By Shara Talia Taylor
It was a close matchup between the New York Knicks and the Toronto Raptors last Friday night at Madison Square Garden taking out the struggling Knicks 118-112. The Raptors extended their to 7 games after taking out the San Antonio Spurs last Sunday.
As usual for New York, they started well only to fade as the game went on. “We got off to a good start and then they went to a zone,” said Knicks Interim Head Coach Mike Miller. “We had about three or four possessions where we didn’t score.”
The Knicks led 28-20 at the end of the first quarter, but the Raptors fought back and were ahead 56-53 by halftime and 85-79 at the end of the third quarter. Coach Miller said they needed better coverage for Pascal Siakam.
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“You have to be careful, you can’t switch a little guard on him or he will take him downhill,” Miller said. “He (Pascal Siakam) is a unique player in how they are using him.”
Siakam had a total of 23 points Friday. He was awarded Most Improved Player last season and was just selected as a starter for the 2020 NBA-All Star Game in Chicago. “It means a lot,” said Siakam. “It feels good. Just hard work paying off and I’ll continue to get better and that is what the league is about.”
Siakam and teammates are each doing their part to lead the Raptors to the playoffs. Raptors Head Coach Nick Nurse said Rondae Hollis-Jefferson impacts the game with hustle and hard play. “He’s pretty effective,” Nurse said. “He plays hard. He comes up with some plays.”
“Every time I’m out there I’m going to play hard,” Rondae said. “I’m going to try to get offensive rebounds. I’m going to try to get stops.”
Even without key pieces from last year like Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors push ahead. Fred VanVleet said teammates stepped up into their new roles this season, without Kawhi.
“Obviously, he sat a few games with his injury management so we kind of had our own identity without him last year and then obviously leaned on him quite a bit in the playoffs,” VanVleet said. “So that’ll be the test this year once we get to the playoffs to see what it looks like, but for now I think we got it covered.”
