T21:26:03","slug":"knicks-struggling-guard-elfrid-payton-confident-for-nba-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/knicks-struggling-guard-elfrid-payton-confident-for-nba-playoffs\/","title":{"rendered":"#Knicks struggling guard Elfrid Payton &#8216;confident&#8217; for NBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Knicks struggling guard Elfrid Payton &#8216;confident&#8217; for NBA playoffs<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Knicks starting point guard Elfrid Payton hadn\u2019t talked to the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> since he starred against the Lakers on April 12, outplaying impending free agent Dennis Schroder.<\/p>\n<p>In scoring 20 points and finishing a plus-27, it marked Payton\u2019s last stellar <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a>. He\u2019s now mired in a massive slump.<\/p>\n<p>In the last seven games, Payton has looked lost, averaging 2.7 points and shooting 24.2 percent. His minutes per game in that span have dwindled to 14.6.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking via Zoom on Thursday, Payton was asked by The Post how he\u2019d assess his recent performances in light of Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau backing him up as a player who still brings defense and intangibles.<\/p>\n<p>Payton didn\u2019t give an inch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI assess how I\u2019m playing by how my team is doing,\u2019\u2019 Payton said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve been winning. So, we\u2019re in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>        <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Podcast\" width=\"100%\" height=\"188px\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.acast.com\/big-apple-buckets\/knicks-hawksplayoffpreview-predictionsfeat.dickbarnett?accentColor=2a2a2a&amp;bgColor=f6f6f6&amp;font-family=proxima%20nova&amp;logo=false&amp;secondaryColor=cc3333\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n        <\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Indeed they are, finishing off with a three-game winning streak, a 16-4 spree and 41-31 final record. Payton also needs to not give an inch to Atlanta point guard Trae Young when the first-round <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> commences Sunday at the Garden.<\/p>\n<p>RJ Barrett gave his full endorsement to Payton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreat locker-room guy, everybody loves EP,\u201d Barrett said. \u201cHe goes out there, even if he\u2019s struggling offensively, and still plays great defense. Everybody struggles. We\u2019re always there to pick him up, and he\u2019s gonna pick us up. He\u2019s picked me up when I\u2019m struggling. He\u2019s part of our team and we love having him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Payton was weaving a decent season entering the All-Star break but this final month he hasn\u2019t responded well to Derrick Rose getting a bump in minutes while his have shrunk.<\/p>\n<p>Often, Payton plays the first part of the first quarter but doesn\u2019t play again the start of the second half. And he hasn\u2019t been closing in a long while as he\u2019s lost his attack-mode mentality.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about his confidence level, Payton said, \u201cI\u2019m confident. I work on my game. I\u2019m confident.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" alt=\"Knicks Elfrid Payton NBA playoffs\" class=\"wp-image-18299864 lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Elfrid-Payton-Knicks-NBA-playoffs.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=300 300w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Elfrid-Payton-Knicks-NBA-playoffs.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=640 640w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Elfrid-Payton-Knicks-NBA-playoffs.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1280 1280w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Elfrid-Payton-Knicks-NBA-playoffs.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Elfrid-Payton-Knicks-NBA-playoffs.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=2000 2000w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><figcaption>Knicks point guard Elfrid Payton<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">NBAE via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This will be Payton\u2019s playoff debut. The 2014 lottery pick has seen dark days in Orlando, Phoenix and New Orleans. And last season, he was a starter for the 21-45 Knicks, who improved only after Payton returned from a hamstring injury that cost David Fizdale his job.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d Payton said of qualifying for the playoffs. \u201cWe\u2019ve been through a lot. We work hard, kept chipping at it, kept chipping at it. We\u2019re finally seeing some fruits of our labor. We\u2019re still hungry and feel we have a lot more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thibodeau indicated he will stick with Payton as a starter but is mulling a role for out-of-the-rotation point guard Frank Ntilikina as a defensive stopper for Young. That could further affect Payton\u2019s minutes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything just keeps going up,\u2019\u2019 Payton said of practices this week. \u201cCoach is doing a good job of preparing us. All of the coaches, honestly. We know what\u2019s at stake. Every day is getting more and more intense.\u2019\u2019\n            <\/p><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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In scoring 20 points and finishing a plus-27, it marked Payton\u2019s last stellar game. He\u2019s now mired in a massive&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":254962,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/05\/Elfrid-Payton-Knicks-NBA-playoffs.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[106542,81039,70381,106181,72932],"class_list":["post-254961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-5-20-21","tag-elfrid-payton","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-nba-playoffs-2021","tag-new-york-knicks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}