Quick Reaction: Raptors Hold On To Beat Knicks 95-90

On Friday when I was in Toronto’s locker room after the game, Johnson had an ice pack on his shoulder and he spent a ton of time with his feet in a bucket of ice water. When he finally got out of his chair to head to the shower he walked with a noticeable limp. It’s clear Johnson’s body is banged up and he’s gutting his way through games. Tonight he was slow rotating on a defensive assignment in the first quarter and he picked up an illegal defence call. He also struggled guarding Quincy Acy which will be one of the easiest assignments he’ll get all season. There’s no lift when he shoots and I can’t remember the last time I saw him dunk.

Ross is another player who has elevated his game recently. He was aggressive attacking his man off the dribble and he had some nice finishes at the rim (again) tonight. However, just like JV, he found himself on the bench early on after picking up two quick fouls. His dunk in transition where he took off from just inside the elbow was a thing of beauty. He had a monster third quarter with 13 points which helped Toronto gain the lead after a sloppy first half.

Valanciunas started the game aggressive with a strong post move for an easy bucket. A sign of good things to come, right? Wrong. He picked up two fouls in his first five minutes of burn and he was quickly glued to the bench. What was troubling is that despite playing 13 minutes in the first half that was his only field goal attempt in the first half. Valanciunas needs to learn how to play aggressive while also playing in control and his teammates need to feed him the ball on a semi-regular basis.

The Knicks threw an interesting twist on Lowry where they had a point guard and a big (usually Samuel Dalembert or Quincy Acy) double him whenever he came inside the three-point arc. It didn’t slow Lowry down as he had seven points and three dimes in the first quarter. However, it did result in Lowry pressing a bit and he had a season-high four turnovers by halftime. He finished the game with nearly as many turnovers (nine) as assists (11). He also clanked ten shots tonight.

Fields was a relative ghost on offence, but he was a force on the defensive end hounding Carmelo Anthony into shooting 3-7 from the field and 1-3 from beyond the arc in the first half. Sure, Anthony scored 34 points, but Fields made his former teammate work for all of those points and a decent amount of of those came from the charity stripe (10 free throw attempts).

He may not post big stats (or even log big minutes), but it seems whenever he’s on the court he’s making something positive happen. Tonight he had a +5 score in his first three minutes of burn and he finished with a score of +2. I mean this in the most complimentary way possible: he’s like a mosquito that just won’t buzz off.

A rare “invisible” game by Johnson. Sure, he helped slow down Melo, but he was invisible on the other end of the court. He had more turnovers (two) than made buckets (one).

After going 5-6 from the field and 3-4 from beyond the arc tonight, Patterson has shot better than 60% from the field in four of his past six games. Also worth noting is he’s made a three-pointer in seven consecutive games.

Vasquez was a big part of Toronto’s bench unit that outscored New York’s 38-13. He only had two points, but his +/- of +8 was the second best for Toronto tonight.

Watching Lou Williams play this season has me giggling and thinking of NBA Jam back in the day. I keep waiting for Jack Armstrong or Matt Devlin going to yell out: “He’s on fire!” Williams is averaging 14.0 points per game this month and he added 15 points. His bucket at the end of the third quarter with Pablo Prigioni draped all over him was a thing of beauty. However, some of his shot attempts are questionable.

I’m flummoxed how Casey could draw up a play for the end of regulaton that saw Lowry and Williams fail to go inside the three-point arc. Also bizarre is on that play the team literally stood around and watched Williams dribble the ball. No cuts. No screens. This style of “hero” ball is something Casey needs to fix ASAP. Another issue was having Patrick Patterson guard Carmelo Anthony for the last few minutes of regulation and all of overtime.