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Hello! At 7:30 tonight, the Knicks will play a home game against the Toronto Raptors. It is the Knicks' 50th game of the season, their first against the division-mate Raptors, and their last before a week-long rest that includes the All-Star break.
So, what's up with the Raptors? Well, I watched them beat the (severely short-handed-- like, their only active ex-Knick was Timofey Mozgov Edit: And Anthony Randolph and, technically, Corey Brewer. Thanks, bluecheese.) Denver Nuggets on a Rudy Gay game-winner last night, and could see them causing the Knicks some trouble, especially if New York's still mailing it in defensively. They've got guards who can shoot over a screen in Kyle Lowry and John Lucas and wings who can exploit sluggish transition defense in Gay and DeMar DeRozan. They've also got Landry Fields, who will make his MSG return on the same day he got engaged. Congratulations and welcome back, Landry. Happy to see you. Please don't randomly drop a huge game on the Knicks. Oh, and Andrea Bargnani. He's got kind of a thing for killing the Knicks.
All their virtues aside, the Raptors are a sub-.500 team and a very bad road team, as Jared Dubin pointed out today. (They are weirdly good on zero days rest, though, which is alarming.) The Knicks should beat the Raptors. And if the Knicks don't beat the Raptors, we're gonna have to stare down a two-game losing streak for a whole goddamn week. Please beat the Raptors, Knicks.