TORONTO – The playoffs don’t start until next weekend, but for the Knicks, Game 1 of the first round begins tonight in Toronto against Vince Carter. Yes, it is time the Knicks send notice to these athletic hellraisers from Canada that playoff basketball is more rugged than regular-season dates.
If they don’t tonight at Air Canada Centre, the upstart Raptors have every right to go into its potential first-round matchup vs. the Knicks next weekend thinking they could and should whip the Knicks, despite their post-season inexperience.
“We definitely as a team have to send a message and let them know this is how it’s going to be come playoffs if we end up playing each other,” said Marcus Camby, the former Raptor. “It’s going to be an intense game. They’ve played us as well as any team. They’ve played with a little confidence. But it’s playoff time. It’s do or die. We have to play with a sense of urgency.”
Catching Miami for the Atlantic Division crown is still pie-in-the-sky unless the Heat continue gagging. The more realistic scenario is the Knicks remaining at the third seed and facing the current No. 6 Raptors with Game 1 at the Garden next Saturday or Sunday.
Toronto, which gives the Knicks hellish matchup problems at small forward and shooting guard, has won the last two meetings vs. the Knicks and probably should have won all three regular-season games.
The Knicks barely held on by one point against the Raptors in the first meeting at the Garden Dec. 22 after Toronto charged back from 15 points down in the fourth. If that game lasted 30 seconds longer, the Raptors would have prevailed.
The Raptors have crushed the Knicks in the last two outings – 99-88 at the Garden Feb. 23 and 91-70 at Air Canada Centre Feb. 15. No, this is not the first-round matchup the Knicks craved. Carter has made Knick games into his own personal All-Star slam dunk contest, soaring for 98 points against the timid Knicks in three games – an average of 32.6.
“The key for us is stopping Vince,” said Latrell Sprewell, who has had no clue on how to slow Carter down. “If you could do that, we’ll be OK. He’s the one guy we haven’t been able to control and that’s going to fall on my shoulders for the most part. I have to do a better job at stopping him.”
The 6-5 Sprewell is usually overmatched at small forward, as it is not his natural position. But Carter has given him the most trouble of any ‘3’ this season. And the problems only begin there.
Allan Houston, not exactly a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, has played matador with Sixth Man of the Year swingman Tracy McGrady, who recently has been put in the starting lineup at shooting guard.
And the Raptors, since midseason, have played a big lineup that features ex-Knick, 6-6 Doug Christie, at point guard. Christie has saved some of his season’s best moments for the Knicks this season, as has Charles Oakley, who has even hurt the Knicks from the perimeter.
Going with their controversial point-guard free “Big Backcourt” of Spree and Houston would seem a good counter-attack, but when Jeff Van Gundy used it in the last meeting, Toronto coach Butch Carter outsmarted him and went even bigger – placing Carter as the shooting guard.
“They’re talented players and what’s happened is they’ve gathered confidence against us and that makes a big difference,” Houston said. “So a team like that, with young players who have confidence, they’re a difficult team.”
It is why it’s so essential to make a stand tonight in Canada. “We need to be in tune to what they’re doing because we could possibly face them,” Sprewell said. “I think we need to come out and play with passion, play like we really want that game. because of the possibility we may meet this team.”
Sprewell said the other day he didn’t feel any team in the East wanted to face the Knicks and believes that’s true for Toronto, too. “The times we’ve played them, we haven’t been on our game,” Sprewell said. “If we play the way we’re capable of playing, I don’t think any team can beat us.”
Carter and the Raptors hit a ponderous speed bump in mid-to-late March, losing eight of nine games but seem back on track. They had won three straight games before losing to Indiana Wednesday night. The Raptors trail the fifth-seeded Hornets by one game. If the Raptors pass them, the Knicks would get Charlotte – a better matchup.