The anticipated debut of Marc Gasol didn’t exactly go as planned. The Toronto Raptors went into Madison Square Garden against a lowly New York Knicks team which had lost 15 straight. That number is now up to 16, as the Raptors defeated the Knickerbockers 104-99.
Early on, it was all Knicks. Despite playing in the second game of a back-to-back, New York came out with an intensity several pegs higher than the road Raptors. A 14-3 run encapsulated by vicious backboard alley-oop from Dennis Smith Jr to DeAndre Jordan helped give NY a 12-point lead early on.