The Raptors have now lost 12 games in a row, and suffer their second 40+ point loss in March.
The Toronto Raptors welcomed the New York Knicks and some friendly faces to Toronto tonight as the Raptors tried to avoid 12 straight losses and the Knicks tried to hop into the third seed in the Eastern Conference.
Unfortunately for fans, O.G. Anunoby was ruled out of the game due to his elbow injury, but he was still in attendance and welcomed back enthusiastically.
Also unfortunately for fans, the Raptors did lose their 12th straight game.
With Scottie Barnes, Jakob Poeltl, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, DJ Carton, Jontay Porter, and Chris Boucher all OUT for Toronto, the Raptors started Gradey Dick, Gary Trent Jr. Ochai Agbaji, Javon Freeman-Liberty and Kelly Olynyk.
The Knicks started Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart, Ian Hartenstein, Jalen Brunson and Miles McBride.
While the Knicks got out to a decent lead in the first quarter, the biggest thing to happen for Toronto was a bad fall from Ochai Agbaji, leading him to be helped off the court and to the locker room. He was said to have a right hip contusion and was ruled out for the rest of the game.
The team updated after the game that his x-rays were thankfully negative but he was receiving further evaluation.
Unfortunately another addition to the Raptors injury list.
New York was up 45-33 after the first quarter.
And now, a word from Raptors Republic’s Samson Folk, because why not:
This is Samson Folk speaking. I am enthralled, and enraptured by Deuce McBride’s shooting performance thus far. Precious Achiuwa, clearly as some sort of double agent for the Raptors, attempted to take McBride’s head off with a pass. A valiant effort from Achiuwa, but McBride was too quick. He will continue to terrorize the Raptors.
Samson commandeered my laptop for long enough that the Knicks went up nearly 20 points, mostly because there were no Raptors who had scored more then 8 points at this point in the game.
This turned into a blowout real quick, honestly. By halftime it was 80-59 for the Knicks.
Here are a list of good things that happened in the game, because again, why not:
-Garrett Temple played. Big Temple gal over here, we love a Union King. He sank 3 three point shots in the first half alone. Let the man play more, please.
-Scottie showed up on the bench in a wicked pair of shiny pink bellbottom pants. They were super fun and very much a vibe. The kid got style and I am here for it.
-OG smiled a lot during his welcome back moment and it was super cute. Miss that guy. I am also scared of cottage cheese — the texture is weird.
-Gradey Dick scored his career high in points with 23 total. His previous career high was 22 points.
-Maybe not so good for the Raptors, but Precious Achiuwa had a fun dunk near the end.
Anyway, the Raptors lost by over 44 points in the end, 145-101. It was their worst home loss in franchise history and their second 40 point loss in March.
The Raptors were also mathematically eliminated from post-season contention with this loss.
They are now off until Sunday afternoon when they face Kyle Lowry and Nick Nurse as the Philadelphia 76ers come to town.
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