Raptors stuffed in third quarter
Knicks’ 41-10 explosion matches worst in T.O. history
NEW YORK— There was a moment in the early going of the Raptors’ 108100 loss to the Knicks on Wednesday night when the Madison Square Garden jumbotron flashed a sponsored in-game feature. The night’s Celebrity Row guest of note, it was announced, was Sting, the 66-year-old rock star.
As one of Sting’s biggest hits blared from the speakers, Spike Lee, the film maker and Gotham courtside regular, led the standing ovation for the pop-music master. Before halftime — when the Raptors led comfortably by 11 points and looked well on their way to their ninth straight win over the Knicks — there wasn’t much else to celebrate for the home crowd.
But if it was all looked too easy for the Raptors, the fun didn’t last. The Knicks promptly reeled off a dominating third quarter, outscoring the Raptors by a whopping 41-10 to turn an 11-point deficit into an 18-point lead. The minus-31 point differential tied for the worst single quarter in Toronto franchise history, according to the Elias Sports Bureau — a mark that was previously the sole domain of the 1997-98 team that went 16-66.
And the visitors never found a way to recover, snapping a four-game win streak while losing to New York for the first time in more than two years.
“We’ve got to have more out of our starters starting the second half,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. “We played an excellent first half. Moving the basketball. Assists. Defence. But you think it’s over — it’s not. Not in the NBA.”
For the visitors, the 12 dismal minutes after halftime were as ugly as it gets. The same Raptors who held the Knicks to 33 per cent field-goal shooting in an easy win in Toronto on Friday allowed New York to shoot 67 per cent from the field in the frame. The same Raptors who came into the game boasting one of the NBA’s most efficient offences shot 1 for 16 — 6 per cent — from the field. They coughed up eight turnovers, got out-rebounded 17-5, got outscored in the paint 20-0.
“It was a blur to me,” said Kyle Lowry, the Toronto all-star. “Sometimes the other team is better than you in one quarter . . . It happens, man.”
Serge Ibaka, the veteran big man who missed Friday’s win over the Knicks with left knee inflammation, looked like a liability on both ends at times. OG Anunoby, the 20-year-old rookie who started his fifth straight game, didn’t offer much cover. And speaking of Casey’s desire for more from his starters in the second half, both Anunoby and first-five centre Jonas Valanciunas played the opening few minutes of the third quarter and never saw the floor again.
It didn’t help that Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, who’d carried the team through the first half, went quiet.
The Raptors held Knicks star Kristaps Porzingis in relative check, limiting him to 22 points on 21 shots. It was Tim Hardaway Jr., the Knicks guard who came into the game averaging about17 points a game, who got loose, racking up a career-high 38 points.
Beyond the court the Raptors got a bit of good news on Wednesday when the team announced that injured guard Delon Wright, out since Nov. 15 after suffering a dislocated shoulder in a tangle with Pelicans forward DeMarcus Cousins, would not need surgery to repair the injury. That determination, made by New York specialist Dr. Riley Williams, figures to save Wright’s season, since a surgical option would have likely put him out for the remainder of the schedule. As it is, there’s no timeline for Wright’s return; he’s already been cleared to begin dribbling, if not shooting, and on Wednesday he partook in a pre-game workout. But considering Wright missed the first four months of last season recovering from surgery to repair a similar injury on the same shoulder, the Raptors will presumably proceed with caution in the hope of avoiding yet another recurrence.
“If the doctor ordered (surgery) I was going to do whatever he wanted. But he said no surgery and I’m happy with that and I’m glad I can return to the court this year,” Wright said.
The 25-year-old Wright, who’d been averaging 21minutes a game off the bench, remains a vital cog in Toronto’s rotation.
“I’m glad he doesn’t have to have surgery. He was a big part of that second unit and playing with three point guards — that was huge for us,” said Casey. “But he’s got to really make sure he gets that shoulder good and strong and keep (the injury) from coming back again.”
On Wednesday night, the Raptors showed that, for all the promise of their early-season success, every game is a work in progress.
“You know me, I’m nowhere near happy as far as where we are. We’ve still got to grow, get better,” Casey said Tuesday. “I promise you Boston is saying the same thing, Detroit is saying the same thing, Cleveland is saying the same thing. We’re not a finished product. There are a lot of things we can get better at.”