Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Toronto Raptors 7:30 11/17/2017 [Game #15]

rady

Administrator
Staff member

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(8-6) -- (9-5)

VenueTVTIME
Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ONMSG7:30 PM EST


Probable starters:


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Injury Report

New York KnicksToronto Raptors
Joakim Noah - NBA Suspension (OUT)Norman Powell - Right Hip Pointer (DOUBT)
Ron Baker - Sprained left shoulder (OUT)Delon Wright - Right Shoulder (TBD)
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Game Preview

TORONTO -- The New York Knicks and the Toronto Raptors will meet for the first time this season on Friday night, each coming off uplifting, comeback victories on Wednesday.

The Knicks (8-6) defeated the Utah Jazz 106-101 after trailing by as many as 12 points in the third quarter. It was the third time in eight days, the Knicks rallied from a double-digit deficit to win and they are 7-3 in their last 10 games after dropping their first three games.

The Raptors (9-5) trailed the New Orleans Jazz by 14 points in the first quarter before coming back for a 125-116 victory after defeating the Houston Rockets on Tuesday to go 2-1 on a three-game road trip.

Both were significant victories, but the game Wednesday was particularly important for the Knicks to respond after blowing a 23-point lead in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday.

Both games were at home. The Knicks will play only their second game on the road this month when they visit the Air Canada Centre.

Kristaps Porzingis and Tim Hardaway Jr. teamed up to lead the fourth-quarter surge for the Knicks.

"We knew it was a must-win for us (Wednesday) to protect our home court, especially after a tough loss like that," said Porzingis, who scored 22 points against the Jazz. "We had to forget about that game (against the Cavaliers). This was a new game and we got it done."

The Toronto offense has been hot, scoring 129 points against Houston on Tuesday before falling four points shy of that to complete a challenging back-to-back set in New Orleans.

"I think we're making shots and getting shots that we want," said Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, who had 22 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists against the Pelicans. "I think everyone is confident in taking the shots we work on. Everybody has been consistently working on his game. Coaches are preaching when you've got open looks take them and be aggressive in all the things that you do."

C.J. Miles, signed in the offseason for his ability to make 3-pointers, has been doing just what was expected of him, going 5 of 9 from behind the arc Wednesday after going 6 of 9 against Houston.

"The guys are looking for me for one thing," Miles said. "We are doing a lot of things and moving the ball and because guys are being assertive in what they do it's allowing me to find gaps and spaces and guys can't just stay hugged up.

"At the same time, I have been watching a lot of film just seeing how I can stay active and not kind of get buried in the corners or not standing still or waiting for plays to be called because when plays are called it's really hard to get open."

The Knicks are getting some valuable play from rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina, who scored five of his seven points Wednesday in the fourth quarter.

"We have great confidence in him defensively," Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said. "It's great that a young guy comes into this league with more defensive principles than the offensive principles.

"He's going to grow and get better and better at the offensive side of it. It's hard to teach the other way. He does a great job. He's got long arms. Late in the game (Utah) tried to throw the ball in the corner. He didn't get sucked in. He kind of split guys and had those long arms out."

The Raptors will be without Delon Wright on Friday. He left the game Wednesday in the second quarter with a dislocated right shoulder. He was examined Thursday and the team was awaiting test results.

Toronto's Norman Powell did not play Tuesday or Wednesday after leaving the loss to the Boston Celtics on Sunday with a right hip pointer. He is day to day.

New York's Joakim Noah was inactive for the second straight game Wednesday since his reinstatement from a 20-game performance-enhancing drug suspension and it is not certain when he will return to the rotation.

(cbssports.com via STATS)
 

RunningJumper

Super Moderator
I want Hornacek to stick to the guys he's been playing, but I am interested in what Noah can do. Although maybe if he gets rest for a much longer time maybe he'll be even healthier.
 

mafra

Legend
Coach Horn finally sheds some insight in what the thought process is internally at MSG.

8-6 is nice and all, but remember.... all but 4 were home games.

?You go into every season with high hopes, but (playoffs) wasn?t what we?re focusing on,? Hornacek said. ?We were trying to lay a foundation and play a base where we could grow in three years to get to be a good team. We still have a lot of work to do. There are things we need to get better at. But we?re happy with where the guys are and the steps they?ve taken. Step 1 was to just make sure we played hard every night and the guys are doing it.?
 

tiger0330

Legend
After watching the Celts for several games this year, I'm becoming a fan of this position less bball system they play up there. Get 3-4 guys that have the length and athleticism to guard 1-4, play a swarming switching defense and you can win games. BOS beat CHA when 3 key guys shot 9-42 and beat the world champs yesterday shooting 30 pct 20 pct from 3, defense can win games. We went with a small lineup of Frank, CLee, THJ, KP and Dougie down the stretch that kind of looked like that BOS lineup of Kyrie, Brown, Tatum, Horford and Smart to me, I'd like to see more of that lineup during the game.
 

Kiyaman

Legend
After watching the Celts for several games this year, I'm becoming a fan of this position less bball system they play up there. Get 3-4 guys that have the length and athleticism to guard 1-4, play a swarming switching defense and you can win games. BOS beat CHA when 3 key guys shot 9-42 and beat the world champs yesterday shooting 30 pct 20 pct from 3, defense can win games. We went with a small lineup of Frank, CLee, THJ, KP and Dougie down the stretch that kind of looked like that BOS lineup of Kyrie, Brown, Tatum, Horford and Smart to me, I'd like to see more of that lineup during the game.


Wsup Rady .... Thanks for the Game-Thread .. the Raptors has been playing on a high ceiling the past 10 games matching Boston high level of B.ball. They say Ibaka might be questionable in this game after his left knee swelled-up after the back to back game vs Houston then Pelicans.

Wsup Tiger .... Boston coach Brad Stevens has been using 12 players in his 10 man rotation, plus having each player co-exist well on the defensive end of the court for stops .. Brown n Smart co-exist well at locking down the passing-lane, plus they switch well at defending the perimeter.
Boston has some good players in their rotation, but their coaching tactics has Boston on a 14 game winning streak.
I'm looking for coach Horn to grab a little of Brad Stevens madness to add to our roster n rotation tonite vs the Raptors
 

Kiyaman

Legend
Coach Horn finally sheds some insight in what the thought process is internally at MSG.

8-6 is nice and all, but remember.... all but 4 were home games.

?You go into every season with high hopes, but (playoffs) wasn?t what we?re focusing on,? Hornacek said. ?We were trying to lay a foundation and play a base where we could grow in three years to get to be a good team. We still have a lot of work to do. There are things we need to get better at. But we?re happy with where the guys are and the steps they?ve taken. Step 1 was to just make sure we played hard every night and the guys are doing it.?

I do not want to see a non-creative coach Horn as our head coach next season .. i dont care if we do end the season as a .500 team.
 
Thanks again, Rady.

Through the 1st 150 games of his career, KP has more blocks than either Kevin Garnett or Dwight Howard did and he has hit more 3-pointers than either Reggie Miller or Kevin Durant did. Yikes.
 

and1

Rotation player
nice thread.
not a good sign when you foul a 3pt shooter twice within just a couple of minutes.
 

and1

Rotation player
just as i was typing 'knicks building a house out there in toronto', frank hits a 3.
but they're still throwing up too many bricks. damn.
 

and1

Rotation player
no disrespect to jack, because i like what he's done for us so far this season, but he should NOT have to be the leading scorer for us against any team lol.
 
Terrible 1st half shooting. Lucky to only be down 14 with 6 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. Hard to believe we can actually still steal this one. Got to keep chipping away. Let?s go Knicks!
 

and1

Rotation player
pretty disappointing, not so much that they lost to the raptors, but they just did not look very good.
KP and lee both with an awful night. was it injuries? a bad elbow and a nagging hamstring? hopefully by monday they'll be feeling better. a win against the clippers would be a nice bounce back. and we get to see the raptors again next wednesday.
we have to stop relying on late game 4th qtr heroics, especially when we're on the road.
 

The Dragon

Benchwarmer
Were they sleep walking? No desire to play at all from KP, as if somebody forced him to play the game. No defence, no shooting.... were they partying late night?
 

mafra

Legend
1st Quarter: KP is 0-6. Ntikilina turnover and then bad foul gifts 6 to TOR. NYK missed a dunk and 4 layups. Refs gift TOR 5 FTs (McDermott didn't foul Miles, and nobody touched DeRozan and even if they did he was dribbling, not shooting).

Terrible effort for NYK and KP. Toronto defenders allowed to shove, push, and stiff arm and we allowed them to dictate our action.

2nd Quarter: All NYK shooters not named Jack are 3-28 until Frank drains a 3.

After all the physical contact allowed by refs, I'm still flummoxed as to how ref called a foul on Dougie when CJ Miles obviously and purposely jumped into the defender. Terrible call. Then again that same ref misses the worst and most blatant travel ever (Lowry slipped and dragged his pivot foot about 3 feet).

Looks like Knicks have a lot of Ls coming folks. We won't win many road games.

It's 42-23 and I think I've seen enough already.
 

mafra

Legend
?We realized this game that he energy we get from the home crowd, we?re not going to get that on the road,? Porzingis said. ?You got to find the energy from the inside.?

The Knicks? starting five combined to shoot 18 for 50.

?We missed shots we usually make and let that affect our defense,?? Hornacek said. ?They got easy ones by just running. They played harder, cut harder ? something on the road that we can?t have happen.?

If you're not on the tank bandwagon, brace yourself. This season will spiral out of control quickly come Jan (when NY plays a ton of road games).

Between all the road games and KP's body inability to stay fresh after Oct-Nov.... An avg KP, along with Jack-Lee backcourt combo, and road games means this team will, most likely, be close to ten games under .500 by the All-Star game.

Come March.... our focus will be begging for a high lottery pick.

The Knicks mustered just 36 points in the first half, shooting 22.9 percent (11 of 48) ? their worst percentage in a half since Dec. 7, 2005.

?We let our offense affect us on the defensive end,?? Enes Kanter said.
 
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tiger0330

Legend
“We realized this game that he energy we get from the home crowd, we’re not going to get that on the road,” Porzingis said. “You got to find the energy from the inside.”

The Knicks’ starting five combined to shoot 18 for 50.

“We missed shots we usually make and let that affect our defense,’’ Hornacek said. “They got easy ones by just running. They played harder, cut harder — something on the road that we can’t have happen.”

If you're not on the tank bandwagon, brace yourself. This season will spiral out of control quickly come Jan (when NY plays a ton of road games).

Between all the road games and KP's body inability to stay fresh after Oct-Nov.... An avg KP, along with Jack-Lee backcourt combo, and road games means this team will, most likely, be close to ten games under .500 by the All-Star game.

Come March.... our focus will be begging for a high lottery pick.

The Knicks mustered just 36 points in the first half, shooting 22.9 percent (11 of 48) — their worst percentage in a half since Dec. 7, 2005.

“We let our offense affect us on the defensive end,’’ Enes Kanter said.
One of those games. Still so far I'd rather be where the Knicks are w/o Melo than OKC with Melo, OKC blew a 23 pt lead to lose to SA. Melo missed 2 18 ft jumpers down the stretch and his toe was barely on the 3 pt line when he took and made a tying 3 pt shot that replay confirmed was not a 3. ESPN guys called it a soul searching loss, that's a lot of salary on the books for a below .500 record.
 

mafra

Legend
For sure Tiger. We're a team now; not 'the Melo with a bunch of guys band' anymore.

I'm OK with the losing. The only way for us to turn this around is to secure 1 more lottery pick. Even then, we're gonna need a shrewd trade and a big free agent signing to complete the work.

Get a lottery pick and find a way to get Brandon Ingrahm from LAK. Then watch this team take off...

I'm not rooting for losses, but I see the big picture and the best route to get there.

Let's hope we find takers for Jack, Lee, one of our centers, MB.

I think we're learning that keeping Kanter and McDermott could be an option....

I just want to see Horn get these cats to buy into his system and to play defense. Keep seeing a team.

I also think KP should have his elbow drained. If it keeps festering and bothering him.... just care of it before he starts to pick up bad habits.
 
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