Raptors flash on defence in pre-season loss to Knicks

Read the original at Toronto Star ↗
Cite

Smith, D. (2026, October 16). Raptors flash on defence in pre-season loss to Knicks. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/sports/raptors/raptors-flash-on-defence-in-pre-season-loss-to-knicks/article_479658e1-ac36-4d08-bf34-7a1f8fa829c8.html

Dated from the outlet's own feed. Check the original for its byline.

Toronto Star · collected 2026-10-16 · by Doug Smith

Quick Summary

In their pre-season game against the Knicks, the Toronto Raptors showcased promising defensive capabilities in the third quarter despite losing 122-120. Key players like Scottie Barnes, Kawhi Leonard, and Collin Murray-Boyles demonstrated versatility and intensity, turning a five-point halftime deficit into a brief lead through aggressive defense and timely offense. While turnovers and poor rebounding were areas for improvement, the Raptors' coach Darko Rajakovic found value in assessing how his starters perform together before the regular season starts on Wednesday.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-16, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

On October 13, 2026, the Toronto Raptors narrowly lost to the New York Knicks in an NBA pre-season game with a score of 122-120. Despite scoring just six points on two-of-five shooting, Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors' star off-season acquisition, still contributed significantly through his defense and intensity. Scottie Barnes led the way for Toronto with 23 points, while RJ Barrett added 21 points. For the Knicks, Jalen Brunson scored a game-high 20 points, and Karl-Anthony Towns had 15 rebounds along with nine assists. The Raptors previously won against the Knicks in Toronto on Tuesday by a large margin of 148-98 when New York's main players did not participate. This pre-season match was part of a home-and-home series between the two teams, providing valuable insights into team cohesion and player integration before the regular season begins.

Written for “Raptors Preseason Loss To Knicks” on 2026-10-16, grounded in this article and the 2 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Raptors Preseason Loss To Knicks
Sports · 3 article(s) covering the same event. See how they differ ↓

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 6% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Global News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 5 📰 publisher trust 64
“Both articles describe the same pre-season basketball game between Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks on October 16, 2026.”
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 5 📰 publisher trust 63
“Both articles describe the same pre-season NBA game between Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks on October 16, 2026.”
Toronto Star
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 21 📰 publisher trust 63
“Article A describes Kawhi Leonard's re-debut and warm welcome during pre-season game introductions on October 14, while Article B discusses the Raptors' performance in a later part of the same game or possibly another game against the Knicks.”
CBC News
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 21 📰 publisher trust 77
“The articles describe different parts of the same game: Article A covers Kawhi Leonard's re-debut and reception during the pre-season game, while Article B focuses on the Raptors' performance in the third quarter.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
18
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
6%
1 of 18 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
63/100
Toronto Star's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
3
Sports
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-10-16 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Toronto Star · 7551 article(s) · 21 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 21 correction(s)
2026-10-07
Correction
2026-09-24
Correction

Who wrote this

Doug Smith
17 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 It’s unlikely the Raptors will change their starting lineup but that group should close every close game.
2026-10-16 · assertive framing · Raptors flash on defence in pre-season loss to Knicks
🔮 The Raptors surely are, and all they are thinking about now is how good this group might become, because Kawhi Leonard took to an NBA court in a Toronto uniform again Tuesday night and it was nothing but good.
🔮 While fans and some players would gladly trade days in training camp and the odd pre-season game for a bit more rest in an arduous regular season, the Raptors coach wouldn’t mind even more preparation time. “If you ask players, they will start to play games on the first day of training camp … if you ask coaches, we’re missing probably two weeks of training camp
🔮 New Raptors staffer Stephen Silas, who has been an NBA assistant or head coach since 2000, was part of an ill-fated Toronto-Cleveland exhibition game that never took place in St. John’s. Silas, the 53-year-old son of legendary NBA player and coach Paul Silas, was an assistant on the 2003 Cavaliers team that had a game against the Raptors cancelled because of condensation on the court, robbing fans there of seeing what would have been the final pre-season appearance of then-rookie LeBron James. It’s part of Raptors lore and not only because the organization has failed to keep a vow to return to Newfoundland.
🔮 There’s lot of competition at his spot — and Toronto may very well start the season with a 14-man roster instead of a full 15-man team — but Burnett has created some interest.
🔮 At no point has Kawhi admitted any culpability publicly — his first statement went only as far to say that “I accept full responsibility for lapses in judgment by people within my inner circle” — so I cannot speak to what he would have told, or not told, Silver or any investigators.
🔮 “Unfortunately, he was injured and couldn’t play in summer league to showcase that but we have a plan for him to play offensively at positions four and five.”
🔮 And that’s not going to change despite what could turn into a season-long conversation over the lack of a contract extension, what it means about being a free agent in July 2027, and concern about the 26-year-old’s future in Toronto.
🔮 The familiar tones of the Jack Armstrong and his trademark calls like “hello!” and “get that gah-bage outta here” will be heard once again in half of the coming Raptors regular season television broadcasts.
🔮 Jamal Shead, the 45th pick in the 2024 NBA draft who became a key part of the team’s rotation in the last two seasons, will get a three-year, $24 million (U.S.) extension that could keep him in Toronto through the 2029-30 season, according to team sources.
Also by Doug Smith
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 17 articles by Doug Smith →

Topics

Knicks New York New York’s Raptors Toronto

Subjects

Raptors ORG · 8× Leonard PERSON · 4× Murray-Boyles PERSON · 4× Barnes PERSON · 3× Knicks ORG · 3× Toronto GPE · 3× New York GPE · 2× San Antonio’s GPE · 2× Kawhi Leonard’s PERSON · 1× Scottie Barnes PERSON · 1×

Narrative

In about a 3:20 stretch when Murray-Boyles replaced starter Jakob Poeltl to get some time with Toronto’s four other starters, the Raptors forced six misses off seven New York shots, out-scored the Knicks 10-2 and gave coach Darko Rajakovic fodder to think about before the regular season starts Wednesday.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-16
🔮 It’s unlikely the Raptors will change their starting lineup but that group should close every close game.
2026-10-16 · Toronto Star
Raptors flash on defence in pre-season loss to Knicks · assertive framing

Claims (18 extracted, 1 hedged)

It was the first few minutes of the third quarter that made Thursday night worthwhile for the Raptors, a stretch of when they combined tough defence with opportunistic offence and showed in a short spell the promise of the season to come. asserted
they → make → season
Scottie Barnes had a couple of blocked shots, Kawhi Leonard’s intensity and swarming defence cut seconds off the shot clock and bamboozled ball-handlers, while Collin Murray-Boyles checked seven-footers and point guards. asserted
Boyles → have → footers
It helped the Raptors turn a five-point halftime deficit into a five-point lead in about a six-minute span, a small sample size but an important one. asserted
It → help → span
Given that the exercise of the pre-season is to work on cohesion and conditioning in short stretches, the night had to have been a success for Toronto. asserted
night → give → Toronto
In about a 3:20 stretch when Murray-Boyles replaced starter Jakob Poeltl to get some time with Toronto’s four other starters, the Raptors forced six misses off seven New York shots, out-scored the Knicks 10-2 and gave coach Darko Rajakovic fodder to think about before the regular season starts Wednesday. asserted
season → replace → fodder
That the Knicks escaped with a 122-120 victory was secondary. asserted
escaped → escape → victory
Toronto got more time for Leonard (22 minutes spread over four different stints) on different combinations and that’s important. asserted
that → get → combinations
There were good nights from Barnes (23 points and four blocked shots), RJ Barrett (21 points, eight rebounds) and Immanuel Quickley 18 points, seven assists) and they played basically New York’s top lineup — Josh Hart was the lone regular who didn’t play — even almost all night. asserted
who → be → lineup
For Rajakovic, seeing how the combination of Leonard, Barnes and Murray-Boyles works is important and even while defending seven-foot centre Karl-Anthony Towns, the size-challenged Raptors were not hurt. asserted
Raptors → see → Towns
The trio’s strength, quickness and versatility more than overcame any size deficiencies. asserted
strength → overcome → deficiencies
It’s unlikely the Raptors will change their starting lineup but that group should close every close game. asserted
group → ’ → game
Murray-Boyles made another three-pointer in his offensive development and had two blocked shots and three steals in about 22 minutes. asserted
Boyles → make → minutes
The second-year forward looks like he’s going to be central to how the Raptors play at both ends. asserted
Raptors → look → ends
Leonard, meanwhile, was not dominant but playing limited minutes while he’s still working himself into game shape, just getting him out there for almost a half game was significant. asserted
getting → play → game
The Raptors committed 20 turnovers, defenders got caught ball-watching for backdoor cuts by Knicks along the baseline and New York had 15 offensive rebounds. asserted
York → commit → rebounds
And the survey says … The Raptors caught the attention of the league’s general managers according to an annual poll conducted by NBA.com. Barnes is ranked second as the game’s most versatile player (behind San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama), the third most versatile defender (behind Wembanyama and Houston’s Amen Thompson) and got votes as the best small forward and the player most likely to have a breakout season. uncertain
Barnes → say → season
Leonard is ranked as third best small forward in the league (behind Luka Doncic of the Lakers and Jayson Tatum of Boston), is tied with LeBron James behind Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jaylen Brown as the new player who’ll have the biggest impact and also got votes as the most under-rated player. asserted
who → rank → player
Murray-Boyles tied for second behind San Antonio’s Dylan Harper as the player most likely to have a breakout season and No. 19 choice Allen Graves was tied for second as the rookie who was the biggest steal at his slot. asserted
who → tie → slot
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