Raptors show off depth in whipping Knicks
This time, it’s Siakim and the bench that make a big difference for NBA’s top team
TORONTO — First they snoozed, then they cruised.
The Toronto Raptors shook off brutally slow starts to both the first and third quarters and Kawhi Leonard’s least impactful outing of the year to move to an NBA-best 12-1 with a 128-112 matinee win over the 4-9 New York Knicks on Saturday at Scotiabank Arena.
Toronto’s bright future was on full display, with 24-yearold forward Pascal Siakam going off for a career-high 23 points — including three made three-pointers — and 21-year-old OG Anunoby chipping in with an additional 16 off of the bench, his third double-figure game in succession, the longest run of his career.
Toronto missed six straight shots to begin the game and continued the new tradition of spending the first quarter tossing the ball to the other team or the fans, but easily rallied to draw even. By the time the half ended, Toronto somehow was up to 59 per cent shooting accuracy and held an 11-point edge. Leonard’s first field goal didn’t come until under a minute remained in the half and he had only six points through two and finished with 12 on only 2-of-7 shooting. Fellow all-star Kyle Lowry only attempted six shots and had 10 points and seven assists in 26 minutes.
Asked about the early turnover issues that have crept up in three straight games now, Lowry didn’t seem overly bothered.
“Just sloppy playing, a lack of concentration early,” Lowry told Postmedia after the game. “It’s something we have to clean up and we will.”
The bench was massive for the Raptors, putting up 62 of the team’s points. Anunoby looked comfortable, Jonas Valanciunas added 19 points and 10 rebounds in 21 minutes, Delon Wright 12.
“I think we have one of the deepest teams in the NBA,” Wright said.
“I think it was just a good day for us and sometimes you have to pick up the starters who are always picking up for us and play a team game.”
“They are a tough cover,” Knicks coach David Fizdale said of the Raptors.
“When they go to the bench it just keeps coming at you — a lot of speed, a lot of skill, a lot of shooting.”
Minus Kristaps Porzingis, New York plays hard and tries its best, but simply cannot compete with powerhouses like Toronto. The team only made six three-pointers on 27 per cent accuracy. Tim Hardaway Jr. had 18 points in the first half to help his team hang around and finished with 27. Enes Kanter added 15 points and 15 rebounds off of the bench.
KNICKS BOSS BIG ON RAPS
A pre-game query lobbed at Knicks coach Fizdale about the Jimmy Butler blockbuster trade quickly morphed into talk about Kawhi Leonard and the Raptors.
“This team that we’re playing tonight is so scary to watch on film that I haven’t even had time to process that (trade),” Fizdale said.
“I can’t think about that right now. I’ve got Kawhi Leonard and those guys, Kyle Lowry, sitting in that other locker-room. I’m focused on that.”
Fizdale knows all about Leonard and Danny Green, having coached against them in two NBA Finals as Erik Spoelstra’s right-hand man in Miami and as the head guy in Memphis in another series that saw Leonard average 31.2 points.
“He’s just gotten better every year. He just keeps adding and adding,” Fizdale said.
“He really competes the right way. He’s a scary, scary dude. I still have bad dreams from the playoffs in Memphis. There’s nothing I can do against a guy like that.”
Green recalled the six-game win over Memphis as being an extremely tough series against a well-coached group. Green joked that Mike Conley Jr. and Marc Gasol gave the Spurs nightmares of their own.
Fizdale said the Raptors added “champions” to a group that already won 60 games and topped the East in the regular season.
“They have all of the ingredients. It’s just a matter if they can keep it together and keep connecting.”
EAST GETS INTERESTING
Nurse said he wasn’t surprised to see the reeling Wolves finally find a new home for Butler, the 29-yearold four-time all-star.
“It certainly brings a really good player into our gym a few more times, so we look forward to that,” Nurse said, tongue in cheek.
Two of Butler’s five highest-scoring career games came against the Raptors and he’s long been a thorn in their sides at both ends.
All of a sudden the Eastern Conference has some solid squads.
“I think the East is a lot better than maybe people give it credit for,” Nurse said.
The take here is that if the Sixers can get three big personalities to coexist well and share the spotlight and the ball, the team will be in the mix though it needs to find more shooters since it got worse shooting-wise in the deal. Then it will have to pay a lot of money to keep Butler around longterm and he has a ton of mileage and a long injury history on his resume. But it’s probably a risk worth taking.