The Sunday night rain delay at Madison Square Garden – yes, that’s right – would have been far more expensive for the Knicks than the one the Mets dealt with earlier in the day.
While the Knicks were in the process of flushing out an 18-point lead in the second half, the game was delayed by 14 minutes due to water falling from the ceiling onto the field.
The Raptors shot forward shortly after play resumed, but RJ Barrett’s 3-pointer with 34.3 seconds to go and Julius Randle’s late free throws helped Tom Thibodeau’s team take a crucial 102-96 victory.
“I thought it was baseball, with that little rain delay,” said Thibodeau. “Those things happen and you shouldn’t be distracted. I think we still had a 10-point lead at the time, and the game kind of stalled because of that. But you can’t help it.
“Whatever you have to do to pull it out, that’s what you have to do. … And in the end we found a way. I liked that we had the mental toughness to work our way through and eventually pull it out. But I think we can play better than we did. “
Knicks’ first eighth-place win in 10 games against the Raptors since November 2017 was a significant one for them in the Eastern Conference standings, increasing their tie from No. 11 Toronto to six games with 18 remaining. The top six teams in each conference automatically qualify for postseason games, with teams from seven through ten being subject to play-in scenarios.
“We’ve had tough times, tough matches, tough breaks, close calls, all season where we’ve been fighting close games and they haven’t gone our way,” said Randle. “So it’s good to get over that bump mentally.”
Randle scored a team-high 26 points and Barrett scored 19 for the Knicks, who have won consecutive tight matches by wire – after Friday’s OT thriller against Memphis – after dropping five of their previous six. They will play at home against the Lakers on Monday, who remain without injured stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
Nerlens Noel contributed nine points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Knicks (27-27). Gary Trent Jr. scored 23 points and Kyle Lowry added 19 for a Raptors squad (21-33) that played without Fred VanVleet (hip) and OG Anunoby (half time).
Randle sank two free throws with 13.4 seconds remaining in the second quarter as the Knicks were 56-42 ahead at the break. Barrett and Reggie Bullock (10 points) joined from center early in the third to extend the Knicks’ advantage to 18.
“You see now that no lead is safe in the league,” said Thibodeau.
The 14-minute rain delay came in at 3:58 of the third, with the Knicks leading the way with 10, because of what the team called “a tiny drop of rain” coming from the ceiling. After the problem was corrected, the Raptors closed to two points, 78-76, by the end of the quarter to three-pointers from Trent and Chris Boucher.
Toronto’s rise of 37-15 overall allowed them to take an 87-83 advantage over Rodney Hood’s 3-pointer with seven minutes left in the fourth.
However, the Knicks scored the next nine runs to regain the lead, including a drive from Barrett and a direct 3-pointer from Alec Burks for a 92-87 lead with 3:24 remaining.
Barrett’s right corner 3 in the last minute extended a one-point buffer to four. After Pascal Siakim was called up to travel with a chance to tie the score, Randle threw four consecutive free throws in the last 10 seconds to seal the win.
‘Even when we sat down [in the fourth quarter] I just felt like we were going to win the game, ”said Randle, adding eight rebounds and five assists. “It was just time we got over that bump and we did.”