The Knicks head to…TAMPA to play the Toronto Raptors tonight, as Canada still won’t let sports teams play in the country, so the Raptors are playing their home games in Tampa. Amusingly, Kevin Knox is from Tampa, so he gets to play at his hometown. Larry Brown would start him over Barrett.
Burks and Quickley are out tonight and while Smith is with the team, he’s unlikely to play. Austin Rivers, though, will be playing without getting any scrimmages in, so that’ll be interesting.
The Raptors are 0-3 and are struggling with the loss of both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka, replacing them with Aron Baynes and gum and spit. Fred VanVleet has been terrible, as well.
If the Knicks win, they’ll be over .500 for the latest in a season since they were over .500 after Game 33 of the 2017-18 season. That’s insane. Not only that, but due to the vagaries of the NBA schedule this year, this means that the Knicks would enter 2021 with a winning record if they won tonight, something that hasn’t happened with this team since Jason Kidd was still on the team! Game 33 of the 2017-18 season was in December.
If you’re going to play the Raptors, getting them while they are 0-3 is a good time to get them!
Let’s go over .500, Knicks!