Karl-Anthony Towns paired 27 points with 20 rebounds as the visiting New York Knicks held off a second-half rally to defeat the Toronto Raptors 121-115 Tuesday night.
Jalen Brunson scored 28 points to lead New York, which led by 23 during the third quarter before letting Toronto close within one late in the fourth. But the Knicks never gave up the lead and completed a sweep of the four-game season series.
Former Raptor Precious Achiuwa contributed 17 points before fouling out in the final minute. Mikal Bridges also had 17 points and Josh Hart scored 15 as New York won its second straight.
Scottie Barnes scored 23 points for Toronto, which has lost two of three. Jamal Shead scored 16 points, Gradey Dick added 14, Ja’Kobe Walter logged 13 and Kelly Olynyk hit for 11. Shead had nine assists.
The Raptors engineered a 12-0 run to cut the margin to four with 5:56 to play in the fourth quarter. Brunson answered with a 12-footer for the tiring Knicks before Dick hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to three with 4:41 left. Shead’s layup trimmed the margin to one with 3:17 to go before Hart scored four straight points.
After Toronto moved to within three, Brunson silenced the crowd with a 3-pointer with 26 seconds left to seal the win for New York.
The Raptors applied pressure early against the Knicks, who were completing a back-to-back after Monday’s home win over Houston.
The first-quarter highlight was Ochai Agbaji’s spectacular block for Toronto on a driving dunk attempt by Miles McBride. Olynyk scooped the rebound and fired a pass to Dick for an uncontested running dunk to give the Raptors a five-point lead with 3:05 to play. Toronto led 34-30 after one quarter.
New York began to dominate in the paint and took a seven-point lead on Towns’s tough layup with 6:29 to go in the second quarter.
The Knicks led by 10 with 2:50 left on Brunson’s fadeaway and entered halftime up 68-51.
Hart worked through a crowd for a layup to put the visitors up by 21 with 9:26 left in the third quarter. Hart made another layup to give New York an 81-58 lead before the Raptors began to chip away.
Agbaji’s thunderous dunk off Shead’s nifty pass cut the lead to 16 with 4:10 left, and Toronto was within 98-86 entering the fourth.
RJ Barrett (concussion protocol) did not play for the Raptors. OG Anunoby (foot) sat out for the Knicks.
