Player grades shortly. Comment away.
 | Knicks | 119 | Final Box Score | 106 | Raptors |  |
 B | S. Barnes37 MIN, 29 PTS, 9 REB, 4 AST, 5 STL, 13-19 FG, 3-7 3FG, 0-1 FT, 1 BLK, 2 TO, -7 +/- Came out swinging in the first quarter with nine points. Threw a pass to a running Boucher during their 7-0 run and then hit a jumper at that end of that stretch. Defensively, Scottie continued to show he can act as a mobile big wing. He got a block on Hartenstein, and McDaniels forced RJ Barrett into Scottie who packed the paint. Aside from one halfcourt turnover, I can’t recall anything horrendous he did. Again, hard for Barnes to be a dog for four quarters when he didn’t the entire team to rely on. | |
 B | P. Siakam34 MIN, 21 PTS, 8 REB, 3 AST, 0 STL, 7-16 FG, 0-4 3FG, 7-8 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, -14 +/- Great showing in the second quarter. Scored over top Robinson. Posted up Randle and scored. Drew the foul on Robinson and had a scoop shot on him. In the third, Randle scored on him and then went right back at him. He seemed fearless, but with limited contributions from the bench, it was hard to stage any real comeback. But could have expected more from him. | |
 B | J. Poeltl28 MIN, 12 PTS, 12 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 6-9 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 2 BLK, 1 TO, 0 +/- Steadiness even on a night when the Raps showed up for 2.75 quarters. Despite only one assist, had a nice lob pass to OG as he used a screen to cut backdoor, but it didn’t count. | |
 C+ | O. Anunoby27 MIN, 9 PTS, 5 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 4-13 FG, 1-6 3FG, 0-0 FT, 2 BLK, 3 TO, -4 +/- OG might be drawing a lot of criticism, but he didn’t really do anything wrong per se … he just had a quiet night. He played good D on Randall, and shot the ball at the right time. They just rimmed out. The mid-range in the fourth sparked a bit of hope, but the team was too deflated by then. | |
 B- | D. Schroder37 MIN, 10 PTS, 1 REB, 9 AST, 0 STL, 3-10 FG, 1-6 3FG, 3-4 FT, 0 BLK, 2 TO, -10 +/- Dennis is steady and reliable, but on a night like today, he could have stepped up more. Sure, he was one assist shy of a double-double, but when there is no bench, Schroder has to step up. He’s shown in the past his ability to. | |
 C | G. Trent Jr.23 MIN, 4 PTS, 1 REB, 4 AST, 0 STL, 2-6 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-1 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -18 +/- Gary was a non-factor this game except he showed he can playmake and not be tunnel-visioned. I wasn’t sure he could until that’s all he showed he can do today. | |
 C+ | P. Achiuwa17 MIN, 8 PTS, 6 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 4-11 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -22 +/- Coming off his best game against the Suns, he seemed confident and fought hard for boards. He also was effective on the defensive end coming to help. | |
 C | M. Flynn11 MIN, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 4 AST, 0 STL, 0-2 FG, 0-1 3FG, 0-0 FT, 1 BLK, 0 TO, -3 +/- Nice post-entry pass into Scottie for his final two points of Q2. | |
 C | J. McDaniels07 MIN, 2 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 1-4 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 8 +/- On one specific position, McDaniels did a great job pushing RJ Barrett into the heart of the defense, anchored by Scottie. | |
 B- | C. Boucher19 MIN, 11 PTS, 3 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 4-10 FG, 1-4 3FG, 2-3 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 5 +/- Was the definition of a sparkplug in the second quarter. You could see it with your own eyes. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face after using his length to whip the pass ahead in transiition. Had a great closeout on DiVincenzo, who made the left wing three, but closed all the way out from the weakside elbow. Scoring wise, he had a great take from the baseline, suspending mid-air. When he scrambled for offensive boards, he found a way to get to the line despite missing a bunny. In the third, he took a charge, and kept the same energy even when his shots weren’t falling. He had a nice tip-in off OG’s missed middy, but missed and-1 free throw. | |
 C+ | Darko Rajakovic Not sure how much blame can be placed on Darko for this one. The bench wasn’t scoring, and they seemed to simply run out of gas at the end of the third and all of the fourth. How much is that due to Xs and Os? He made an intersting decision to use the Flynn, Anunoby, Boucher, Trent, Achiuwa lineup at the end of the third quarter, which seemed to be working until it didn’t. | |
Things We Saw
- A win against one of West’s elite get your hopes up. Raps looked good great in the second quarter, but he third frame was a whirlwind. They were down 10, came within 3, only to be back down by 13 at the end. They seemed deflated in the fourth quarter. When you get 13 points from your bench in the second half (bench was -27 this game), it’s hard to rely on limited personnel to dig you out of a deficit. The closest they got in the fourth was by 9.
- Here’s one positive. The Raps were +8 in offensive boards against a team that’s third in the league in RPG (46.8) and fourth in second chance points (16.3). Tonight, they had 51 and 16, respectively. There were a couple of consecutive offensive boards that were grabbed by the Raps, even one play in Q4, that helped keep the hope of a comeback alive.
