For all the focus on the Knicks’ improved offense early this season, their defense has always remained the No. 1 priority of coach Tom Thibodeau.
On Monday night at the Garden, it was nowhere to be found for the bulk of two quarters and it cost the Knicks a win.
After storming out to a 15-point lead early in the second quarter, the Knicks fell apart with a combination of poor defense and sloppy turnovers as they fell to the rebuilding Raptors, 113-104.
The Raptors (5-3) started their comeback in the second quarter and opened the floodgates in the third, when they poured in 38 points to take the lead for good. OG Anunoby led the way with 36 points while Gary Trent Jr. chipped in 26 points.
RJ Barrett scored 27 points as he tried to will the Knicks (5-2) back into the game in the fourth quarter, but they had built too big of a hole to climb out of. Julius Randle, after piling up 18 points in a scorching first quarter, scored only four points the rest of the game.
The Knicks committed 17 turnovers, matching a season-high, and were outscored 21-3 in fast-break points.
Ninety seconds into the second half, the Raptors went ahead 58-57 — their first lead since 2-0.
The teams then traded baskets until the Raptors began to catch fire from downtown to begin to pull away. In a nearly three-minute span beginning at the 6:28 mark, the Raptors hit five straight 3-pointers, the last one from Fred VanVleet to put them ahead 85-74 and force Thibodeau to call a timeout.
The Raptors stretched their lead to as many as 14 points before taking a 91-79 advantage into the fourth quarter and never let it go.
When Randle sank a pair of early 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the game, he matched his 3-point total from the last two games combined (when he shot 2-for-4 against the Bulls and Pelicans).
By the end of the first quarter, which he closed out with a banked-in 3 that put the Knicks ahead 34-26, Randle had already piled up 18 points — more than he had recorded in any of his previous three games — on 5 of 6 shooting from the field and 4 of 5 from deep.