NEW YORK (AP) — Obi Toppin scored a career-high 42 points, Immanuel Quickley had 34 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds, and the New York Knicks finished a disappointing season by beating the Toronto Raptors 105-94 on Sunday night.
The Knicks finished 37-45 after making the playoffs last season, but second-year players Toppin and Quickley ended on high notes. Quickley had career highs in points and assists and equaled his best night on the boards.
Alec Burks added 10 points for the Knicks, who dressed only eight players. They won their last two games and seven of 10.
Toronto held out Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet in their final game of the regular season ahead of their first-round playoff matchup with fourth-seeded Philadelphia.
Chris Boucher scored 21 points and Gary Trent Jr. added 17 for the Raptors, who had their winning streak snapped at three games.
The Knicks trailed by three points early in the fourth quarter before going on a 9-0 run to pull away.
Ryan Arcidiacano initiated the rally with a 3-pointer to even it at 80-all and Quickley capped it with a pair of free throws with 5:51 remaining to make it 87-80. Boucher then answered with a basket before Toppin put the Knicks up 92-82 with a baseline alley-oop dunk and a 3-pointer with 4:13 to go.
New York jumped off to a quick start, taking an 11-2 lead just over two minutes in and closed out the opening period with a 31-22 advantage, led by 12 points from Toppin.
Toronto erased the double-digit deficit with 13-0 run during a 2 1/2-minute stretch in the middle of the second quarter, capped by a baseball pass from Malacchi Flynn to Trent for a layup to make it 39-35.
Toppin closed out the half with a 3-pointer that put the Knicks ahead 53-48.
TIP-NS
Raptors: Flynn scored 10 points.
Knicks: RJ Barrett (sprained right knee), Mitchell Robinson, Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride all were held out of the season finale. … Quickley’s previous career high in assists, eight, was recorded Jan. 17 at Boston
LOOKING AHEAD
Knicks president Leon Rose, who had gone all season without speaking publicly, called the team’s season a disappointment during an interview on MSG Network that aired before Sunday’s tip-off.
New York finished 11th in the Eastern Conference a year after reaching the playoffs and losing to Atlanta in the first round.
“I feel as though it’s been a disappointing season from the standpoint of wins and losses,” the former agent turned league executive said. “And we are going to take good hard look at it after the season to evaluate everything that’s going on. … The first year things clicked. This year from the beginning things didn’t click. We faced adversity. We had some tough stretches.”
The Associated Press
