Raptors 120, Knicks 105: Empty as the Scotiabank Arena
The Knicks, missing a gigantic chunk of their roster (both number of players missing and size of players missing) ran into something not even Toronto fans have seen for a while: a fully operational Raptors team, who had Thibs waving the white flag by the fourth quarter.
Who was even playing?
Let’s start with the obvious: our Knicks went into this game missing beleaguered star Julius Randle (COVID protocols), recently productive gigantic human Mitchell Robinson (COVID protocols), oft-bruised bouncy blocker Nerlens Noel (COVID protocols), and their two main ball handlers in Derrick Rose (recuperating from surgery) and Kemba Walker (resting his old knees).
There are many ways to summarize this! You could say they were missing $68 million in salary. You could say they were missing three of their four biggest bigs, including their roster’s only big wing. They were missing their two strongest penetration threats — the only three-level scorers not named Julius. And lately, the only three-level scoring threats, period. Accordingly, Obi Toppin was promoted to starting power forward, facing a Raptors team that seems like they employ solely power forwards. Taj Gibson replaced Mitch at the 5. Deuce McBride ended up starting, though Immanuel Quickley played the lion’s share of competitive point guard minutes and RJ Barrett and Alec Burks joined IQ in facilitating the bulk of the offense. Backup center minutes went to not only Toppin, but to Kevin Knox. Yes, it was weird.
Meanwhile, the home team playing in an empty arena (thanks to very sensible municipal ordinances from Toronto) was for the first time in a long time largely healthy. Soon-to-be All-Star Fred VanVleet was the conductor. Flamethrowing Gary Trent Jr. was ready to roll. Improving gigantic person OG Anunoby was likely relishing this matchup, given his 36-point Mona Lisa vs the Knicks earlier this year. Pascal Siakam — who had a rough go last year thanks to a major bout with COVID — returned from an absence a few games ago and has been putting up 27, 13, and seven per game (not a typo) since. Rookie revelation (16/8/3/1/1 on 50/37 splits) Scottie Barnes was back from COVID protocols. Prez’s favorite young BX hooper Precious Achiuwa was ready to run up and down the court and make questionable decisions per usual, along with the undersized center Khem Birch. Longboi Chris ‘‘the black Luke Kornet’’ Boucher was also healthy.
That’s a competitive squad! There is a very reasonable argument that, before the jump ball was tossed, the Raptors had anywhere from three to five guys producing better of late than anyone who lined up in blue and orange.
More than that, the group of lengthy but inconsistent wings known as The Raptors are a particularly bad match up for the Knicks, even at full strength. The Knicks have exactly one big wing: Julius Randle. Obi is a kind of his own category, but closer to a small big with neat skills than a wing. That means the Knicks (especially without Mitch, who is far bigger than any of those wings, large as they may be) are at a size disadvantage at nearly every position, with the exception of point guard, and even that is misleading because Fred is notoriously stout and smart and strong on both ends despite his stature. With all the switching in the modern NBA, that spelled trouble for the Bockers.
The Raptors’ size and high-intensity, high-pressure defense flummoxed the Knicks earlier this year, leading to a parade of turnovers and awful transition defense. Why? Lack of composure and decision making. The way to beat an aggressive defense is not by doubling down on slow, deliberate processes, but to use that aggression against the Raptors themselves. Decisive ball movement and dribble penetration are easily available to those who want it vs. Toronto, which is (along with COVID) why they are — amazingly, if you have only watched them vs. the Knicks — a bottom-10 defense in the league thus far. Unfortunately, the Knicks… do not have those things. A bad recipe, indeed.
OK, but were they playing basketball?
It was an ugly game on both ends, but especially from the Knicks. What most folks predicted would happen, happened. The game was nowhere near as close as the score, and if my memory serves me right, this may have been the first game this year where Thibs emptied the bench for an entire fourth quarter. Only one person was brave enough to stomach it in person:
The Raps spanked the Knicks, bludgeoning them inside and letting their star guard do the lion’s share of perimeter marksmanship, which he was happy to do, scoring 36 through three quarters including seven threes, all of which were of the very disrespectful and very difficult variety. He was also almost always at the right place at the right time — spacing the floor out to the logo, threatening to drive, directing his swingmen on defense, you name it. An absolute stud, and unfortunately New York was on the wrong end of a white-hot shooting night from him.
I know a ton of the Knicks fanbase was optimistic coming off of our shaky win streak and even coming off our disappointing loss to OKC, because we have all longed for a bit more ball movement and more visible engagement and sharper execution of late. More minutes for erstwhile sophomores Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley were supposed to provide that, and supposed to generate higher levels of play from the surrounding Knicks. More of RJB’s newfound inside-the-paint aggression (19 drives vs. the Thunder) was supposed to help get the Canadian Capitan back on track in his hometown. Sadly, none of that was fated to be. It was u-g-l-y.
A brief summary of a weird game
The Knicks started the first quarter off sharp enough, with everyone ranging from Deuce to RJ to Evan to Obi driving and moving the ball. Unfortunately, the solid shots they generated didn’t fall, and the Raptors quickly pressed their size advantage to dominate the paint and took an early lead. Deuce got a quick hook, to much approval from those who thought IQ got a short stick minutes-wise vs. the Thunder. The Knicks did indeed battle back, closing the deficit to three points by quarter’s end. Despite that, the Raptors’ advantages were abundantly clear. Despite not being able to get it going from distance, they were able to get to the rim a ton in both the half court (fueled by lackluster defense of various sorts) and in transition (generating turnovers galore). Free throws helped as well — the refs were quick to call fouls, and the Raptors were quick to take advantage of it in the paint, just ramming Knicks defenders and challenging the Knicks to not be in the wrong position, while challenging refs to swallow a whistle. They had 15 free throws in the first half, but funny enough, both teams had 12 fouls by halftime — RJ and some others began forcing the issue themselves towards the end of the first half, when I stupidly thought they could carry that newfound aggression and some shooting regression to make the game competitive in the second half.
This was the Raptors’ first half shot chart. Much attention was given to the Knicks’ defense, but there was very much one specific issue plaguing the Knicks: dealing with physicality both en route to and at the rim. The green half circle might as well say MITCH, HELP. Guys like Evan Fournier had his too-customary unacceptable instances of matador D on the perimeter. AB reverted to younger AB where he would just get knocked out of a play and reach for a steal and not worry about helping helpers. A barrage of pick-and-rolls and semi-transition attacks by OG, Pascal, Scottie, and FVV gave our guys — and especially RJ — fits. The refs were quick to make matching the Raptors’ physicality a difficult challenge for the Knicks.
Nick Nurse and the Raps predictably and smartly started off the game with a ton of bully ball, with OG, Pascal, and even Fred bullying the Knicks down low repeatedly.
That was only the start of the problem — our Thibs disciples are used to baiting defenders into midrange jumpers, but this Raptors team is wired to just simply eat up that space and get closer to the rim until they can Euro-step their way to a layup, a baby hook, or a foul. Especially on days like yesterday when the Knicks’ only center is Taj. So as the game went on and some Knicks adjusted to try and give OG and Pascal and Scottie space (more flood-type team defense looks) to take shots rather than bully on, only OG really took the bait. The other two continued to pick New York apart, eating up space most of the time and also sprinkling in timely jumpers, hitting elbow passes to cutters, etc.
Once the Knicks defenders were already on their heels, they could then try to capitalize on mistakes. For example: watch this play unfold a few times:
AB gets blown by after a poor closeout, RJ steps up to wall off FVV (fun fact: FVV rarely is driving to score, but somehow convinces teams he will score 95% of the time), Evan seamlessly boxes out RJ’s man (the extremely handsome Yuta Watanabe) and points out Barnes’ impending cut. Barnes makes the cut and gets a dump off from FVV with AB defending nobody. RJ makes a valiant effort to contest but Scottie too tall, sadly.
Adding to the frustration was an insane inability to grab a hold of, well, anything. The Knicks were out-rebounded 44-30, which is somewhat predictable given they had Obi and Knox minutes at the 5, but it made it no less easy a pill to swallow.
Not sure what that was from Obi, but it surely wasn’t a box out or a rebound. Also, there’s no easy way to look this up, but this game also had the most instances of ‘‘Knicks almost secure a rebound or a loose ball but do not, out of bounds off of the Knicks’’ possessions I’ve ever seen. Knox was usually the one with the butterfingers. I don’t even know if half of those register as second-chance points since they aren’t off of offensive rebounds, but the Raptors took full advantage of those possessions.
Shit like this:
Or this:
Anyway, here below is the Knicks’ first half shot chart.
The Raptors, despite their long wings, don’t have much rim protection from Achiuwa and Birch and Boucher. On the instances where the Knicks could navigate the thicket of arms, guys like Evan, RJ, and IQ had chances to score at the rim. Unfortunately, Toronto did well limiting access to the rim because most of New York’s guys either didn’t have the skill to break down a defense off the bounce for good shots (RJ and IQ) or didn’t have the will to break down a defense off the bounce (hi, Fournier). For all of the handwringing — justified, to be clear — about Julius Randle’s incredible carelessness with the ball this year, the Raptors’ length had the entire Knicks team spooked and channeling Julius in that respect. Loose dribbles were poked away, interior passes were attempted without real chances of success, alley-oop passes weren’t recalibrated for Toronto’s length, resets and other basic passes were turned into fast breaks, and more.
Everything was made all the harder because of the Knicks’ lack of shooting. Their three first half above-the-break threes made were one each by Evan, Obi, and IQ. By the time the game was effectively over, the end of the third quarter, Evan had taken 10 of the Knicks’ 19 threes and had four of their nine makes. The Raps really didn’t pay attention to anyone else. Tracking stats are evil, but if you watch the attempted threes, most are good, but guys couldn’t hit shit. The Raptors, for all their individual defensive prowess, had pretty awful team defense, consistently over-collapsing into the paint since they were ignoring most Knicks stationed at the 3-point line. Very Thibs-esque. They just couldn’t capitalize.
Return of the Third Quarter of Doom
All of the stuff I mentioned above applies here. RJ and Evan got a bit of momentum for themselves, with Evan hitting 3-6 from three and 2-2 from the line in the quarter, and RJ going 3-6 from the field, throwing a couple nifty passes, and going 3-3 from the FT line. The Knicks were within striking distance for a few minutes.
Again, Toronto capitalized here. Obi thought Evan was gonna come off the strong side corner to, I dunno, protect the rim? Lol. RJ and IQ correct him afterward that he was supposed to leave the much-further-from-the-ballhandler weak-side corner and take his power forward ass under the hoop, allowing RJ to then X out on both Pascal and OG.
Above all else, one other difference separated the third quarter from the first and second. Y’all saw that red shot chart from the Raps? Fred decided to pretty much fix things on his own after halftime, scoring 19 in the third.
Final notes before I memory hole this game forever
I wanna talk a little about our latest punching bag, Evan Fournier. Same day as this recap I’ll be dropping a 25-minute video on PnR defense, largely starring him and Mitch (and usually not in the best light), so please don’t think I’m some homer out here.
EF ended the game with a Nick Young-esque 20/0/0 line. Despite providing much of the Knicks’ spacing, he struggled to impact the game elsewhere, especially after the first quarter. I actually thought he did a good job with help defense and box outs in the first half though, rewatching it. Literally no buckets from the Raps came from EF mistakes, and he didn’t make any egregious ones. Fast forwarding a bit to the third, when the Knicks lost the game for realz, these three plays were almost certainly the ones that had people up in arms whilst watching:
The first two shots by Pascal on him at the rim were achieved differently — one by the Raps taking advantage of transition mismatches, one half-court mismatches. Evan stayed in front of P, there’s just literally nothing someone of his athleticism and strength levels can do with Pascal at that point. P sonned him, but it’s not like P wouldn’t do that to most of the Knicks’ players in that situation, to me. I don’t think that is some horrid defense. Now… the third bucket in the clip is the one ANNOYING play of the game on defense for EF for me — he was busy complaining to the ref asking for a travel (the same kind they called on Quentin, wrongly) and took himself out of the play, leaving P open for a easy floater. THAT is egregious.
Anyhow, going back to the first half, after the first quarter he came out for a rest where Grimes got some extended tick well into the second, during which the Toronto lead went from three to 13. That wasn’t Grimes’ fault at all — he was just on the court for a lot of shenanigans.
EF had a few solid drives and passes early on, but as the game continued he seemed content letting IQ and RJ do the majority of the ball handling. THAT is where I took most issue with EF tonight, not his defense. He made way less errors on D than the other players. He’s playing on a bum ankle, and I suspect after the first it took its toll, because it’s not like he’s been shy about being a lead scorer on a bum team before. He’s probably gritting it out due to the Knicks’ roster issues and our lack of shooters, but I won’t blame anyone for wanting Grimes to take more of his minutes. I will say if folks are curious, though, they should take another look at that stretch in the second where the lead ballooned. It’s a perfect encapsulation of why while Grimes is great, he’s a lot less valuable when you don’t have guys penetrating much, unfortunately making Grimes himself more of an icing on the cake than dish of veggies. Don’t @ me about this metaphor, I’m not tired from rewatching this, YOU’RE TIRED.
The Knicks’ main ball handlers — RJ, IQ — combined for a Randle-esaue seven assists and eight turnovers. The other guy who shoulda been trying to handle it more, EF, ended with zero assists and one turnover. Bleh, all around.
AB did his thing on offense, continuing his quest of late to draw fouls and drive and not just be a 3-point chucker. He was the only player completely unbothered by the Raptors’ length, confident enough in his handle in a crowd to not worry. He has been playing pretty good defense lately too, but today he was (along with Obi, in my opinion) easily the worst offender (defender?). Thibs has been pressing a lot of wrong buttons lately, but I don’t envy his task: AB is his best perimeter guy vs. pressure but was awful on D; EF was limited on O and a passing grade on D, but was most of New York’s spacing and shooting and the only guy the Raps respected; Grimes is the most disruptive shooter and defender, but doesn’t give you anything inside the arc or initiate anything. Balancing those three is harder than we want to admit.
Speaking of Obi, a quick note and rant: Obi took mostly spot-up threes the entire first half. He is loathe to call his own number or hijack a play, to almost Ntilikina-esque levels, even when it could benefit the team. Thibs, far worse, refuses to see Obi for what he is and call for PnRs with his ball handlers and Obi, instead preferring to use a rolling Taj or even, amazingly, Kevin fucking Knox. Every time Obi touched the ball, good things happened, and I wish he had more occasions to handle the ball or get passes on the move. But the combination of Thibs’ obliviousness, Knick ball handlers deciding to not call Obi to screen, and him not taking the reins was an unfortunate combo. Going forward, while Randle is out, I hope to see the Knicks’ ball handlers involve him more, our coach involve him more, and for him himself to take the reins more. For example, he does almost always executes handoffs without so much as looking at the rim. SPREAD YOUR WINGS OBADIAH! Fuck these other dudes!
He ended up being the only guy to play the first three quarters and garbage time, resulting in an unheard-of 45 minutes for him. He scored a bunch during garbage time, giving him a nice stat line of 19/6/6/1/2, much to the chagrin of my fantasy team. It should be noted that most of those dimes came earlier, not during garbage time.
IQ had a rough game, especially handling pick-and-rolls with FVV a zillion feet from the rim. Most guards would have trouble with that, though. He’s been New York’s most consistent perimeter defender all year by far, so I have no problem giving him a pass. He was also visibly more hesitant on offense as the game went on after a few shaky passes, drives, and layups — bothered by Toronto’s length. I have no doubt he will shake it off and memory hole this game just like me.
Deuce was benched after a short stint to begin the game. I know a lot of folks were clamoring for IQ to start, for good reason. I know this isn’t the team to go small against and double down on short back courts. I still would have liked to see Deuce get more minutes as a guy who is more careful with the ball than most, if not all of the Knicks’ perimeter players. Maybe he got pulled because he wasn’t particularly aggressive looking for his own shot. Who knows.
Prez out!
