Raps continue offensive roll
The New York Knicks came to Toronto billed as one of the NBA’s most improved outfits, with star Kristaps Porzingis touted as an MVP candidate.
The franchise hailing from the theatre capital of the world must have brought a bunch of understudies north of the border. Porzingis looked discombobulated, along with his teammates and the Raptors continued to roll offensively in a one-sided 107-84 thrashing that improved the team’ s record to 10-5.
De Mar De R oz an and Kyle Low ry each scored 22 points and combined for 17 of the team’s 29 assists and Pascal Siakam had a strong two-way game in place of Serge Ibaka, who missed the game with a sore knee.
The bulk of the pre-game buzz had been about how the Knicks finally were playing good bas- ketball, winning 7-of-10 heading in. That and praise for “unicorn” big man Porzingis, who ranks amongst the NBA leaders in scoring and blocks, while shooting 40 per cent from beyond the threepoint arc.
That was coming in at least. Dealing with a nagging elbow injury and blanketed by the likes of Si ak am, O GA nu no by and Lucas Nogueira, Porzingis was bothered by their length and active hands and missed his first seven shots before drilling a three-pointer, his only basket of the first half. Porzingis wasn’t close to his allstar ca lib er self and the K nicks shot a dismal 22.9 percent overall in the opening half, with only ex-Raptor Jarrett Jack finding any offensive success. It was their worst shooting mark in any half since 2005, according to ESPN.
Meanwhile, Lowry had 16 early, De Mar De Roz an facilitated beautifully, the Rap tors man handled the visitors in the paint and C.J. Mile’s hot streak continued.
Toronto is not yet aware how long backup point guard Delon Wright will be sidelined but the expectation is it will be weeks, not days.
Wright will fly with the team to New York ahead of Wednesday’s rematch and will get checked out by the same doctor who performed surgery on his shoulder separation in 2016 after tests revealed he had separated it again against New Orleans.