Raptors 113, Knicks 106: Scenes from stupid

The New York Knicks fell to the Toronto Raptors 113-106, snapping their eight-game winning streak. That seems pretty stupid of the Knicks. Their fans and people in and around the league have taken notice of how well they’ve been playing the past few weeks. So why go and ruin everyone’s buzz by losing? I just don’t think that was very smart.

Losing is stupid in general; this L was stupid in so many specific ways. First of all, the Raptors entered the game having lost six straight. Their last win came against the L.A. Lakers. Honestly, right? If you’re going to have your winning streak snapped, do it against a proper opponent. Philadelphia on Christmas Day would have been a fine sign-off on this era of good feelings. The game after that is in Dallas, a perfectly cromulent place to lose a game. But losing to a loser team that hasn’t beaten anyone but the league’s most glamorous loser team? Blecch.

The Knicks trailed much of the night, but fought back to take the lead late in the fourth. They had a chance to build on the lead after Fred Van Vleet missed and the Knicks came the other way with a brief numbers advantage. It was obvious Immanuel Quickley, hot from downtown all night, would be open as the trailer, but Julius Randle got a little too complicated trying to set up the simple play and the Knicks ended up called for a turnover. So ultimately it goes down as a fake comeback, which is the stupidest way to lose. Really. I’d rather see the Knicks down 30 at the half and just never make a run than to hurt my heart like this. To be fair these aren’t exactly the same Knicks that ran off the eight straight — Quentin Grimes was out after injuring his ankle yesterday against the Warriors. Ty Jerome: you’re stupid, too.

Never helps when the refs are stupid, and these refs . . . I won’t call them stupid, but you won’t be seeing any of ‘em on Jeopardy anytime soon. Pascal Siakam scored 52, which was shortsighted ‘cuz the next time the Raptors play you know he’s only gonna score like 25, and if he’d just averaged those 77 points equally over two games that’s 38.5 points per game. I bet Toronto ends up missing those extra points next time. Speaking of Toronto’s points: 113? That’s stupid. 113 is a prime number, Einstein. That means you can’t split it in two, which means it has to stand alone. You happy? You got the win but now you have no one to share it with.

This was a stupid loss, and this postgame is stupid too. A smarter recap to follow.