Four takeaways from the Toronto Raptors' win against the New York Knicks

Author Photo
pascal-siakam-111018-ftr-getty.jpg

The Toronto Raptors remain undefeated at home.

Following a four-game West Coast road trip, in which they went 4-0 for the first time in franchise history, the Raptors handled business in Toronto on Saturday with a 128-112 win over the New York Knicks.

Here are four takeaways from their latest victory.

A slow start

The Raptors struggled out of the gates in this one, missing 11 of their 19 shot attempts in the first quarter and turning the ball over six times.

There was one point where Danny Green was the only starter on the scoreboard. Whereas he had six points on 2-for-4 shooting, the rest of the starters were scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting.

Not that it mattered. The Raptors locked down on defense and held the Knicks to 33.3 percent shooting in the quarter. They also ended the frame on a 5-0 run — courtesy of a banked-in 3-pointer from Fred VanVleet and putback from Delon Wright — that tied the game at 25.

 

The Raptors outscored the Knicks the rest of the way by 16 points on a scorching 56.7 percent shooting from the field.

Bench Mob takes control

Toronto's bench — OG Anunoby and Delon Wright in particular — was the story of the first half.

While the starters were struggling to score, the second unit couldn't miss. After two quarters, Anunoby and Wright combined for 21 points on 9-for-10 shooting from the field.

The Raptors outscored the Knicks by eight points in Anunoby's nine minutes on the court and 12 points in Wright's 10 minutes.


The Raptors then got a huge boost out of Jonas Valanciunas in the second half. He had 13 points and eight rebounds in the fourth quarter alone, helping him record his fourth double-double of the season.

Another career night for Pascal Siakam

It seems like Pascal Siakam sets a new personal-best every game.

Not only did he score a career-high 23 points against the Knicks — 14 of which came in a decisive third quarter for the Raptors — Siakam drained three of his four attempts from 3-point range. 

His previous career-high in 3s made in a single game? Two, which he did six times last season.

Siakam had made only 17.6 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts entering Saturday's game, but it's scary to think about how good he could be if he started knocking those down with regularity.

Cleaning the Glass

Defensive rebounding has been one of the Raptors' few weaknesses so far this season.

Not only do they have one of the worst defensive rebounding rates in the league, they're giving up an average of 13.7 second chance points per game to their opponents.

Those problems become clear when they play against someone like Enes Kanter, who pulled down a total of nine offensive rebounds on Saturday.

The Knicks are one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the league, so the Raptors aren't the first team to have a tough time keeping them off the glass, but they are going to continue to get tested on that end of the court with upcoming games against the New Orleans Pelicans and Detroit Pistons.

After those matchups, we should have a better idea of if it's something to worry about moving forward.

Author(s)
Scott Rafferty Photo

Scott Rafferty is a Senior NBA Editor for The Sporting News