Hey, at least preseason's over, right!? With a couple of DNPs (Toney Douglas and Danilo Gallinari) and a handful of DNPVMs (the whole starting lineup), the Knicks crumpled against an athletic, energetic Raptors squad.
I have almost zero notes, but they can be found after the jump.
- Anthony Randolph's line (0-5, 3 points, 6 rebounds, 4 turnovers) gives you a good idea of how he played offensively, and we can expect the usual pith from everybody else who writes about this game (and rightly so). I'd just like to add, though, that Randolph did and does defend very nicely. He blocked 3 shots and covered the floor much better than you'd expect from somebody that raw. Mostly, though, he looked sub-par.
- With Toney out, Andy Rautins stepped in and played a bunch of point guard. This should never happen again. Does it make sense when I say that Rautins is a talented dribbler but a poor ball-handler? Probably not, but Andy looked confident enough with the rock...until there was any sort of defensive pressure. The second and third quarters were chock full of backcourt turnovers and hospital passes, which is about the same time the Knicks fell behind by double figures. Rautins isn't a poor point guard, but any team that presses like the Raps did will make life very hard for him at that spot.
- Bill Walker avoided threes and drove to the basket much more for a solid offensive showing (5-7, 13 points). I think tonight marked Bill proving to himself that he's still capable of getting to the rim even as a slender bro.
- Landry Fields is just good. He moves his feet SO well on defense. Landry also made some nice cuts away from the ball, resulting in some easy backdoor feeds from Stoudemire.
- In time for the regular season, Raymond Felton and Amar'e Stoudemire finally seem to be clicking. I mentioned earlier in the preseason that Ray looked better when he operated off the dribble, and he had some gorgeous dump-offs and point blank feeds to Stoudemire this evening. Those two both looked sharp in 26 minutes apiece.
- Amar'e got caught rebound-watching a few times. That probably can't happen.
- Wilson Chandler shot poorly. Shooting 1-7 is not as good as shooting more than 1-7.
- Doesn't Clyde always stand to Mike Breen's right (left side of the screen) during the pre-game show? He was standing to Mike Crispino's left (screen's right) tonight. Maybe I'm imagining that.
- Clyde explained that baskets with long nets indicate that a team wants to run because the ball comes out more quickly. I'm not sure that makes sense.
- Hey, Mike Crispino, Linas Kleiza's last name is pronounced "KLAY-za", not "Klee-AY-za". As the saying goes, I before E, except after Linas.
- The Montreal crowd was pretty raucous (one might say they brought the ruckus), which led Clyde to reminisce that the first crowds in Toronto were "very quite, like a concert". Conclusion: Clyde goes to boring-ass concerts.
- Clyde deemed Reggie Evans's rebounding prowess, "Splendor on the Glass". Terrific.
- The Raptors' bench is, like, the coolest bench ever assembled. Except for David Andersen. He almost ruins the whole thing.
Yeah...I'm ready for the real thing to start. New York's next game is against these same Raptors, but here's hoping these same Knicks don't show up. That is all. Have a pleasant evening!