Post Game Reaction: Raptors 118 Knicks 107
The Knicks lose a tight one in Toronto tonight. The Raptors won this game 118-107. The game was tight all night as neither team had a lead larger than 7 points until the very end. The game came down to a few plays and the Raptors made them, while the Knicks could not. Here are a few of my observations.
Knicks play some zone defense. In a smart move the Knicks tried something different on defense. They went to a zone. The Raptors are not a good three point shooting team and so it was nice way to limit the strengths of the Raptors. Not sure why they did not try that more in the second half.
Porzingis again struggles with foul trouble. Porzingis continues to make silly fouls and it has hurt him and the team's play. Tonight he picked up 3 quick ones and was very ineffective in the first half. Porzingis needs to learn how to play without fouling and understand that the Knicks need him out there if they want to win games. He was more under control in the second half and it led to him to score 21 points overall.
Knicks contain DeRozan in the 1st half but not in the 2nd half. DeRozan scored 13 in first half and scored 13 in the third quarter alone. In the first half, Lee did an excellent job limiting DeRozan to 13 points and made him take tough shot after tough shot. But the second half was a different story as DeRozan scored 20, while doing most of the damage in the third. One of the biggest factors was Lee picking up 3 fouls in a span of 2 minutes and the other Knicks struggled to defend DeRozan. DeRozan had another 30 point game, finishing with 33 points.
3rd quarter woes. As usual the 3rd quarter was an issue. The Raptors outscored the Knicks 34-29. But the biggest issue was the fouls. The Knicks had 10 fouls in the quarter and were in the penalty with 7 minutes left in the quarter. The Raptors took 11 free throws in the third quarter and finished with 38 free throws. This has become a theme as the Knicks are consistently fouling their opponents and putting them at the line.
Melo's efforts wasted. Carmelo Anthony had a really nice game, scoring 20 points in the first half and finished with 31. He could not be stopped all night as the Raptors were missing Carroll, their best defender. Knicks also got 21 from Rose and Porzingis as well. All these outings were wasted as the Knicks had a chance to win this one.
The Knicks effort was solid tonight and they lost to a better team, the 2nd best team in the East in fact. If the Knicks can play like this on a more consistent basis, they would win more games. You wonder why that has not occurred more often. The Knicks get a day off and will play the Mavs on monday at home, hopefully they bring the same energy for that one.
