Written by Matt Adwar – @theknicksguy

A night where Knicks head coach Derek Fisher played 13 guys, it somehow all came together.

A blown call with Carmelo Anthony stepping out of bounds might have been the break the Knicks needed to pull out a victory. The Toronto Raptors made things very interesting hitting a 3 pointer to pull within 1 point with 1.5 seconds left. But the Knicks prevailed as they defeated the Raptors 111-109. The New York Knicks improved their record to 4-4 led by Carmelo Anthony who had a solid night with 25 points on 10-23 shooting. DeMar DeRozan led the Toronto Raptors with 29 points.

Lance Thomas, a key contributor in the 4^th quarter said after the game “We imposed our will, everybody fought, its us against everybody”.

Tip Ins

Robin Lopez had one of his best games of the season contributing offensively and defensively. He racked in 12 points, 8 rebounds and 4 key blocks.

Langston Galloway was huge in this game with 15 points on 6-10 shooting.

The huge surprise of the night was forward Lance Thomas. He was huge coming down the stretch with some key rebounds and big free throws. He finished with 17 points.

Kristaps Porzingis struggled shooting tonight 3-11 but he played well defensively and looks great when he runs the floor, oh and he had another highlight dunk over 3 guys.

*The Knicks made eleven 3 pointers a season high shooting 47% from the field.

*Cleanthony Early was subbed in for the last few seconds of the third quarter and hit his first 3 pointer of the season with time expiring.

*Jose Calderon was -8 point differential when on the floor and still managed to play more minutes then Langston Galloway who was +10 for the night.

*Lance Thomas has signed 13 different contracts and has been waived 4 times. Never give up!

Final Thoughts

There’s a lot of things to take away from this game. The first being that Derek Fisher has absolutely no idea who to play. If it weren’t for the Knicks pulling out the win, we would all be criticizing that he played 13 guys and had the most interesting subbing pattern ever. It seems he never knows when to put back Melo in. The positives from this game are the Knicks look like a team with fight. We didn’t really see that last year (maybe because they were tanking for Godzingis?) and Lance Thomas postgame comments solidify that. The Knicks are going to play hard all year and once Fisher figures out this rotation and Afflalo comes back, watch out Eastern conference the New York Knicks are here.

The Knicks travel to Charlotte to take on the Hornets tomorrow night at 7:00 as they look to go above .500 in well, a long time.