The last time the Knicks ventured across the border to Toronto RJ Barrett had approximately 1,000 guests for whom he had gotten tickets, crowding into Scotiabank Arena. Sunday afternoon, there was an attendance limit of 1,000 for the entire arena, with the Raptors limiting it to just a handful of friends and family.
It wasn’t the number of fans that concerned Tom Thibodeau, the Knicks coach instead focused on the number of players he had available. The Knicks arrived missing a trio of starters, three of their centers and their primary playmakers, as the NBA’s health and safety protocols along with troublesome injuries reduced the team to a skeleton crew.
Blaming it on absences of players or fans though wouldn’t do justice to what the Knicks put out on the floor, which was hardly the sort of effort that would appease the coach as they were beaten soundly by the Raptors, 120-105.
The loss dropped the Knicks behind Toronto in the Eastern Conference standings as they fell to 17-20 and into 11th place. This was a struggle from beginning to end as the Knicks needed to perform at their best with Julius Randle, Kemba Walker and Mitchell Robinson among the absent pieces and instead were sloppy and outhustled by Toronto.
The loss was the second straight for the Knicks since they lost Randle to health and safety protocols and in both games his absence may have put on display his value to the team more than anything he has done when playing this season. While he has not performed up to the level he did last season, without him the Knicks have looked lost offensively, and the defense was abysmal.
The Knicks had to play small without Randle, Robinson and Nerlens Noel, but the hope that it would speed up their game didn’t come to fruition as the Raptors, also playing small, ran by them and through them.
The Raptors hit their first five shots before finally missing and just minutes in had built a double-digit lead. The Knicks briefly closed the gap to just three at the end of the first quarter, but Toronto started the second quarter with six straight points, prompting a pair of timeouts from Thibodeau in the first 2:55. He could not slow the onslaught through as the Knicks committed nine turnovers in the second quarter while connecting on just five field goals.
By the time the second half began Thibodeau dropped the experiment of starting rookie Miles McBride at point guard — abandoning him in favor of Alec Burks less than five minutes into the game and starting Burks in the third quarter. But just 31 seconds into the third Burks picked up his fourth foul and the Knicks turned to Immanuel Quickley. Nothing stopped Toronto though as the lead stretched to as many as 24 in the quarter.
McBride, Burks and Quickley all took turns, but none could slow down Fred VanVleet, who poured in 35 points while sitting out the fourth quarter. VanVleet scored 19 of those points in the Raptors' 40-point third quarter.
The Raptors had been playing shorthanded, too, but returned intact with their top eight rotation players available for the first time all season.
The Knicks got 19 points from Barrett, but he had just six in the first half as the game got away. Toppin also played better than in his starting debut Friday, finishing with 19 points, which matched his career high set earlier this season in Toronto just before he was placed in COVID-19 protocols, and a career-high six assists.
Notes & quotes: Kemba Walker sat his second straight game with a sore left knee, which had made him a late scratch Friday. Thibodeau did not believe it was related to playing back-to-back games earlier in the road trip. "I don't think so. . . . this was something that happened in the warm-up line."
