The 905 were down 69-41, a 28-point deficit, and the 905 may have played, quite possibly, its worst second quarter ever. Teams can bounce back in the second half – the oft-used “a tale of two halves” – but it’s difficult to mentally bounce back after scoring just 14 points the second quarter, while ceding 41 points to your opponent. By halftime, he 905 had 20 turnovers, and Eric Khoury took three timeouts in the second frame – which exemplifies just how badly it went. In the second half, the Knicks maintained their dominance, but there is one stat, despite its discrepancy between the ESPN and G League box score, that speaks volumes. The former says the 905 had 33 turnovers while the latter says 30, but according to ESPN, the 905 allowed – and it hurts to say this – 53 points off 33 turnovers. The accuracy of this stat is questionable, but allowing a ballpark figure of 50 points off 30-ish turnovers is a team who simply cannot dribble or pass. Those are my high school basketball team numbers.
But I’ll refrain from writing a 905 autopsy report. There were some positive takeaways. First, it wasn’t a wire-to-wire defeat. The 905 showed spirit at the end of the first quarter where Omari Moore’s triple and Myles Burns’ lay-up were the answers to a Knicks’ 8-0 run. Unfortunately, that was a brief revival before the 905 went into cardiac arrest in the second quarter. Another positive takeaway came after the Knicks reached the 100-point mark at the end of the third quarter. Ron Harper, who had a team-high 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting, still fought for respectability – completing an and-1 lay-up, then hitting another lay-up. By the start of the final frame, however, it was a 33-point deficit, the 905 trailing 104-71. The Knicks would have had to play worse than the 905 did in the second frame for the game to be close. Despite the 905 flatlining, they turned the ball over in the second half only half as many times as they did in the first (10 turnovers in the second half compared to 20 in the first). And solid individual contributions from Mohamadou Gueye (Mo G) who had six blocks, while Kevin Obanor had a career-high 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting. Markquis Nowell watched last night’s debauchery unfold from the bench, sidelined with a bruised rib. The 905 ceded 37 points and 10 rebounds to Jacob Toppin, the undeniable POTG, and the Knicks improved to a 4-1 record. The 905 are still winless in the Showcase Cup (12 games remain), and will return to Paramount Fine Food Centre this Saturday, November 25th at 2 pm. Markquis Nowell and Ron Harper have both gotten minutes with the big club, and Javon Freeman-Liberty and Justise Winslow are still recovering from injury. As the In-Season Tournament showed, the parent club can still hang with the best. The 905 play a pivotal role in prepping end-of-bench guys, and it’s still early enough to turn things around. Last week, our guy @MrNewYorkCityy made his NBA debut for the @Raptors
Markquis put up 2-2-2 in just four minutes
@Bell pic.twitter.com/r0VyxJqogw— Raptors 905 (@Raptors905) November 20, 2023 The post 905 dug their own grave in Westchester first appeared on Raptors Republic.Source: https://www.raptorsrepublic.com/2023/11 ... stchester/