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There is only one thing to do when a winning streak ends, and that is to start another.
The Toronto Raptors didn’t have long to end their disappointing road loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night, when they blew a 12-point lead with 5:57 to play before losing in overtime.
It was the first cold snap for the Raptors in what has been an impressive season thus far. The first time they lost to a team they probably should have. The Hornets were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, with the Raptors coming off two days of rest. Even with the win, the Hornets improved to just 6-14. The loss to the Raptors, meanwhile, dropped them to 14-6 heading into Sunday night.
Before that, Toronto was flawless in taking advantage when the conditions were in their favor. On their nine-game streak, the Raptors have at least five wins over the Brooklyn Nets (two), Indiana Pacers (two) and Washington Wizards, three teams that have a combined nine wins. Another win came against the Philadelphia 76ers, playing without Joel Embiid, Paul George and Kyle Aubrey, and another over the Hornets. The Cavaliers were short-handed and had back-to-back games in both Raptors wins in November.
None of which negates what Toronto has accomplished. Good teams take advantage of the opportunities that the schedule provides, but really good teams hold their own during periods when the tables are turned.
That’s the situation the Raptors found themselves Sunday night in New York: playing a quality opponent and coming off short rest themselves (going into overtime against Charlotte), while also having to do without RJ Barrett (horse) and Jacob Poeltl, who was held out to manage a back condition that has hindered him at times this season.
So in that sense, Toronto falling 116-94 to the rested Knicks was predictable. New York was up by 24 points with 14 minutes to go as the Knicks hit nine of their first 13 threes while the Raptors came out of the gate shooting one of their first eight from deep. Toronto pulled in from there – three straight second-quarter triples by Scotty Barnes (18 points, five rebounds, five assists, 4-of-7 from deep) helped Toronto pull within 7 at the half. They finally cut the Knicks’ lead to three with seven minutes to play in the third quarter thanks to Immanuel Quickley (19 points, eight assists, four on 10 attempts). But the Raptors’ fatigue began to show, especially defensively as their rotation slowed, and on the glass where the Knicks used their size advantage to rack up a 61-40 edge, including a 25-14 advantage on offensive boards. The Knicks went on a 16-1 run in the third after the Raptors had closed it to open an 18-point lead, and the Raptors couldn’t get themselves back into the game a second time.
1. Just the beginning: Despite losing back-to-back games for the first time in a month, the Raptors remain 14-7 and tied with the Knicks (13-6) for second in the Eastern Conference — two games behind the Pistons, who have lost two straight after a 13-game winning streak was snapped by Boston last week. There isn’t anyone in the Raptors organization who hasn’t signed up for that scorecard at the fourth point of the season.
But that’s all it took to get the Raptors into the dance. They have banked wins while the schedule has been favorable, but they will need to play close to their current level from here on out, and it won’t be easy. Including the Knicks loss, six of their next 10 games are against teams with records above .500. Moreover, for all their success, the Raptors have not isolated themselves in a hectic Eastern Conference. They are just one and a half games behind seventh-place Cleveland, for example. The Raptors’ great start is just that.
2. CMB and RnB: It’s been a bit of a bumpy road for the Raptors’ rookie. He had to manage an injury coming out of training camp, was sick for a while and then a mild knee sprain set him back a bit. Meanwhile, the Raptors were rolling, so the rotation was proving tough to break. All that said, he’s shown more than enough to be excited about where his game will end up once he gets some more experience and development under his belt.
It’s just a bonus that at 20 years old, Murray-Boyles regularly has NBA experts commenting on how strong he is. Kayla Gray reported during the broadcast that Knicks wing Josh Hart made comments to that effect on the Raptors bench during the game. But it’s the feel and basketball IQ that goes with the physical attributes that make it all compelling.
Finishing with 11 points (on 5-of-6 shooting) and eight rebounds — four on the offensive end — against one of the biggest and worst rebounding teams in the NBA is pretty impressive. But the third-quarter sequence where he caught an over-the-shoulder pass on the break and finished, and then stole a pass from Hart and went the other way for a dunk, showed a player very comfortable with NBA-level thinking and processing. It looks good.
3. Quickley is coming: It hasn’t been two years since the Raptors traded OG Anunoby, Precious Achuiwa and Malachi Flynn to the Knicks for RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley and the draft pick that ended up being Jonathan Mogbo. With the way the past two seasons have gone for the respective clubs, you’d have to say the Knicks came out ahead on the deal, as Inoube (with a hamstring injury Sunday night) was an essential piece on two teams that have played in five playoff series in two seasons.
But with the Raptors looking like a team that has a clue this year, the thinking behind their last deal has come into sharp focus. Barrett has turned into a Swiss Army knife on offense, putting up career-best performance numbers before a sprained knee kept him out of the past four games, a stretch in which the Raptors posted the lowest offensive rating in the NBA. And after a slow start, Quickley has hinted that he can be the ‘above average’ NBA point guard his contract says he should be.
He came into Knicks play averaging 15.9 points, 6.1 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 40 percent from three since Oct. 27. His defense has improved, maybe even positively, and as he gets more reps as a starting NBA point guard — something that’s essentially new to him since leaving the Knicks — you can see his game accelerate. His hard drive to get a paint touch and deft drop pass to Barnes — wide open when another defender came to help on Coakley — was just one example late in the first half.
But his superpower is the ability to create tunes in different ways. His three touchdowns midway through the third quarter helped pull Toronto within three points, the closest Toronto would ever get. Currently, Inovi remains the best single player in that trade, so by that metric, the Knicks come out on top. But consistent quality performances from Barrett and Coakley could turn this season around.
4. Because it is cup: The Raptors and Knicks will connect in a game that really matters on December 9th When the Knicks travel to Toronto for the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup. While both Sunday’s matchup and one next Tuesday count in the regular-season standings — and since the Eastern Conference is tied so far this season, head-to-head matchups as primary tiebreakers could be important come playoff time — it’s the final contest that will determine which club heads to Las Vegas to play in the semifinals on Saturday, Dec. 13.th. This game will likely be a slightly more accurate measure of where the Knicks and Raptors stand in the Eastern Conference standings. The Knicks will likely have Anunoby in the lineup, and the Raptors will hope to have Barrett and Poeltl.
5. Tired of anagrams? He can be. I was almost surprised that it was Poeltl that the Raptors chose to sit out on Ingram’s second night, not Ingram. Sunday night was the forward’s 21st game of the season. He hasn’t missed a start, after playing in just 18 games this past year. The 39 minutes he played in overtime against Charlotte were the most he’s played in two years. He missed his last nine shots against the Hornets and his first six against the Knicks. He smoothed things up a bit from that point and finished 4-of-11 from the floor for 14 points. But he was a team-worst -22 for his 32 minutes, an abysmal 4-of-7 from the free-throw line and on several of his five turnovers, he looked like he didn’t have the juice to burst into space and make plays as the Knicks swarmed. It’s a good sign that the Raptors don’t need to coddle Ingram in any shape or fashion, but as starts and minutes go by, it might not be the worst idea to find a break here or there for someone who hasn’t made his calling card sustainable over his career.
