TORONTO (AP)—Raptors coach Dwane Casey came up with just the thing to slow down the surging New York Knicks: a zone.
DeMar DeRozan scored 30 points before leaving with a sore left ankle, Andrea Bargnani had 21 and the Raptors routed the Knicks 96-79 Friday night, snapping New York’s five-game winning streak.
“The zone knocked us on our heels,” Knicks center Tyson Chandler said. “We had trouble finding ways to score against it and that really was the outcome because we never got a rhythm or momentum.”
Chandler said Toronto’s zone was similar to the one he played under Casey when both were with Dallas during last season’s championship run.
“It’s designed to force you to take jump shots and we kind of fell into the trap,” Chandler said.
The results weren’t pretty. New York shot just 32 for 85 (38 percent) and no Knicks player made more than six field goals.
“Everybody struggled to make shots, and I mean wide-open shots,” New York coach Mike Woodson said. “I thought we moved the ball but we just couldn’t make shots and defensively we couldn’t get stops. That’s a bad combination.”
The Raptors, who had lost seven of 10 coming in, never trailed and led by as many as 22, avenging a 106-87 loss at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
“That was good to see, especially after the spanking they put on us down in New York,” Casey said. “I was really proud of the way our guys came out.”
Losing for the first time in six games since replacing Mike D’Antoni, Woodson didn’t feel the same way about his team’s effort.
“I just didn’t see energy tonight,” Woodson said. “We were a step slow from the very beginning. We’ve got to play at a much higher level than we did tonight.”
Gary Forbes scored 19 points, one shy of his career-high, and Jose Calderon had 10 assists as Toronto snapped a three-game skid. Forbes said the Raptors “played with a chip on our shoulder.”
“They kicked out butt in New York,” said Forbes, who scored 14 in the final quarter. “Coach reiterated how we got punked and had to come in here and protect our home court.”
DeRozan fell hard after a collision with Calderon with 2:59 left, then got up and hobbled straight to the locker room. Afterward, however, he said the injury wasn’t as serious as it looked.
“I came down and tweaked my ankle a little bit,” DeRozan said. “It was just a little scare. It’s a little sore right now and I just had it treated, try to get it ready for the game (at Chicago on Saturday night).”
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