The shorthanded Knicks — who are what the Raptors used to be — defeated the Raptors — who are what the Knicks used to be

“And when you look into the abyss,” Nietzsche wrote, “the abyss looks into you.” A lot of talk around the Knicks of late has been about what they’re not. They’re not a title contender – a cardinal sin to Charles Barkley, who in 16 NBA seasons passed the second round exactly once. The Knicks reached the second round last season but are unworthy of our attention because too many nights they don’t feature the game’s best player; so says Kenny Smith, who during a decade in the pros, outside of two years where Hakeem Olajuwon owned the league while its best player was shagging fly balls, never got past the second round. Every week these fossils appear on our screens expecting to be fondly remembered for the same things they castigate and criminalize today’s players for.   

Last night, talk around the Knicks centered on whom they won’t feature for a few months. Mitchell Robinson, superfreak, has an Achilles heel, it turns out: his ankle. After a surgical procedure, Robinson will be out the next few months, a seismic absence on both ends: New  York’s defense depends on him snuffing out paint threats and patroling the perimeter, while Mitch’s offensive rebounds are the hemoglobin in the Knicks’ lifeblood. What would we see from the team without its arguably least replaceable player?

What we saw was no more or less interesting than who we saw it against. The Toronto Raptors are currently the defendants in a case brought by the Knicks, who allege that a former Knick employee took a job with the team up north and shared confidential Knicks information with the Raptors. The suit itself seems pretty low-stakes, in terms of its main complaints; more interesting by far is imagining what if any political impacts it has, since in the wake of the suit James Dolan resigned from two powerful league committees (advisory/finance and media) while the Knicks publicly accused commissioner Adam Silver of being BFFs with Raptors’ owner Larry Tanenbaum and hopelessly biased. If anything, these teams should be suing and countersuing for copyright infringement. Of each other.

The Knicks won 136-130 over a Raptors team that vibe-wise has the same stale feel as the Knicks did 10 years ago. You remember? When the Knicks had talented names on their roster, but as a whole equaled less than the sum of their parts? There are people who can play on this Toronto team, names that still carry some weight around the Association. Pascal Siakam is a two-time All-Star and All-NBA honoree; he scored 20 points last night and made more than half his shots, to go with four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Franchise cornerstone Scottie Barnes, playing the best ball of his young career, also had an efficient 20/6/5. OG Anunoby scored 29 while shooting 55% from the field. A fourth starter, Dennis Schröder, also reached the 20-point mark while making half his shots. With Mitch absent, Raptor big Jakob Poeltl nabbed six offensive rebounds; Toronto was a handful and then some all night on the glass. They shot 49% as a team and they got to the free throw line 30 times. And none of it ever mattered.

Because just like the 2014 Knicks, who boasted Carmelo and Amar’e and J.R. and Bargnani (maybe “boast” is too strong for Andrea, though he did average 15 a game in Toronto before being traded to New York), there is in fact an entire other side of the court besides offense. And this is where the Raptors are so confusing. Anunoby was All-Defense a year ago. Siakam and Barnes have each received votes for that honor more than once; that trio played 37, 37 and 38 minutes last night. Poeltl was top-five in blocked shots two years ago and is often hailed by advanced stats for his abilities defending the rim. Yet despite both Mitch and Immanuel Quickley missing the game with injury, New York shot 61% from the field and 59% from deep. And it wasn’t a hot quarter or an unsustainable half. The Knicks were on pace for around 140 points all night.

The Knicks couldn’t miss a three, at any point. They made five of eight in the first quarter, four of eight in the second and third, then four of five in the fourth. Randle led the attack with 34, eight rebounds and five assists. Jalen Brunson, RJ Barrett and Josh Hart each had tres treys, while Quentin Grimes and Donte DiVincenzo continue to play role swap: DDV started and took only two shots (he did have five assists), while Grimes erupted again off the bench for 11 points in seven second-quarter minutes en route to a season-high 19. After scoring a total of 16 points over his last seven games as a starter, Grimes is averaging 16 in his last two as a reserve. Isaiah Hartenstein and Jerico Sims combined for 13 points, 15 rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.

The going gets a lot tougher now; there are no teams on the upcoming schedule who’ll remind you of the Phil Knicks. Tomorrow the Knicks open a five-game road trip in Utah; a Jazz team featuring Walker Kessler and Lauri Markkanen is going to test anyone missing size. Friday the Knicks face Phoenix; better believe Jusuf Nurkić will look to assert himself. Then it’s Saturday and Monday in Los Angeles to face the Clippers and Lakers, before the Knicks follow a trip to Barclays with back-to-back home games against the Bucks, who I’m not sure the Knicks have played this year (sarcasm font).

We’ll have to wait on results from those games, but it’s worth remembering what the Raptors used to be like, and how there are worse fates than emulating them. Over an 11-year stretch from 2002-2013, Toronto only had a winning record once. They turned the corner by building a young team (10 of their 11 leaders in minutes in 2013-14 were in their 20s) that coalesced around a you-can’t-measure-his-heart point guard and an imperfect but explosive lead scorer. They won 48 games one year. They won 49 the next. But against the better teams, they rarely featured the game’s best player on their team. They were easy to dismiss. They kept winning games, kept accumulating winning players, but Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were never enough to get past LeBron. 

The Knicks have clearly turned a corner following a long losing stretch of seasons. 16 minutes from Evan Fournier are the only playing time that’s gone to someone over 30. Brunson continues to play at an All-Star level. Randle is up to 22 points a game, nearly a miracle considering his struggles to return to form the first few weeks. The Knicks won 47 games a year ago. They’re currently on pace to win 48. But against the league’s better teams, they keep coming up short.

So does anyone who writes them off. Smith cited Jayson Tatum, Paolo Banchero and Donovan Mitchell when accusing the Knicks of coming up short. I won’t argue about Tatum, though I’d point out there are probably 25 other teams who’d take Tatum over their best player. I’m not going to waste time slandering Banchero, who just turned 21 and has done nothing but impress in his 15 minutes as a pro; I wouldn’t put him above Randle or Brunson at this point, but that’s no crime. 

No, my gripe is with a pair of 60-year-olds not too proud to collect a handsome paycheck for speaking on TV to millions and millions of basketball fans while showing no professional pride or respect for their audience’s intelligence. Brunson has directly and dramatically outplayed Donovan in the playoffs each of the past two years, knocking him out in Utah and Cleveland. It’s not “just an opinion” as we near 2024 to claim Mitchell > Brunson. It’s media malpractice. 

After years of winning, the Raptors came to experience sustained competence as a backhanded compliment. One day a superstar nobody saw becoming available did, Toronto struck, and by the end of the season Kawhi Leonard was leading them to a title. The Knicks are not yet at the point where sustained competence gets weaponized against them, especially with one of their most irreplaceable players out for a while. So for now, just like plugging Sims into the starting lineup over Hartenstein, not much has changed. Hopefully the Knicks just keep on doing what they’ve been doing. Hopefully the abyss looks back and nods, content with what it sees.