(5-24) (21-6)
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Injury Report
New York Knicks
Toronto Raptors Iman Shumpert -Dislocated Left Shoulder (OUT) DeMarr DeRozan - Torn left adductor longus tendon (OUT) JR Smith - Sore Left Heel (QUEST) - Cleanthony Early - Injured Right Knee (OUT) - Andrea Bargnani - Strained Right Calf (OUT) -
Hard to believe 1/3 of the season is already gone and the Knicks have the 2nd worst winning pct. in the league at .172 and the most losses at 24. With a near 90M team payroll and Dolan having laid out 60M for Phil Jackson and 25M for a rookie head coach, Knicks fans had higher expectations than this sad sack Knicks team that seems on the verge of collapsing with Melo saying he doesn't see the fight in the team late in games.
I tried looking this up but couldn't find the answer but does anyone know what team had the worst record before the ASG but still managed to make the playoffs. I doubt the Knicks with their record and no improvement in play so far will make the playoffs but it galls me that the highlight of this season may be that we get the number 1 pick to draft Okafor in June.
[h=2]Knicks-Raptors Preview[/h]
http://espn.go.com/nba/preview?id=400578692
Strong defense has keyed another impressive winning streak for the Toronto Raptors. They would appear to have a good chance to extend it with the offensively challenged New York Knicks coming to town.
The Raptors go for a season best-tying sixth consecutive victory Sunday against the injury-plagued Knicks, losers in 14 of 15.
Eastern Conference-leading Toronto (21-6) has limited opponents to an average of 91.0 points during its current run after yielding an average of 108.9 while going 5-4 in its previous nine games. The Raptors won six in a row Nov. 15-26, and also strung together five consecutive victories Nov. 4-11.
Toronto returns home after getting by Detroit 110-100 on Friday. Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points to lead six players in double figures for the Raptors, who had a season-high 60 points in the paint and outscored the Pistons 29-18 in the third quarter.
"We understand that you get a reset. You get a chance to kind of start the game over and put our effect on the game big time," point guard Kyle Lowry said. "That's just what we've been doing and coach (Dwane Casey) has really made our adjustments at halftime and we've been going from there."
No team in the NBA has played more home games than the Raptors, who are 13-3 on their own court. They're looking to take care of business against a Knicks team that is 2-12 away from Madison Square Garden before beginning a season-high six-game road trip Monday.
"The key thing is to get this home game (Sunday), make sure we come in with the right focus," Casey said. "We're coming in against a hungry, talented New York team. ... We can't overlook them before we go on the road."
The Knicks (5-24) have averaged 91.9 points during a 1-14 slide. New York was outscored 32-22 in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 99-90 defeat to Phoenix, its fourth straight loss.
"I can just see it out there on the court, that we don't believe in ourselves to be able to go down the stretch and win basketball games," All-Star forward Carmelo Anthony said.
Anthony had 25 points and a season-high 11 rebounds after sitting out two nights earlier with a nagging sore left knee and Jose Calderon matched a season-high with 21 points but the Knicks shot 39.8 percent.
Amare Stoudemire rested Saturday despite the absences of J.R. Smith (foot), Cleanthony Early (knee), Iman Shumpert (shoulder) and Andrea Bargnani (hamstring). Stoudemire should return Sunday, but the others aren't likely to be available.
"We just have to keep our focus, we know we have another one (Sunday) in Toronto," Jason Smith said. "Continue to work hard, continue to grind it out. It's a long season, we just have to keep our heads up, stay positive."
"We've had our fair share of injuries, that's for sure, but whoever's out there on the floor has to continue to play hard and go out there and perform."
The Knicks dropped this season's first meeting against Toronto, 95-90 in overtime last Sunday. Anthony had 34 points and is averaging 32.2 in his last five games against the Raptors.
Lowry is averaging 25.0 points on 51.6 percent shooting during a four-game stretch in the series. These teams have split six meetings north of the border since 2011-12.
Landry Fields appears to be OK after hitting the back of his head on the floor Friday. The former Knicks guard passed a series of concussion tests and participated in Saturday's practice.
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