Toronto 106, New York 89: Ledo giveth and Ledo taketh away

After brunch, it was International Ricky Ledo Day and the Knicks celebrated with another double-digit loss. Bruno Caboclo put a beautiful bow on top of this L-cake by registering Toronto's only negative plus-minus. Otherwise the Raptors ravaged this rueful carcass of a roster. Safely sailing into a windy win.

Ricky Ledo about to make his #Knicks debut

— Tina Cervasio (@TinaCervasio) March 22, 2015

Aggravatingly boring game when all was said and done. Wanna talk about it? Notes...

- Andrea Bargnani came in to the game pistole fumanti. The up-faking mad man flung together a magical first quarter scoring nearly half his points, ripping down all three of his rebounds and rejecting an unsuspecting short fry. He stopped contributing some short time thereafter.

- Another big magnificent Knick was Lance Thomas. In all seriousness! Lance defended DeMar DeRozan rather admirably in the early going. Shifted up and defended some bigger bodies reasonably well, too. Scored very efficiently, 24 points on 12 shots (2-2 from downtown) and just generally made a lot of things work on both sides of the ball.

Amid bumbling and stumbling, the Knicks are lousy with one-way players who brandish singular skills. It's refreshing to have a jack of all trades roaming around. 38 anytime minutes for Lance and while he can't change the outcome of a game, he can certainly help push the car.

- Almost benignly, our savior du jour checked out of the game and was unable to return. Despite a nice first quarter appetizer, Alexey Shved lazily turned his shoulder into James Johnson's flying knees. LoLexey contused his ribs on the second bop. Take a look:

- Announcer Breen really had to choke his way through this one. At one point Shane Larkin sped up the floor and vomited out a terrible pass to no one on the secondary break. Maybe it was to Langston Galloway but it just flubbed it's way clean out of bounds. Mike was so distraught that all he could say was that this miscue forced Derek Fisher to simply sit down. It was so sad. They practically had to go to commercial. Thankfully a time out was on the horizon.

Afterward, both he and Clyde Frazier magically had to take a trip down memory lane. They reminisced on one of Clyde's great performances that was somehow loosely tied to this game in Toronto. Breen sorta snapped out of his funk when Shane made up for his blunder by ripping back-to-back steals on DeRozan and Lou Williams respectively. The Knicks converted both times and had a nice little run going.

Absurdly belated however, it only cut the lead to 14. The game was over. Breen was crushed.

- All brands of Raptors had their way with the Knicks. Six different guys scored in double figures. Tyler Hansbrough shredded the Knicks. Nothing new. Horrifying every time.

- Awesome blossoms of crossover trickery and jump shot mastery did appear in orange and blue this fine afternoon. Ricky Ledo arose from his front row seat con armas de fuego. Instantly shaking his way to the hoop and flipping nifty little assists around the rapacious Raptors. Whether in the lane or around the perimeter, Ledo is eager to find the open man. Perhaps a bit too eager to make an electrifying play. He alternated ends of the floor in one stretch, making a three, committing a wacky foul, bumrushing the hoop for the and-one and committing more fouls. He reminds me of Al Harrington.

Amazing beginnings are all the Knicks have really been made of over the past decade and a half. Whether you see the long view or you get up real close, it's a lot of open books. Ultimately they got CabocLoL'd out of the building today, even though the setup did nothing for the punchline. This game wasn't gruesome. It never even got out of hand. The Knicks just never stood a chance. Aw, buns.