Knicks rout Raptors, 116-94

NEW YORK — Forty-point quarters are supposed to leave a team feeling invincible. They’re the kind of offensive avalanches that make opponents crack under the weight of inevitability.

The New York Knicks entered Sunday leading the NBA with eight such outbursts. They made it nine after hanging a 41-point opening period on the Toronto Raptors — the same Raptors they’ll face in the NBA Cup quarterfinals on Dec. 9 — and briefly looked like they were rolling toward another runaway victory at Madison Square Garden.

It’s quite the accomplishment in a point-hungry NBA. The Knicks now have three more 40-point quarters than the Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies and Miami Heat, who are all tied at six. They even have a game with consecutive 40-point quarters, when they hung 83 points in the second half of a victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers each have five such 40-point quarters. The Knicks have doubled up each of the league’s remaining 22 teams in the department.

Yet a familiar issue resurfaced on Sunday. Sure, the Knicks scored 41 in the opening period, but they generated just 18 points in the second quarter. The Knicks exhaled. Their defense loosened. Their urgency dipped. And when Scottie Barnes drilled three straight 3s from the same spot at the top of the key, Mike Brown had enough. He called a timeout, and in the span of a few possessions, what looked like a laugher became a seven-point game at halftime.

New York ultimately won, 116-94, improving to 13-3 on the season and 10-1 at home. They pulled away late to reopen a 20-point advantage midway through the fourth quarter. But the pattern is becoming impossible to ignore: The Knicks can build leads. Protecting them is another matter.

“Just discipline. We got a little lazy at certain points in the game,” Josh Hart said in his walk-off interview. “They’re a good team, they made runs and we were able to weather the storm.”

A 40-point first quarter against Brooklyn on Nov. 9 gave way to a 40-point second quarter surrendered to the Nets without Cam Thomas. Against Memphis, a 42-point opener dissolved into a 39-point third quarter by the Grizzlies. Miami saw the Knicks drop 46 in the second quarter — and immediately allow 36 in the third of what became an eight-point escape.

Sunday followed a similar blueprint: a blistering start, then an abrupt stall. The Knicks didn’t give up 40 this time, but they took their foot off the gas — just enough of a lull to invite the Raptors back into the game.

“[They’re] extremely athletic. They’re big and have big wings, and they can shoot the ball very well,” head coach Mike Brown said ahead of tipoff. “They really get out in transition and punish you in transition. A lot of guys who can run well. They can score at all three levels, and then defensively, they’re aggressive, they create turnovers which creates points for them in other ways.”

Luckily for the Knicks, their opening 40-ball provided just enough cushion to absorb the turbulence that followed. Miles McBride came out flamethrowing, drilling four of his first five threes and single-handedly outscoring the Raptors, 12-10, to start the game. Toronto chopped the lead to as little as three midway through the third quarter — 7:08 on the clock, tension thick in the building — before New York rediscovered its rhythm and answered with another avalanche, this time a 34-point third period.

Karl-Anthony Towns led the way with 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting, and Josh Hart added one of his most complete games of the season: 20 points (4 of 7 from deep), 12 rebounds and seven assists. Jalen Brunson chipped in 18 points, seven assists and six boards on what amounted to a relatively light workload. All five Knicks starters scored in double figures yet again, and Mitchell Robinson anchored the second unit with 15 rebounds — seven on the offensive glass — in just 17 minutes.

Immanuel Quickley delivered 19 points and seven assists in his return to The Garden, and Barnes added 18 points on 7-of-17 shooting.

The Knicks and Raptors will get another look at each other in nine days, but the stakes will be far heavier next time: a win-or-go-home NBA Cup quarterfinal in Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena with a trip to Las Vegas on the line.

Maybe this is simply the nature of basketball — a game of runs, where even big leads evaporate and momentum swings on a couple of made 3s. Maybe surrendering stretches is just part of the natural ebb and flow of a team that scores at such a high clip.

Or maybe it’s something worth monitoring. Because this version of the Knicks can build leads with ease, but learning how to extend them — not sit on them — will determine how high their ceiling really is. They’ve been fortunate so far, now 7-1 in games where they’ve posted a 40-point quarter.

But fortune doesn’t last forever.

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