Perhaps distracted but rumors about the Greek Freak, the New York Knicks put forth a Canadian classic to earn their fourth consecutive victory on Wednesday night.
Despite missing a couple of depth stars, New York handled business against a divisional foe to the tune of a 119-92 victory over the Toronto Raptors. The Knicks swept a back-to-back behind a sterling second half and brilliance from Mikal Bridges, who led the Knicks with 30 points.
Bridges and OG Anunoby took over on a night where Miles McBride and Mitchell Robinson were out due to injury management and Jalen Brunson (5-of-13 from the field) was somewhat sidelined by an illness. Bridges put in all but six of his tallies over a dominant second half while Anunoby had 26 against his original NBA employers.
Josh Hart scored half of his 22 points in the second, matching Karl-Anthony Towns’ rebounding output. Granted first period minutes after a somewhat sizable departure, Tyler Kolek dished out a game-best 10 assists.
The Knicks (29-18) secured not only two wins in 48 hours but also created their longest winning streak since the pre-Christmas tally of seven that included their NBA Cup championship triumph. Wednesday’s win, combined with Boston’s loss to Atlanta, also moved the Knicks back into second place on the Eastern Conference playoff bracket.
After a day of discourse surrounding the fate of rumored recurring Knicks target Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Knicks came out of the gate sloppy, allowing the Raptors to score the first seven points and maintain an exclusive lead over the first 24 minutes.
Fueled by a combined 26 from Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram in the first half, Toronto (29-20) got the lead up to double-figures after the first dozen and inflated the advantage to as high as a dozen. The Knicks did offer a bit of foreshadowing with a 22-15 run over the second half of the second quarter, most of the work coming from the Villanova trio of Bridges, Brunson, and Hart before Anunoby hit a three in the penultimate half-minute, cutting the halftime deficit to four.
Toronto appeared to re-establish its status quo, getting the lead back to 11 before four minutes went by in the second half. But the Knicks began their international takeover after Collin Murray-Boyles hit the latter of two singles: Brunson hit a driving double from three feet away before an Anunoby interception became a Bridges three.
It was the start of a period-closing 27-4 run appropriately capped off with another Bridges deep ball, part of a personal 11-0 run over the last 2:36 that also featured an impressive putback on a showstopping save out of bounds by Towns. The Knicks didn’t let up when the scoreboard flipped to the fourth, never letting the Raptors get the lead back below 10.
Outscoring Toronto by 15 in the fourth, the Knicks wound up closing the game on a 64-26 output over the final 20 minutes, rendering any drama about who would close the game almost entirely null. Finding a three-point stroke was key, as the McBride-less Knicks were 10-of-19 in the latter half (hitting just four on as many attempts in the first) where Toronto hit but one in 10 tries.
Beyond Ingram (27 points, 6-of-8 in the second half), no one was able to maintain offensive consistency for the Raptors, who enter Wednesday with the longest active winning streak in the Eastern Conference alongside Cleveland at four. New York will return to Ontario in March after winning each of the first three meetings of the annual divisional duel.
In the meantime, the Knicks now head back home to Madison Square Garden, where an interconference tilt with the Portland Trail Blazers awaits (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).
