Raptors licking their wounds

Poor effort against Knicks has team looking for salve

in Indianapolis for the worst quarter differential in Raptors team history, Toronto had pretty much hit their high-water mark for the frame with three of four made free throws. They would not score again for the next 8:24, a run in which they were outscored 28-0.

In that 8:24 span, the Raptors would turn the ball over six times, commit 11 personal fouls, and miss a total of 13 consecutive field goal attempts.

Defensively their resistance was just about nil.

The Knicks in that same 8:24 would make 9-of-15 attempts, outrebound the Raptors 14-5, and go 7-for-7 from the line.

In short the Knicks were hardpressed to miss a shot and the Raptors couldn’t make one.

There was no point in sugarcoating this one and the Raptors didn’t try.

“I think they did a great job of making shots and then they crashed the boards,” Lowry said of the third quarter. “They were really aggressive and they did a good job. Sometimes the other team is just better than you in a quarter and they did everything they needed to do to us. They turned us over, they made us take contested shots. They made shots. They were just better than us in the third quarter.”

As bad as it was, it really was just one truly awful quarter. The Raptors did win the other three, not that it matters when the one you lose, you do so by 31 points.

The key is going to be coming back from that humbling 12 minutes and in that regard the Raptors have been quite adept.

Only once this year have the Raptors followed a loss with another and that was the start of that two-week trip out west when they lost winnable games in both San Antonio and Golden State.

A bad loss in Denver on that same trip, possibly the worst loss of the year until the Knicks pounced on them Wednesday night, was followed up by a character win in Utah. A loss to a John Wall-less Washington team in the first home game after that trip was followed by wins over Chicago and New Orleans. Even the buzzer-beating loss in Boston was followed by a thorough victory in Houston.

The Raptors have shown a penchant for bouncing back, but they will have their work cut out for them against a rested and confident Indiana side that was won five of the past six and been off since a win in Orlando Monday night.

A good turkey dinner alone isn’t going to rid them of that awful lingering taste of a Gotham beat down. DOMESHEK, Bella 2:30 Pardes Chaim.