Knicks 122, Raptors 120: Scenes from Towns toppling Toronto

Tonight at Madison Square Garden, the Knicks played their final preseason game—a rematch with a Toronto team that clobbered the reserves on Tuesday. This time, the fight was fairer. The visitors played their starters (Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes, Kawhi Leonard, and Jakob Poeltl), but so did the Knicks (mostly: Mohamed Diawara took Josh Hart’s spot). Determined to not lay a complete goose egg this preseason, coach Mike Brown returned to his starters in the fourth quarter, and that gave them just enough juice to win, 122-120.

The game started on the right foot. Resuming their championship ways, Karl-Anthony Towns took turns with Jalen Brunson on give-and-go sequences that were money in the bank. When KAT sat around the three-minute mark, he had five points, five boards, and six dimes on perfect shooting. Included in those buckets was a laser from deep. Every time he swishes the net this season will sound like a whispered, “Pay the man.”

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Across the aisle, Barnes converted his first four shots for an early nine points. That’s what has Toronto fans excited: four scoring options in their starting lineup to complement a top-ten defense. Neither team lived up to their defensive potential in the first frame, however. They allowed each other to shoot over 60% from all areas of the floor by the midway mark.

Even Diawara (carrying two fouls) laced a corner three. Not to be outdone, Miles McBride (who had two triples through four preseason games) dropped three threes in his first four minutes. Those were positives. What wasn’t: Pacome Dadiet checking in and promptly getting stripped while over-dribbling. Soon after, he flushed a pass from Brunson, but there was nothing to change our minds about the youngster. In preseason form, the two teams traded buckets, but by the quarter’s end, the good guys were up, 35-32.

Andre Drummond provided a steady hand off the bench, hoovering up rebounds (seven in seven minutes), rattling in a jump hook, tipping in a putback, and making a free throw or two. That softened the sting of seeing Mitchell Robinson doing his best Bill Russell impersonation at TD…

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Publish date : 2026-10-16 02:31:00

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