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TORONTO — No, the preseason results don’t actually matter. Knicks coach Mike Brown instead harps on the process.
Whatever this process was, though, it was ugly.
With Knicks starters — as well as veteran bench pieces Landry Shamet, Andre Drummond and Jordan Clarkson — sitting out the team’s preseason game (since it was the second leg of a back-to-back) against the Raptors on Tuesday night at Scotiabank Arena, it was a chance for those battling for bigger roles and roster spots to help their cases.
Brown went with Jose Alvarado, Miles McBride, Mohamed Diawara, Bruce Brown and James Wiseman as his starters.
The Raptors, however, used their normal starting lineup — which now includes Kawhi Leonard. And the Knicks reserves got crushed by a staggering 50 points — 148-98 — to continue their winless preseason (0-4).
“It’s not necessarily what’s on the scoreboard at that particular time,” an unconcerned Brown said. “It’s are you doing the right things to be better and/or get better? And in the first half, what I was most disappointed in was we weren’t putting bodies on bodies. Fifteen second-chance points in one half is not good. Thirty fast-break points in one half is not good.
“And then the way they sped us up, and us not necessarily touching the paint and trying to spray it and/or making quick decisions is not good. So that’s what I was most disappointed in in the first half. I really didn’t care about the score, especially with the group we had on the floor.”
Mikal Bridges made the trip here and went through a workout on the court pregame, though the four other Knicks starters — as well as Shamet, Drummond and Clarkson — stayed home.
Drew Eubanks, Tyler Nickel, Pacôme Dadiet, Tony Bradley, Ochai Agbaji, Kevin McCullar Jr., Tyler Kolek and Jaden Akins were the other Knicks who saw action.
They trailed by 20 after the first quarter.
The deficit ballooned to 28 early in the second quarter, reached 35 just past the midway point of the quarter and was at 38 by halftime.
It didn’t get much better in the second half, as the Knicks backups looked overmatched going against a playoff team that just added a superstar to its ranks.
“You never want to lose in that way,” McBride said. “But at the same time, we just gotta move on. Preseason is for those reasons. Missing eight of our guys, you just want to come out there and have a positive mindset. Go out there and play hard. There were things we could’ve definitely done better, but they’re a playoff team and you add a Hall of Famer with them.”
Leonard had his way with the Knicks with 21 points in 16 minutes, with Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles adding 19 apiece and RJ Barrett chipping in 17. The Raptors as a whole shot 57.3 percent from the field.
This was like those blowouts the Knicks punished opponents with during their championship run — except this time with the roles reversed.