Raptors' positive pre-game feelings evaporate in loss to Knicks

It was a joyful union, but let’s see what the relationship produces.

There were plenty of good feelings to go around before the ball went up as the Toronto Raptors visited Madison Square Garden for the first time this season.

The Raptors were coming off a blowout win over the Cleveland Cavaliers where team records were set and it seemed like every other Raptor who took the floor set a career-high of some shape or form.

And here they were in mid-town Manhattan with Kyle Lowry back in the lineup after missing six games with an infected toe and red-hot Pascal Siakam back after sitting out a game for rest. Sure Fred VanVleet (hip) and OG Anunoby (rest) were out, but the Raptors were also welcoming a new centre — and another Montrealer at that – in Khem Birch who signed with Toronto for the rest of the season after being bought out by Orlando and clearing waivers.

And hey, the Raptors need a centre, right?

Birch couldn’t have been more genuine in his appreciation of the moment. After a long basketball journey that took him from Montreal to Massachusetts for high school, Pittsburgh and then Las Vegas for college and then to Europe to begin his professional career before settling in Orlando as role-playing big for most of four seasons, joining the Raptor felt like a homecoming for the 28-year-old.

It was even a little more so because fellow Montrealer Chris Boucher has been enjoying a breakout year and hey, there was RJ Barrett on the Knicks, in the midst of an impressive second season after some rookie struggles.

But the good feelings couldn’t last — although if you’re a fan of improving lottery odds Toronto falling 102-96 in a game that was a little weird from start-to-finish, you were happy.

The Knicks got a huge triple from Barrett with 34 seconds left to go up four, but a Siakam lay-up that was goaltended cut it back to two. Siakam had a chance to help the Raptors take a lead when he drove the floor after Lowry had made a steal but he got sped up, couldn’t decide if he was passing or taking it to the rim and instead double-dribbled for a turnover with 12 seconds left that ended Toronto’s hopes for a comeback.

“I gave it to P in the middle, and we had a 3-on-2. Gary [Trent Jr.] stopped a little higher than P probably wanted him, and Gary wanted to get the quicker shot,” Lowry said. “… P was about to make a pass, and then he decided to go, and it happens. It’s a mistake that happens. It happens. It’s a tough situation, but we can’t dwell on it. It is what it is. He double dribbled, and that was that.”

Outcome aside, Birch is excited to have landed with the Raptors who have a long road to making the playoffs as they fell to 21-33, albeit still only two games behind 10th place Chicago for the final spot in the play-in tournament.

“Playing for [the Raptors] means a lot to me,” said Birch before the game. “Me and my dad used to watch a lot of Toronto Raptors games growing up. We even went to one [game] and he almost killed us because we had to come back from a five-hour trip to Ottawa… my cousin, she had a poster of Vince Carter on her wall of the dunk contest in 2000, so I always have a vivid memory of that poster.

“But just seeing them go through those struggles from the early-2000s to 2010s but we always supported them just because they’re the home team and that’s why it means so much to me. My dad used to always complain about the team, yell at the TV and stuff, and now I’m on the team.

“So this is just a surreal moment.”

The @Raptors and @nyknicks were somehow in the middle of a rain delay at The Garden… pic.twitter.com/3Ja9wIcySi

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 12, 2021

The game itself was somewhat surreal also, although that makes it ordinary for 2020-21.

The turning point that wasn’t — in the end — a turning point may have come due to an 11-minute rain delay midway through the third quarter. Proceedings were halted when the roof at Madison Square Garden — recently subject to a $1 billion renovation — seemingly sprung a leak. When play resumed Toronto went on a 24-7 run, turning a double-figure deficit to a four-point lead with seven minutes to play.

The Raptors couldn’t quite close the deal from there, but it was a different way to fall short, put it that way.

Did we mention that Malachi Flynn had a key three-pointer taken away after the fact in the fourth when it was determined he’d stepped out of bounds?

Lowry finished with 19 points, seven assists and six rebounds while Gary Trent Jr. had 23 on 9-of-17 shooting. Siakam bounced back from a horrible first half to finish with 16, with 14 coming in the second and third quarters.

Barrett finished with 19 points on 12 shots and looked steady throughout.

For all the excitement around adding Birch and Birch’s excitement at coming to ‘Torampa’, expectations need to be tempered. The six-foot-10 shot-blocker has struggled to find steady minutes in Orlando even as the Magic had one season better than .500 in the four years Birch was there.

He comes to Toronto averaging five points and five rebounds a game, both of which are career highs.

But Birch showed well playing for the men’s national team at the World Cup where he was relied on heavily by Raptors head coach Nick Nurse.

“I just feel like the way that Coach Nurse plays that’s how I’ve always wanted to play,” said Birch. “And also he gives great confidence to his players. I think I need that right now just because I’ve been somewhere for four years. Just the fact that I’m going to be playing for a coach that’s coached me before I’m going to be more comfortable out there.”

Is there more there? Birch, a pending free agent, has got the remainder of this season to show it.

Khem Birch with his first bucket as a member of the @Raptors#RapsOnSN pic.twitter.com/UnH1HfEJnh

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 12, 2021

There was nothing too revelatory about his debut. Birch played 18 minutes, had some strong contests in the paint on defence, scored his first bucket as a Raptor courtesy of an assist by Lowry. He worked hard and finished with four points and five rebounds but had minimal overall impact.

“I think it’s been a little bit since he played, I thought there was a little bit of maybe just like, ‘holy crap, I’m in a game here’ just for a bit,” Nurse said. “[But] when we got him out there a few minutes later on his own, he made some nice rolls. I thought he looked good. His size looks good, he made good switches, he rebounded it good, he had a couple of good rolls to the basket, I thought he was really solid, really solid.”

It didn’t help that his Raptors introduction came late in the first quarter when everyone needed introducing, it seemed. On the floor at once were Birch, 10-day signee Freddie Gillespie, Rodney Hood — added at the trade deadline and just back in the line-up after missing four games with a hip strain — as well as rookie Malachi Flynn and designated veteran DeAndre’ Bembry.

In fairness they weren’t the main reason the Raptors trailed 27-16 after the first quarter — a rusty Siakam going 0-of-6 probably had more to do with it — but you get the picture. Toronto trailed 56-42 half and Siakam was 1-of-11 by that point.

Meanwhile the Knicks showed why they are closing in on their first playoff berth in eight seasons now that Tom Thibodeau is driving the bus. They looked organized and active defensively and the ball moved crisply offensively, even if they did shoot just 40 per cent from the floor.

Barrett didn’t do anything that jumped off the page before his big shot late in the fourth, but that was impressive in its own way. There was no effort to force anything special against his hometown team. The second-year Knicks wing took what the defence was giving, distributed at the right times and looked for his offence as it presented itself even though he came into the game on an 18-of-26 tear from deep over his past six games. He kept it rolling on his way to 19 points and five assists on 7-of-12 shooting and 3-of-6 from deep. He’s now 21-of-29 over his past seven games.

“Yeah, he’s playing great. I think he just looks a lot more comfortable, to me, out there. I think he’s certainly making less mistake type plays,” said Nurse, who surely is hoping to have Barrett on the floor when Canada attempts to qualify for the Olympics in Victoria this summer. “I think he’s playing more efficiently. He’s finishing better. Obviously, he’s shooting it great, and again, with confidence, comfortable, even hitting some late in games. So yeah, he looks like he’s found his groove and found a good comfort level and obviously he’s improving.”

The Raptors got their groove — finally — in the third quarter. Down 18 with 9:32 left in the quarter, Toronto started chipping away and put together a 26-10 finish that sent them into the fourth quarter tailing 78-76 as Siakam came alive and teamed with Trent for 25 of Toronto’s 34 third-quarter points.

They kept it going, right until the very end, but on a night with a little bit of everything, the Raptors late surge ended up being not quite enough.

Nothing we haven’t seen before, in other words.