Knicks Smacked Around By Raptors in Summer League

The Knicks, who were favorites to win the Summer League, now find themselves with an 0-3 record in the Vegas tune-up exhibition.

Jud Buechler and company failed to get into the win column again on Tuesday evening, as they played extremely sloppy basketball, committing 19 turnovers and shooting an abysmal 34.4% from the field, per ESPN Stats. The Knicks began the game slow out of the gates and were never able to make up for their poor start. Good things these games don’t count, right?

New York had no answer defensively for G League standout Chris Boucher who poured in 23 points and Malcolm Miller, who had 19 points in Toronto’s winning effort. The Raptors didn’t shoot particularly well themselves, but made more threes, took bette care of the ball and out-rebounded the Knicks, thus resulting in their first Summer League victory.

R.J. Barrett, showing signs of life

After looking pretty awful in his first two appearances as a Knicks, Barrett showed out Tuesday night and improved leaps and bounds in his third Summer League game. The rookie lead the offensively challenged Knicks in scoring with 17 points and even chipped in 10 rebounds, six assists, and three blocks.

Barrett, who was killed for his poor shooting percentage and shot selection and propensity for turnovers, only committed one turnover tonight and made six of his 14 field goals.

Great drive & finish by RJ going to his right pic.twitter.com/vzm3uAsgG4
— The Knicks Wall (@TheKnicksWall) July 10, 2019

The 19-year-old showed increased confidence in his offensive game, taking some more perimeter shots and using his athleticism to attack the basket. It was encouraging to see R.J. bounce back and have a nice game after a lot of people seemingly wrote him off and freaked out about his two weak performances. Let’s see if Barrett can build on this game and continue to make positives strides.

Notes on the third loss

The Knicks struggled offensively without Allonzo Trier, who was absent with an illness for a second straight game.
Kevin Knox played extremely aggressive ball tonight and didn’t shy away from launching up shots. Unfortunately, he was ice cold from the field, but you love to see Knox’s remain active and engaged, as that was an issue for him last year.
Ignas Brazdeikis followed up his 30-point barrage against the Suns with a more subdued nine points and struggled with ball security.
Mitchell Robinson committed a ton of fouls this evening including five in his first nine minutes of play. It is important that he cleans that up, as the Knicks cannot afford to have him on the bench for extended periods of time, especially from a defensive standpoint.