The second meeting between Toronto and New York was a much different story from the Raptors’ mega-blowout on Tuesday night. The Knicks rested their starters there, but in this one, they were all good to go — with Josh Hart the lone exception.
The reigning champs ultimately came away with a close 122–120 win, and the game had some real regular-season vibes for a preseason affair. On the Raptors’ side, Scottie Barnes had a stellar outing, while Jamison Battle (making his 2026 preseason debut) showed why he’s such an important part of Toronto’s bench. Meanwhile, Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett both had some questionable lapses and ran into turnover trouble, but they were still important contributors on a slow Kawhi Leonard night.
One especially important takeaway: this was the first time this preseason that head coach Darko Rajaković had his likely 10-man rotation healthy and available to preview, just ahead of next week’s season opener. The usual starters were all there, with key bench players Collin Murray-Boyles, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamal Shead, Kyle Anderson, and the aforementioned Battle rounding out the group.
While the Raps largely held their own on the defensive end (again, with a few lapses and fumbles here and there), you could see how this more feisty, closely contested matchup caught up a bit to Toronto and highlighted what they’ll need to tweak and clean up before the regular season. I won’t get into the Jakob Poeltl-versus-real-NBA-centers dilemma here — I’ll save that for its own piece shortly.
Raptors’ potential 10-man rotation hits a few bumps against Knicks
But when Kawhi Leonard goes quiet or isn’t quite in tune with things, I’ve said before that guys like Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley are expected to step up — that's simply a given. After them, the focus shifts to the sneaky X-factor guys on the second unit: Walter, Shead, CMB, Battle, and, to a much lesser degree, SloMo. CMB and Battle impressed in their minutes, and while Ja’Kobe and Jamal brought effort on defense, their lack of offensive impact was too glaring to ignore.
Walter went cold from deep (0-for-3), while Shead was 1-for-4 from three — in fact, it was just a rough shooting night overall for both gentlemen. And IQ and RJ encountered the same three-point woes. Quickley went 1-for-5 from deep, while Barrett finished 2-for-6.
Sure, neither team shot it exceptionally well from deep, but given that the three-ball has been a pressing weakness for the Raptors, this wasn’t the most promising game from Toronto. Ideally, you'd want all of the others to have blitzing shooting nights, but even one more guy (especially Ja’Kobe Walter) making an impact would help. This is where Coach Darko’s spirited “next man up” mantra gets put to the test.
The young guns deserve some grace; navigating the jump from a developing squad to a rising playoff contender is part of the learning curve. I commend their willingness and aggression, but it has to translate into tangible results. Otherwise, it shows just how far the Raps still have to go to live up to their lofty expectations, and that one man’s influence and drawing power can’t be the ultimate saving grace.
All the expectations aside, this is still a team figuring things out from top to bottom, and we need to remember that. We can’t let all the noise, offseason praise, and predictions overshadow the fact that there’s still a feeling-out process happening across the board. Whether it’s the 35-year-old Kawhi Leonard figuring out his feet under him and getting his conditioning in order or his younger teammates looking to unlock that next leap — there will be inevitable growing pains for this core group throughout the gritty 82-game stretch.
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