Raptors waltz into Gotham and hit Knicks with a knockout

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Admit it: You were ready to turn the game off after that first quarter.

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The Knicks, who came into the game riding high with a 5-1 record, were moving the ball and shooting at such a high level, this one felt almost hopeless.

But if we’ve learned just one thing about the Raptors culture over the years, it is that ‘give up’ just isn’t in the team vocabulary and never was that more apparent than on Monday night when, down key players and trailing early, they battled back for a 113-104 win at the venerable Madison Square Garden.

Even despite being wildly outshot from behind the line in that first quarter — when the Knicks drained eight triples to just one by the Raptors — the visitors stayed within range and began the second down just eight.

The turnaround then started with the Raptors’ determination to take away the three-point line from the Knicks and continued with a strong run from a bench/starters combination of Dalano Banton, Malachi Flynn, Khem Birch, Gary Trent Jr., and OG Anunoby. That fivesome worked its tail off and pulled the Raptors back to within four at the half.

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It came full circle after the break when coach Nick Nurse rode his starters for the entire third quarter, which the Raps won 38-22 to propel them to the eventual victory and improve their record to 5-3, including 3-0 on the road.

When it was pointed out post-game that it may have been the first time Nurse has not made a substitution for an entire quarter, the coach did not refute the point.

“Those guys were really playing hard and obviously scoring and making shots, defending, so no sense in breaking that up, I guess,” Nurse said.

Anunoby was terrific at both ends of the floor, finishing with a career-best 36 points while holding Julius Randle to just 22 after the Knicks forward had 18 in the first quarter alone

Svi Mykhailiuk, starting in place of the injured Scottie Barnes, was huge with a 15-point, five-assist, five-rebound night.

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Meanwhile, Trent — a guy many expect could be headed back to the bench once Pascal Siakam returns — was making such a potential move massively unwise with his tenacious defence, leading the team in both deflections and steals. He’s always had an offensive game, however, and that was front and centre Monday night as well as he went off for a season-best 26 points.

Fred VanVleet, awho makes everything go for the Raptors, took a backseat from a scoring perspective, but his timely threes were pivotal as well, as he finished with 17 points, seven assists and nine rebounds in a do-a-bit-of-everything kind of night.

It was the kind of night when you couldn’t hand out enough accolades out as the Raptors took down a giant.

Khem Birch finished with just six points but his defence, rebounding and work on the offensive glass in particular made a liar of the boxscore. Not that it matters, because Birch doesn’t look at boxscores anyway.

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“I feel like the perception, just because of last year when I averaged a lot of points, people think I’m having a down year, or whatever,” Birch said. “But I feel stress free. I’ve always been a guy who just wants to make winning plays, I don’t care about the boxscore. Now that I’m here, I got my contract, I can show that I can just make winning plays. Some nights, I might have four points. Some nights, I might have 10, so I’m just happy I’ve been able to be stress-free this year and contribute to wins.”

If there is a concern coming out of the game, it is for VanVleet and Trent, who were both shaken up in the same series. VanVleet jammed his right thumb while Trent came down awkwardly on his right knee. Both finished the game but those injuries will bear watching.

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Raptors’ Gary Trent Jr. dunks against the New York Knicks during the first quarter. BRAD PENNER/USA TODAY SPORTS

NO SCOTTIE

Barnes’ absence wasn’t a huge surprise, given how he ended the previous game favouring his right hand.

The surprise came in who Nurse tabbed to take his place in the starting five.

“Dalano (Banton), Chris (Boucher), kind of backcourt, frontcourt energy boost, Svi’s shooting, Khem’s backup centre play is kind of right there where we need him,” Nurse said pre-game. “So we’re just trying to figure out which one keeps that unit more intact, maybe, or maybe even leapfrog that whole group and bring somebody from the back into the starting lineup so that group can stay together. We’re still working through that.”

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After agreeing in a subsequent question that Goran Dragic — who started early in the year but has been a DNP-coaches decision the past two games — could be that guy, he went a different way, bringing Mykhailiuk up from the second unit.

Mykhailiuk certainly earned it given his performance in the win over Indy on Saturday, but it was still a bit of surprise given Nurse’s penchant for keeping a group that is doing well together.   And Mykhailiuk, Banton, Boucher and Birch have been giving Nurse plenty from that second unit the past few games.

Dragic meanwhile remained on the bench while Flynn, another guy hoping to find a role, moved into Mykhailiuk’s spot on the second unit and earned some trust with a solid second quarter.

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QUICK HITS: Birch, for the second game in a row, had more minutes than Precious Achiuwa, who is mired in a bit of a funk right now … Huge props to Monday night’s second unit minus Mykhailiuk. Flynn and Justin Champagnie had plenty of help from the staggered starters in Anunoby and Trent, but without their energy in that second quarter that helped get the Raptors back in this game, this might never have been a contest at all.

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