Bad defending, tough night for Scottie Barnes and key absences spell defeat.

The NBA Cup, now in its third year, might not have really caught on yet, but on paper Tuesday’s tilt against the New York Knicks was the biggest Raptors game in some time. It was Toronto’s first one-game elimination contest since a wild play-in game loss to the Chicago Bulls and DeMar DeRozan in April of 2023. Toronto blew a huge lead in that one and was denied a chance to head to Miami for a winner-take-all for the eighth seed in the playoffs that year. Article content

This time around they fell behind by 18 in the first half and minus some key players, could not rally against a Knicks team that has had their number with wins in 11 of the last 14 meetings the last four seasons. In fact, things got worse for th

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