2021-22 Game Thread: New York Knicks vs. Toronto Raptors

The Knicks host the somewhat surprising Toronto Raptors tonight at the Garden.

Luckily for the Knicks, one of the main reasons that the Raptors have looked pretty good so far this season despite missing Pascal Siakam all season has been the strong play of rookie Scottie Barnes…who won’t play tonight.

So that’s good news!

Nerlens Noel likely remains out with his sore knee. That’s a shame. But he has a chance to suit up tonight, let’s hope it happens!

This should be a fun one to watch. The Raptors give it their all out there, but sans Barnes, this should be a very winnable game for the Knicks.

ARE THE KNICKS STILL ON PACE FOR 56 WINS? Yes, my prediction is looking, as Billy Crystal would say, mah-valous right now.

As part of our all-poll content (which we all know is the reason for the Knicks’ turnaround since 2020), I’ll ask about the exciting Raptors rookie…

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Let’s go, Knicks!

233 replies on “2021-22 Game Thread: New York Knicks vs. Toronto Raptors”

I’m expecting a bounce back game from Julius,
the Dwarfes have a stinging defense but we must destroy them on the boards.
Please don’t play down to the competition…

Let’s Go Knicks!

JK47:
The Raptors are a scrappy little team. The Scraptors?

You can’t be a scrappy team if Ron Baker isn’t on your roster

d-mar: You can’t be a scrappy team if Ron Baker isn’t on your roster

We need a 15-man roster of Knicks “pets” — crappy fan faves. Led by Frank and Ron. Kenny “Sky” Walker maybe? Landry Fields…

Impressing first quarter for Jarrett Allen,
the Cavs surprisingly crushing the Hornets…

By the way? the Hawks are a good test for my theory that the Wizards are actually pretty good

Ok average guess for tonight’s game is 37.6 (excluding the outlier entry).
Average guess on Randle’s line is 22-10-6.

High score is Z-man at 48 (excluding the outlier)
Low score is Hubert at 27.

Good luck!

Randle with a different energy,
Fournier with a bad start redeemed with the three,
Mitch dominating on the boards as hoped,
Toronto’s defense is very aggressive…

Randle is playing way smarter so far this game. I’ve seen maybe one play I didn’t like. That’s nothing.

Scintillating first quarter for Randle,
shooting in the flow, smart passing, always in control.

Sorry, I said Swifty but I meant KnewYourKnicks.

Also, based on Mike K’s post above, I strongly suggest KYK changes him name to “The Outlier.”

Randle can throw that pass to RJ to close out any game he likes 😉

EDIT: Or hit that three …

Not gonna check from my seat but wonder if Randle’s live TS% is already approaching last year’s hahahahahahaha

haha, me too, Unreason. I went the contrarian route and bet on him to underperform. He might surpass my entry in the 1st quarter.

the bank is open!

Randle ends the quarter at 18 4 3=25. If he sits out the rest of the game, I win.

Randle’s TS% breaking 60 after tonight

Also Anunoby is taking a leap

I think IQ was cursed in the off-season. It’s the only explanation for what’s happening

The most impressive part is that nothing was forced, except maybe the bank shot at the end,
with this teammates he just needs to let the game flow and he’s learning…

The offense is so pretty right now. Did Thibs make them run laps after the Pelicans game?

This damn bar always takes the Knicks off the one tv it’s on and I have to fight to get them back! Damn it!

Mitch is like a lid on the hoop. Toronto is spooked by him when they get into the paint.

I would guess that the majority of posters here know how good McAdoo was. It was absurd beyond belief that he didn’t make the original 50 greatest list. It didn’t help his cause that he played in Buffalo during his best years.

Are we allowed to criticize some of Randle choices without being labeled as haters?
Just asking…

I’ll say this…even the scrubby teams missing guys are giving 110% effort. Toronto, Pelicans, Orlando…

Kemba took a quick pull up 3 at the end there to ensure the Knicks got a 2-for-1 and I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a Knick do that in 8 years.

Meanwhile, Randle only increased his total to 28, so I’m still alive 🙂

I have an irrational fear of Trent Jr, as if he’s always one step away from going Terrence Ross on us. Doesn’t help that we’re just leaving him so open.

Mike Kurylo:
Halftime Randle 18-6-4 = 28. So if you double that (and you shouldn’t) 56 is the likely outcome, and Z-man is the winner.

As usual, I’m half right…

Max:
Are we allowed to criticize some of Randle choices without being labeled as haters?
Just asking…

no..it’s not allowed to talk about how ridiculous it is when we have walker that this guy thinks it is optimal for him to bring the ball up the court and walker to run to the corner like he’s obi toppin …i just don’t understand where this mindset developed that this is a good plan..also, someone mentioned this yesterday or day before…he never rebounds and looks to pass it up court…he just stands there and then brings it up himself..its maddening..

TheClashFan:
This teams does have its problems with pesky, undermanned opponents.

I think it’s.a thing across the NBA. Was it Barkley who said the early season is rough because the bad teams don’t realize that they suck yet?

Z-man:
I’ll say this…even the scrubby teams missing guys are giving 110% effort. Toronto, Pelicans, Orlando…

Two teams with fresh coaches trying to create something, and one of the best coaches in the league. It’s not a coincidence, the Raptors lack talent but they just outworked the Knicks in the 2nd quarter and it showed, very disciplined defensively, very organized on offense.

This damn bar always takes the Knicks off the one tv it’s on and I have to fight to get them back! Damn it!

ha, what you drinking and eating on there bidiong?

Just droppin by to say that I am happy with our team. Not just the way we play but our players seems to be happy with their roles and it really look like a team (not built like a super team).
On top of that our cap space is flexible and we have picks. Goal now is to keep it up and go deep in the playoffs.
The process seems right this time.

pepper: no..it’s not allowed to talk about how ridiculous it is when we have walker that this guy thinks it is optimal for him to bring the ball up the court and walker to run to the corner like he’s obi toppin …i just don’t understand where this mindset developed that this is a good plan..also, someone mentioned this yesterday or day before…he never rebounds and looks to pass it up court…he just stands there and then brings it up himself..its maddening..

I mentioned it yesterday and today he’s 6-for-6 in grabbing a DReb, don’t look for the PG and dribble it over half court.

Max: I mentioned it yesterday and today he’s 6-6 in grabbing a DReb, don’t look for the PG and dribble it over half court.

i’ve been watching kemba’s body language on those plays and I sense his isn’t happy with it…he kind of sulks over to the side and looks at Randle as a turnover just waiting to happen…

heavencent35:
Just droppin by to say that I am happy with our team.Not just the way we play but our players seems to be happy with their roles and it really look like a team (not built like a super team).
On top of thatour cap space is flexible and we have picks.Goal now is to keep it up and go deep in the playoffs.
The process seems right this time.

Nice to hear from you hc!

It’s a cliche but Randle would really do well to just let the game come to him more often. Some of these doubles are easy assists waiting to happen and he’s still forcing it.

Somehow the box score shows Randle with only 2 turnovers. Seemed like 10

But for the half 18 points on 9 shots, 6 rebounds, 4 assists. If you weren’t watching you’d swear he had a great half.

geo: ha, what you drinking and eating on there bidiong?

Just fries tonight and Stella. I can’t drink the hard stuff. Have to work in the morning. It’s Double Dogs in Hillsboro Village. They got it back on for me.

Ironically it got booted for MNF with the Giants.

Anyway he had a fantastic first quarter and all the team around him worked like a clockwork.
If this team gel, learn to play together and stay focused for 48 minutes we’ll be scary…

The lack of effort is just so annoying to watch, now every fucking scrub is hitting 3s

Fournier has to have the flu, mono or perhaps Covid because he is lethargic as phuck right now … it’s like he’s in a fog and doesn’t care … and he’s missing everything.

I think it’s time to face a very hard truth. This is not a good defensive team at this point. Dramatic difference in effort between last year and this year. It is most noticeable with Randle. I’m surprised that Thibs isn’t going crazy about that.

Fournier and Randle freezing out an open Kemba (shooting 50+% from 3) for about 10 seconds is maddening.

Also Trent is gonna drop 50. We really need our bench to show up against theirs to pull out this game.

Look at the guys in the black jerseys and play defense like them … it’s that simple !

The difference in this game is that they have 8 steals to our 1. That’s all about effort.

I hope we get blown out so these dudes get a wake up call. Fucking embarrassing effort.

Put in Taj Grimes and McBride for the love of god

No one getting into anyone on D. And the inside outside game is completely perplexing our defense… sagging everywhere !

The Raptors are playing like the Knicks used to last year when they cared about playing defense.

Don’t think this was the game to give the toppin Randle frontcourt extended burn

Every time I think “surely that’s the last time we leave a well-known shooter wide open” and every time I’m wrong

really have trouble understanding randle guarding og. terrible matchup for randle even when he’s at full defensive effort.

The likability of this team will drop precipitously if they are a bottom 1/3 defense and show the effort like this. We fell in love with scrap and defense not on again off again 3 point shooting. Starts with Randle.

I watched the game pass me by waving his hand on the IQ’s in and out three and this 3 offensive rebounds…

I think Thibs is sticking with Quickley because he seems to be bothering FVV a bit defensively but he’s an eyesore on offense right now

Quickley needs to sit … for extended time … I commend his on ball defense except it’s not leading to anything … he’s out there to hit these wide open 3s. In rhythm too, CLANK

1) we can’t get a stop and 2) when we do we can’t get a rebound… it would appear were shooting like shit … I only see effective urgency from Rowan at this point..

Every time I see Rowan, I think of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in from back when I was a kid…

Do the Knicks have a final run left in them?

TheClashFan:
Every time I see Rowan, I think of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in from back when I was a kid…

Do the Knicks have a final run left in them?

Nope

How is that not a foul?

Great look by Mitch at least. Obvious but he didn’t make that pass so much in the last two years.

BigBlueAL:
Randle with a big middle finger to Knickerblogger that quarter.

I wonder where that big middle finger is shoved right now…

Can’t win em all but this was a very frustrating loss. Grimes really needs some burn until IQ learns how to shoot again

Quickley needs to be benched. His shot is way off, he’s hesitant on every drive, and you can see he’s pressing. Right now, he now he needs to ride the pine. Grimes or McBride offer more production at this point

Looks to me like Early Bird won the contest, just edging out Ingmar. But let’s wait for the official announcement.

You have to expect a step down when a born leader and offensive juggernaut like Taj is forced to the sideline.

Bad loss, no one except Barrett played well, or at least decent, after the first quarter.
Fournier was ghostly, same for Rose, Burks and Kemba.

Kudos to the Raptors for their defense and effort, they look like last year Knicks, but we were a shame…

If I have to watch sleepy Fournier, sleepy Burks, and sleepy Rose for 3 more years, well I just can’t.

Don’t let this loss distract us from the fact that Barrett is putting up a streak of rather impressive offensive performances. Didn’t like the turnovers or lack of assists from him, but I think he’s making good strides.

Raptors definitely played harder and Knicks looked cocky and lackadaisical out there, esp after we built the big lead. This game was lost with a combo of loose ball handling and passes. We lost all the focus and effort stats. Knicks had only 3 steals to Raptors 12. And had 17 turnovers to the Raptors 9. Also got outrebounded by 7 boards. We actually shot the ball better than the Raps from both two and three….but the Raptors shot 99 shots to our 76. Wow. Good lesson to learn early in the season.

That was kinda like having Alabama Shakes play the first 12 minutes of a concert only to be replaced by the trombone section of the local middle school band.

Z-man:
It looked like we were old and slow…question is, is that more the Raps or us?

The East is quick, man…

At least RJ had another good game and we weren’t the worst embarrassment of the Atlantic division with the Celtics getting outscored 39-11 by the Bulls in the 4th quarter.

I think the Raptors are just better than we thought. Siakam is overrated and Barnes is a rookie, so when you run FVV, OG and Trent Jr. out there with good defensive role players you can hustle and shoot your ways to wins. They’re 5-3 with 4 wins in a row, and wins over IND (2x) BOS and NYK. They might be a sleeper playoff team…

Bruno Almeida:
At least RJ had another good game and we weren’t the worst embarrassment of the Atlantic division with the Celtics getting outscored 39-11 by the Bulls in the 4th quarter.

I just skimmed CelticsBlog and they are in total despair…

I ended up being close and I hate it. I would much rather Randle kept scoring and we won the game.

IQ did a solid job running the offense but the shot just isnt there right now. 5 assists and no TO’s is something to build on

One of the Knicks assistant coaches pointed out at halftime that the Raptors were blowing up the Knicks dribble handoffs, which is a staple of our offense.

That’s really aggressive defense and we had no answers

I left in the 2nd Q (during the outlier jokes) and came back for the fourth. What happened to Randle? How does he score only four more points?

Very aggressive doubling and slow reactions from Randle caused him to get stripped a few times. Also Randles poor handles

I knew the Raptors would give the Knicks their all this game, that’s all they seem to know how to do, but it’s still a disappointing loss. Man, Nurse is a hell of a coach (no Thibs subtweeting intended, just noting that wow, Nurse is a good coach).

They’re kicking our ass on effort and defense…

that was tough to watch, switched to the g-men game during the 3rd quarter…

Doesn’t Ingmarr live in Sweden?

Israel…i’m laughing though, cuz I had that sweden thought at one point too…

not even sure if ingmarr is a swedish name, but, it kinda sounds like one…

Young athletic teams are going to give this group trouble. I would’ve liked to see Thibs give our young guys a little more burn, but the Raps just out-hustled us in the end. OG was unstoppable.

Well at least we’re not the Celtics. Smart said after the game every team knows they want Tatum and Brown to do all the scoring and that those two don’t pass

Oh it’s gettin ugly in Beantown. So sad…

@chrisgrenham
Marcus Smart: “I would just like to play basketball. Every team knows we’re trying to go to Jayson and Jaylen. Every team is programmed and studied to stop Jayson and Jaylen. I think everybody’s scouting report is to make those guys pass the ball. They don’t want to pass the ball

***Doesn’t Ingmarr live in Sweden?***

I think you’re confusing him with Ingmarr Berrgman.

As to the poll question, I haven’t seen Scottie Barnes play, but Moritz Wagner’s little brother is off to a hell of a start. ROY could be a pretty interesting race if these kids’ production hold up…

in all honesty – it’s actually Ingrid Bergman I think of…

enjoy casablanca, but mostly a bogart fan…still remember someone here saying he was mostly a mediocre actor…that still hurts…

but, seems to be a swedish thing…pretty sure at some point in the past ingmarr explained why they chose that moniker…

Donnie Walsh: think you’re confusing him with Ingmarr Berrgman.

I was the one confusing myself with Bergman, at one point in my life. haha no, he’s just the greatest.

I’m in Israel, so good thing I came in 2nd to Early Bird, but if EB wants to pass the tix along I can probably find a friend in NY who’d want to go, or I would happily pass them along to the next in line here, which seems more fair.

my bad. it looks like both rama and a newcomer named Erin both got 36 right on the head. And Erin looks to be the winner as she guessed 20 pts to rama’s 28.

But again, this is totally unofficial, I’m just adding with my eyes and might have missed something.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a team that looks more reliant on the buyout market than this year’s Bulls. Last year’s Nets obviously were up there and the first year of the Big Three in Boston, but the big difference is that those teams were fine without the buyout guys, the buyout guys just obviously helped a lot. The Bulls, right now, have such a talented front four that they’re winning games with a terrible bench. If they just added a couple of interesting buyout guys, it might make them a legit contender. Like, say, DJ Augustin and Tristan Thompson or some shit like that. Just somebody good.

I woke up pissed from last night loss, then Google send this message about the new mandatory double authentication (starting november 9th) and my pissiness went through the roof…

Congrats to Erin! Though if you aren’t in NY, I’ll gladly take the tix…I bet you’re in NY, though, if you emerged from lurking to place a bet…

Still hard to process how badly we were outhustled and outplayed for the last 30 minutes of this game. How does OG destroy us like that? How does Svi (lol Clyde never even attempted to use his name) reduce Fournier to a scrub?

BTW Marcus Smart ragging on Tatum and Brown is priceless, considering his team gave up 39 points in the 4th quarter and 128 points overall. Maybe their defense needs some work too.

KB Apprentice
November 1, 2021 at 10:34 pm
I left in the 2nd Q (during the outlier jokes) and came back for the fourth. What happened to Randle? How does he score only four more points?

Erin is Julius Randle

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