The Knicks are building something at home.
A real advantage.
A fortress.
With Sunday night’s 116-94 victory over the Raptors, the Knicks (13-6) improved to 10-1 at MSG — the second-best home record in the NBA, behind only the juggernaut Thunder.
It’s looking like a big improvement over last season, when the Knicks were just 27-14 at the Garden.
This season, they’re just destroying the visitors.
And Sunday was the latest breeze.
The Knicks led for the final 46 ½ minutes, with a balanced scoring attack led by Karl-Anthony Towns’ 22 points.
Six of their players scored at least 13 points.
Josh Hart continued his hot stretch by stuffing the boxscore, finishing with 20 points, 12 rebounds and 7 assists.
He also led the team with 5 offensive boards.
Jalen Brunson shot just 6-for-19, but he also drew the defense’s attention and the Knicks didn’t need a top performance from the star.
Despite the lopsided score, there were a couple of dicey moments in the third quarter.
Immanuel Quickley, the former Knick, took off in that period with 13 of his 19 points, including a trey that ended with a celebration MSG fans might remember — the gallop down the sideline.
Toronto then cut the deficit to 3.
But the Knicks responded with a 12-0 run to take control.
Hart, the spiritual leader of the roster, led the charge with 13 points in the third quarter.
The Raptors never recovered.
It was, in some ways, a schedule win for the Knicks.
The Raptors (14-7) are much better than most anticipated, riding Brandon Ingram’s resurgence to first place in the division before Sunday.
But they were also on the second night of a back-to-back after traveling from Charlotte on Saturday night.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the visitors came out sluggish.
The Knicks came out firing — especially Miles McBride, who had 12 points in the opening five minutes.
They built a 24-point lead early in the second quarter, giving the appearance of a blowout for the home team.
But the offense went cold with the reserves on the court, namely Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Kolek.
The Knicks’ advantage dwindled to 7 points at halftime.
It fell to 3 in the third quarter.
Then the Knicks exploded for another home victory.
The Raptors were playing without RJ Barrett, who sat with a knee sprain.
The Knicks were again without OG Anunoby, who strained his hamstring over two weeks prior.
Despite their absences, both sides — the Raptors and Knicks — were probably feeling pretty good about their swap roughly two years prior.
Quickley and Barrett, the two former first-round picks of the Knicks, are big parts of Toronto’s early surge this season and its 14-6 shock record heading into Sunday’s showdown at MSG.
Quickley earned the starting point guard spot, entering Sunday with averages of 15.8 points, a team-high 6.3 assists and just 1.7 turnovers.
Barrett, who was injured Sunday with a knee sprain, is the starting two-guard and averaging 19.4 points on 50.6 percent shooting.
“Those two guys, obviously we got them, they were like 23 at the time, 24,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “They grew up a lot since that time.”
Last season, it didn’t look so great for the Raptors.
They were in the draft lottery for a second straight campaign, with questions surrounding both Quickley and Barrett as winning pieces.
The Raptors team president who executed the trade, Masai Ujiri, was fired in June.
But Ujiri’s vision is easier to see this season, with the important caveat that it’s still very early.
Quickley, Barrett, Scottie Barnes and, most importantly, Brandon Ingram are all shining.
They represent an unexpected hurdle for the Knicks to clear both within their division.
And on Sunday, it was pretty easy.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
