You’d love to be able to use a lack of familiarity together as an explanation. You can’t, but it’d go something like this: The Toronto Raptors‘ starting lineup on Wednesday entered the game having played 19 minutes as a group in over a year on the roster together; the New York Knicks‘ starting lineup had played 19 minutes as a group, per-game, over 33 games this season.
Were this a closer game that game down to a few possessions or late-game execution between those groups, you could chalk it up to the cost of an injury-plagued year and the growing pains in a rebuild. Call it a fun learning night, dust your hands off, get ready to do it all again against another Eastern Conference beast Thursday.
Instead, the Raptors…