


The Knicks travel north of the border on Friday night to face the Raptors in an Atlantic Division battle.
The Knicks play with no rest following Thursday’s home contest with the Pistons and have struggled on the second leg of a back-to-back by losing in three of four attempts, including a pair of road losses.
Coming off a solid home victory over Phoenix on Wednesday as underdogs, the Raptors look to reach the .500 mark with a win.
Scottie Barnes led the way against the Suns with 23 points as Toronto snapped a two-game slide and improved to 6-4 at Scotiabank Arena.
While the Knicks have dominated poor opponents this season, they have struggled against good teams, and their league-worst two-point shooting percentage (48.7 percent) has been a big reason why.
Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson and RJ Barrett have seen serious year-over-year regression in this area.
The Knicks have also seen their ups and downs when playing away from Madison Square Garden with a 5-4 road mark.
They had a three-game winning streak on their last trip, but the victories came at Atlanta, Washington and Charlotte.
The Knicks and Raptors — who took their rivalry to a whole new level recently with accusations of spying, theft and cozy relationships with NBA commissioner Adam Silver — are meeting for the first time this season.
Toronto captured three of four matchups in 2022-23, with New York’s lone win coming at Scotiabank Arena.
The Knicks have lost six of the past eight matchups to Toronto since the 2021-22 season.
It’s hard to ignore the Knicks’ struggles not only with no rest but also against Toronto the last few seasons. Let’s back the Raptors at home against the Knicks on Friday night.
The play: Raptors, -1.5 (217)