On the second of a back-to-back, and a compromised Julius Randle, the Knicks pulled away late thanks to their bench as they beat the Raptors 119-106 in Toronto on Friday night.
Here are the takeaways….
- Randle was questionable heading into Friday night’s game, but the power forward pushed through and started alongside the usual starters. Randle did well, inflamed knee and all, posting nine points on 4-of-7 shooting. He also had five rebounds and two assists.
RJ Barrett also led the team with nine points after one quarter. He did it on 4-of-9 shooting. The Knicks overall shot 50 percent in the first quarter and finished on a 25-11 run.
Randle wasn't as effective in the second quarter, scoring just two points on 1-of-2 shooting. It was more of the same for Randle in the third, after he scored four points on 2-of-4 shooting. Randle finished with 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting, and added 10 rebounds and nine assists.
-Jalen Brunson, coming off a 42-point performance, continued his prolific scoring with 22 more points on 9-of-21 shooting. He added five rebounds, eight assists and one steal. He led the Knicks in scoring.
-It was the Knicks bench that did a lot of damage in this one, especially Donte DiVincenzo who was lethal from three-point range. He made three of his first four shots from downtown, many coming late in the shot clock. He finished with 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 7-of-9 from three. The seven threes made tied a career high.
Josh Hart took over in the third quarter when the Knicks needed him most. With New York up just three points, Hart would score 15 straight points for the Knicks in four minutes to give them a double-digit lead in the closing seconds of the third.
Hart finished with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting including 3-of-4 from long distance. He added eight rebounds, two assists and one block.
Overall, the Knicks bench scored 52 points. Immanuel Quckley added 10 points while Isaiah Hartenstein scored four points.
-A big reason why the Knicks pulled out the win against the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night was the team winning the turnover battle. They turned the ball over 11 times to the Pistons’ 20 and it helped them overcome shoddy defense and lethargic offense. For the first half, the Knicks turned the ball over just five times.
On Friday, the Knicks didn’t turn the ball over in the opening frame. Their first turnover wouldn’t come until less than nine minutes left in the second quarter. However, when they finally turned the ball over, the Knicks became careless and allowed the Raptors to get easy transition buckets to cut the lead to 41-37 with 7:11 to go in the first half.
The Knicks would be better with the ball the rest of the way as both teams wound up with 12 turnovers each.
-The Knicks are the NBA’s best team in terms of offensive rebounds, but you wouldn’t know it in the first half. The Raptors simply out hustled the Knicks, grabbing 10 offensive rebounds to New York’s eight to go into halftime tied at 57 apiece after Toronto was down eight after one quarter.
The Raptors would continue to control the offensive boards, but it didn't factor late. Toronto had 29 total rebounds, including 19 offensive. New York had 50 rebounds but just 11 rebounds.