Tempers flare between Toppin, Barrett

CLEVELAND — Obi Toppin went viral Friday night, but it didn’t really have much to do with him receiving his first starting assignment of the season for the Knicks as the injury replacement for All-Star forward Julius Randle.

Toppin also notably had to be separated by Tom Thibodeau and other coaches from teammate RJ Barrett during a heated argument at the bench in during a thirdquarter timeout in the Knicks’ 130-116 win over the Cavaliers.

In the locker room afterward, the two stood arm-in-arm as the media entered the locker room, and Toppin said, “We’re brothers. And we’re good. We discussed it.”

After the argument, the two players were shown moments later on the court hugging before play resumed.

“The cameras are everywhere. It probably happens more than people realize,” Thibodeau said. “Heat of the moment. It dissipated immediately. If there’s a flare-up, go talk to each other. When they walked out together, I knew they were fine.

“And just move on. Win the game. When everyone wants to win, sometimes there’s a difference of opinion. Just put the team first and that’s what they did.”

With Randle slated to be reevaluated in two weeks after spraining his left ankle in Wednesday’s win over the Heat, Toppin scored 12 points, including two first-half 3-pointers, in 19 minutes.

Judging by his career-high 48 points, it was hard to tell that Jalen Brunson missed seven games earlier in March with foot and hand injuries before returning Wednesday night against the Heat. He still had his right hand wrapped in ice and discussed his injuries for the first time after Friday’s morning shootaround.

Brunson said that he “jammed” his right hand during the Knicks’ loss in Miami on March 22, before sitting out two games with a sprain.

“It just swelled up and I had to do everything I can to get it down and [make it] less painful,” Brunson said.

The $104 million point guard added that all tests on his hand came back negative, but he’s also continued doing maintenance on the sore left foot that sidelined him for five out of six games earlier in March.