The Toronto Raptors dropped a wild one to the New York Knicks Wednesday night, 108-100. It featured what may have been the worst quarter in Raptors franchise history. Here are your takeaways from a game Toronto would like to forget.
The start
It all began so well for the Raptors, who carried their recently torrid play into the first half Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, matching a New York team that came to play.
Looking to avenge their loss in Toronto last week, the Knicks came out with all kinds of energy, running the floor hard and setting up Enes Kanter for a strong dunk over Serge Ibaka and Kristaps Porzingis for a running dunk of his own on a fastbreak early in the first quarter.
But the Raptors answered right back. OG Anunoby drilled a crowd-silencing three; Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan hooked up for an emphatic alley-oop; and DeRozan added two three-pointers of his own, as the Raptors matched New York’s tempo and didn’t let the Knicks dictate the game’s rhythm in the early going.
DeRozan was locked in throughout the first half, scoring 18 while chipping in four assists as he continued his hot play this month. The Knicks went on a brief run late in the second quarter against the Raptors bench as Toronto suffered through a series of sloppy possessions at one end and defensive lapses at the other. Tim Hardaway Jr. had the hot hand, scoring 19 points in the first half.
But the Raptors stifled New York’s momentum and got into halftime with a sizeable lead. They had to be feeling pretty good about themselves at that point. But then the third quarter happened.
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The collapse
It’s hard to understate just how atrociously the Raptors played during the third quarter of this game. They had little cohesion on offence, they bricked shot after shot after shot (Toronto went 1-of-16 from the field in the quarter), and they turned the ball over repeatedly, more than once throwing errant passes to vacant spots on the floor.
Meanwhile, at the other end, New York got absolutely anything it wanted on offence, scoring from mid range, from beyond the arc, and in the paint. The Raptors provided very little resistance throughout, and looked like a group simply waiting for the quarter to end.
The Knicks ended up going on a 32-3 run in the third (including 28 consecutive New York points), forcing Casey to frantically shuffle his rotations in search of any solution to stop the bleeding. But he couldn’t find it, and by the time the dust settled, the Raptors finished the quarter down 20 after coming into it with an 11-point lead.
The finish
Toronto started the fourth quarter on a 19-5 run, as a bench-plus-Ibaka unit did everything it could to get back in the game. Much of that momentum was generated on the defensive end, where the Raptors came up with a series of key stops and blocks before capitalizing in transition. Just halfway into the quarter, the Raptors had already clawed New York’s lead down to six.
But, ultimately, it was not to be. New York started scoring again and the Raptors started missing again, as the Knicks cruised to victory. By the end, there was only eight points difference, but the Raptors were never able to overcome that disastrous third quarter.
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Odds and ends
• Norman Powell returned to action after a four-game absence due to a hip pointer. He did not, however, reclaim his position in Toronto’s starting lineup, as Casey chose to leave the explosive rookie Anunoby in that spot.
Powell was the first Raptor off the bench, checking in for Anunoby with about five minutes remaining in the first quarter, and drilled his first three shots — all three-pointers. But he faded somewhat as the game wore on, which isn’t out of the ordinary for a player returning from injury. Still, it had to be encouraging for the Raptors to see the aggressive youngster back on the floor for the 23 minutes he played.
• Much of the talk coming into this one was about how the Raptors would contain Porzingis. The 22-year-old had perhaps his worst game of the season when the Knicks visited Air Canada Centre last week, scoring only 13 points on 3-of-13 shooting while finishing the game a -17.
Wednesday was a different story, as Porzingis scored 22, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked three shots. The biggest difference was Porzingis’ play, but it’s worth mentioning that this time around Ibaka guarded him for much of the game rather than Pascal Siakam, who did a fantastic job on the Knicks big man last week.
• Siakam continued his strong season, making several hustle plays in the fourth quarter as the Raptors tried to come back. He played 28 minutes off the bench and contributed in a variety of areas, scoring eight points, pulling down eight rebounds and racking up four assists.
• Toronto’s big men did not have their best night against the Knicks frontcourt of Porzingis and Kanter. The Raptors were out-rebounded 47-42; Ibaka missed his first eight shots from the field; Jonas Valanciunas turned the ball over three times and was out-rebounded by his point guard; Jakob Poeltl was a -18 in 10 minutes; and Lucas Nogueira didn’t record a single stat in his seven minutes on the floor.
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