RJ & Jules 30, 30 in Loss to Raptors

RJ & Jules 30, 30 in Loss to Raptors

Foes scoring continues to rise. The Pacers broke the 100 point barrier. Now. the struggling Raptors led by Pascal Siakam won by 7 with a 113 point effort. The defense was weakened by the loss of Quentin Grimes. But a more importtant factor was Jalen Brunson’s anemic performance.

Toronto coach Nick Nurse is known for his adaptive defenses. The Raptors made a concerted effort to handcuff Brunson. Toronto gave up 30 points to both RJ Barrett and Julius RAndle and still managed a 7 point victory.

Toronto’s concentration on the Knicks PG resulted in a paltry 3 – 14, 0-3 with 5 TOs along with 5 TOs. Where Nurse succeeded in cutting the head off the snake, Thibs failed to devise a scheme to handle the Raptors preeminent scorer, Pascal Siakam. His stat line reads 17 – 25, 2 -6, 16 – 18 for 52 points. On a team bereft of other alpha scorers, it was ludicrous that Siakam was allowed to dominate the Knicks D. Perhaps the Knick forwards were so preoccupied with scoring, they neglected the other end of the court. Quentin Grimes absence was certainly a contributing factor.

It will be interesting to see how the Toronto success will resonate with Knick foes going forward. The rubric for defeating the New York Knicks could become: ‘Sell out on bottling up Jalen Brunson.’ The fact that RJ and Jules combined for 60 points resulted in a loss merely serves to emphasize the importance of an effective Jalen Brunson to the Knicks success.

Box Score: https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401468626