Raptors' path to prominence goes through one-sided rivalry with Knicks

Not a single competitive result. 

The Toronto Raptors' season series with the New York Knicks can be examined from multiple angles, but the evidence never changes: the Raptors have been older-brothered by their Atlantic Division counterparts every time they’ve met this season. 

It’s too bad. The Knicks could or should be rivals for the Raptors. There’s enough history between the franchises that something could get cooked up. 

But the Raptors don’t really have rivals at the moment. It’s been four seasons since they’ve been in the playoffs, so it’s hard to get all emotional about an opponent — or vice versa — when the temperature never rises above regular-season, ‘get-a-sweat-on’ levels. 

It’s post-season competition that adds fuel to those slow-burning fires, which is when things get fun. 

Given that the Raptors and Knicks are currently fifth and third in the Eastern Conference, respectively, a first-round playoff series this spring isn’t out of the question. That could make things interesting if the Raptors show just a spark of competitive fire against New York. 

So far, they are 0-3 against the Knicks and haven't beaten them in 11 starts going back to the 2022-23 season. 

There was a moment when the Knicks and Raptors seemed poised to develop some history. Toronto and New York met in consecutive competitive playoff series back in the mists of time (2000 and 2001), with the Knicks eliminating the Raptors the first time and Toronto coming out ahead in the second meeting. There was some juice, even then. 

Memorably, then Raptors head coach Butch Carter filed a lawsuit against one-time Raptor and then Knicks centre Marcus Camby on the eve of the series. Hard to believe then or now. The Raptors also had iconic former Knick Charles Oakley on the roster, which helped amp things up. 

Former Raptors general managers Isiah Thomas and Glen Grunwald eventually ran the Knicks at different junctures. Then there was the semi-annual Knicks tradition of trying to recruit former Raptors president Masai Ujiri to come fix their heap of a franchise as the Raptors made it to the NBA playoffs eight times in nine years, including their title in 2019, while the Knicks were a traffic accident.

While the Raptors were on the short-list for the Eastern Conference’s best franchise from 2013-14 to 2021-22, the Knicks were among the worst, making the playoffs just once and losing in the first round in 2020-21, the season the Raptors were playing out the string in Tampa. 

More history: that the Raptors managed to trade Andrea Bargnani to New York helped kick off their best era, while the Knicks' failure to acquire Kyle Lowry from the Raptors forestalled their return to competitiveness. New York finally got good again when they filled their forever void at point guard with Jalen Brunson. 

Not coincidentally, the Knicks are on the way to their fourth straight playoff appearance. 

But a big reason they are among the favourites to emerge from the East is that they jump-started their chances of contending by acquiring former Raptor OG Anunoby midway through the 2023-24 season, officially kicking off the Raptors' post-championship era rebuild.

With the Raptors back to competitive relevance this season — their 35-25 revival leaves them just 3.5 games behind the Knicks (39-22) — there would seem to be potential for a rivalry to be rekindled. 

The only problem is that the three games the Raptors have played against New York have had a very freshman vs. senior feel. The Knicks have whomped the Raptors emphatically. 

Among teams the Raptors have played more than once this season (so far), the Knicks are the only opponent that they haven’t even been able to trick themselves into believing they’re on the same level. 

They’ve played three times and the Knicks have beaten them by an average of nearly 22 points a game. The closest result was a 16-point loss when the two teams met in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup tournament back in December, but the Knicks were up by 17 at half in that game, 22 with 10 minutes to play and the Raptors never even threatened to cut the lead to single digits. 

It’s a habit over the Knicks' 11-game winning streak against Toronto that their average margin of victory has been by 16.8 points.

It’s grim, but this year especially, since — in theory — the Raptors and Knicks are on a relatively even playing field as fellow playoff teams. 

 “Anytime you play anybody that has beat you three times [in a season], you want to come out on the right end,” said Immanuel Quickley, who the Raptors acquired from New York along with RJ Barrett in the Anunoby deal. “Doesn't matter if it's the Knicks. Doesn't matter if it's anybody that has beat you. You want to come out on the right end.”

While the results from the past two seasons can at least be brushed off in the context of the Raptors rebuilding while the Knicks have been gunning to end their 44-year-and-counting championship drought, there is no reason the two teams have been on such uneven footing this year, other than the Raptors have struggled all season against the top five or six teams in each conference. 

The losses to the Knicks have represented different paths to the same destination: a blowout loss.

 In the first meeting on Nov. 30th, the Knicks did it by committee with all five starters scoring between 14 and 25 points, and New York bullying the Raptors with 25 offensive rebounds to 14 for Toronto. In the second meeting — the Cup quarterfinals — the Raptors got dominated on the boards again, with the Knicks gobbling up 56.5 per cent of the available rebounds to the Raptors' 43.5 per cent, while Brunson torched them for 35 points on 19 shots. In the most recent meeting on January 28th in Toronto, the Raptors mostly sawed off the rebounding battle and were able to hold Brunson to just 13 points — or 11 points below his season average — but then had to deal with Anunoby, Mikael Bridges and Josh Hart combining to score 78 points on 30-of-48 shooting. 

“Jalen and [Karl-Anthony] Towns are going to do their thing; those are superstar-type players,” said Barrett. “But we’ve got to try limit [the others]. OG can't have a crazy scoring night, Mikal went crazy last time, and you know, things like that. The other guys, we got to limit them.”

The Raptors will have the advantage of being close to perfect health. In their first two losses to New York, they were missing two starters, and in the most recent, they were missing one. 

While Scottie Barnes will likely be a game-time decision due to a thigh bruise he’s playing through, he practised Monday and there was optimism that the Raptors star would be available Tuesday night. And although rookie Collin Murray-Boyles will miss the game due to his ongoing left thumb injury, the Raptors are otherwise in good shape. This will also mark the first time this season that centre Jakob Poeltl — who is looking pretty spry since the all-star break after missing 33 of the Raptors' first 54 games due to a back problem — will be available against the Knicks. 

He should help. 

“They're a really physical team,” said Quickley. “We saw that the other times that we played them, the physicality has to be at a high level to rebound. And obviously when they play Mitch [Robinson] and Karl-Anthony Towns, it has to be at a high level.”

Regardless of what happens Tuesday night, the Raptors will get a fifth chance to play the Knicks since they got the extra game against them due to the NBA Cup schedule. There is also the possibility that the two teams could meet in the playoffs, either in a matchup between the fourth and fifth seeds or a 3-6 pairing. 

Five regular-season meetings and potentially seven more — or fewer, depending on how the series goes — in the playoffs could certainly seed a rivalry of sorts. But the Raptors have to win a game (or two or three) first.