 | Toronto | 110 | Final Box Score | 97 | New York |  |
 C | D. Carroll23 MIN, 3 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 1-6 FG, 0-3 3FG, 1-1 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 9 +/-Bricked his 3’s, was invisible on defense, and launched an airball on a wide a wide open 15 footer. The playoff rotations might seem to be set, and he’ll probably be a starter, but I won’t be surprised if DC only plays 20 minutes or so a night. Just awful. | |
 B+ | S. Ibaka27 MIN, 12 PTS, 4 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 5-10 FG, 1-4 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 4 +/-Brought his usual outside presence, with a flurry of jumpers in the first half. Didn’t really have an interior defensive presence tonight, and let the Knicks, including Quinn, Hernangomez the Knick guards get anything they want on line drives to the hole. | |
 C | J. Valanciunas20 MIN, 6 PTS, 7 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 3-8 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -12 +/-Was awful defensively for most of this one, letting Willy Hernangomez absolutely go off. The -12 says it all. JV’s rebounding and interior scoring will always make him an asset, but the defensive kinks stick out like a sore thumb, leaving all of us to wonder what the playoffs will hold. | |
 A+ | D. DeRozan29 MIN, 35 PTS, 2 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 11-15 FG, 0-0 3FG, 13-15 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 8 +/-Along with Serge Ibaka, was the only Raptor to have anything going in the first half, accounting for half of the Raptors’ 52 points by the break. Showed no life defensively, but hey – this guy’s a top-5 NBA scorer and he’s proving it time and time again. 35 points, in 29 minutes, on 15 shots. Not bad at all. | |
 A | K. Lowry38 MIN, 17 PTS, 7 REB, 11 AST, 3 STL, 5-10 FG, 4-9 3FG, 3-3 FT, 1 BLK, 4 TO, 18 +/-Started off slow offensively, but hit a few back-breaking 3’s in the second half that the Raptors desperately needed to create some separation. You’ve got to give the guy at least 5-6 games before he hits his stride, so an average of 19 points and 9 assists in his first 3 games back is obviously a great sign. | |
 A | P. Patterson29 MIN, 15 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 6-9 FG, 3-6 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 6 +/-Missed 3’s means his impact is limited, and the first half was looking like one of those games for Patterson. But 3 huge 3’s in the second half and key mid-range buckets really helped the Raptors pull away. With his role now diminished as a bench player with Ibaka and Tucker taking most of the minutes at the 4, Patterson’s overall impact remains to be unpredictable on a game-to-game basis. | |
 A- | P. Tucker27 MIN, 8 PTS, 7 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 2-5 FG, 2-5 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 20 +/-He’s been shooting it from the corner great since coming over in the trade, but it was clear that the noon start and energy the Knicks showed in the first half affected the shooting of all the Raptors players early. The second half was a completely different story. | |
 B- | C. Joseph25 MIN, 4 PTS, 0 REB, 5 AST, 1 STL, 2-6 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, 3 +/-A disappointing afternoon for CoJo, who didn’t bring much of anything offensively. The effort was there defensively, but the ball movement of the Knicks (27 assists in total), spearheaded by Ron Baker meant the Knicks could get whatever they wanted offensively in the first 3 quarters. | |
 A | J. Poeltl14 MIN, 8 PTS, 7 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 4-4 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 16 +/-Had a solid 14 minutes off the bench today. Like Powell and Delon, Poeltl may not crack the playoff rotation, but his smarts on offense, rebounding, and inside presence gives the Raptors a fresh look off the bench. His impact was obvious tonight early in the fourth quarter, leading to a +16 as part of the closing stretch. | |
 B | D. Wright4 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-1 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -3 +/-Not much from Wright tonight in just 4 minutes of action. Nothing more than Dwane Casey searching for answers with his rotation. | |
 B- | N. Powell3 MIN, 2 PTS, 1 REB, 0 AST, 1 STL, 1-2 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -4 +/-Casey probably wouldn’t have opted to bring in Powell in the second quarter if it wasn’t for the terrible start, and it’s still looking like Norm may not crack the playoff rotation the way things have been going. But the energy and defensive toughness that Norm Powell may be able to bring off the bench means he’s always an option. | |
 B+ | F. VanVleet1 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 0 +/-Garbage time. | |
 B+ | Dwane Casey Not sure if it was the super early start, but the pre-game preparation and pep talk probably could’ve been better. He had to dig into the bench bringing in Poeltl, Powell, and Delon, which were good decisions given the way the Raps were playing, but obviously not an ideal scenario. Starting Poeltl to start the 4th quarter was especially a good decision | |
3 THINGS WE SAW
- Defense (or lack thereof): The defense was quite simply awful for the first 3 quarters, with the Knicks shooting 50% or better for most of that stretch. Willy Hernangomez was looking like DeMarcus Cousins against JV, Ron Baker was getting anything he wanted both scoring and passing, and Kyle O’Quinn and Mindaugas Kuzminskas added a great inside-outside punch offensively. It was quite concerning, but the closing stretch was much better as the Raps held New York to just 22 points in the final frame, and outscored them by 12.
- Limiting turnovers: Taking care of the ball has been a minor issue for the Raps, who have averaged 15 turnovers a game in the past 3 games (obviously a concerning trend for the playoffs). And after a couple of early turnovers, I was thinking today would be more of the same, but a careful second half led to just 10 turnovers total. Great sign.
- Sealing the deal down the stretch: The Raptors led the league in 10-plus point comeback wins on the season coming into this one with 18, and this afternoon was just another example. Matt Devlin and Jack Armstrong were joking for most of the game that once they get down double digits, the Raptors were guaranteed to come back. While that might hold true against a team like the Knicks, I wouldn’t count on that approach in a week’s time.
