In Toronto, the strip clubs offer fully nude dancers and have no restrictions on alcohol. The women are (allegedly) gorgeous and the worst clubs in Toronto are (allegedly) much better than the best the States have to offer. Even in Vegas. In addition, the drinking age in Toronto is only 19, good for say, a starry eyed kid in a high paying profession who just turned 19 less than 4 months ago visiting the happening Canadian city for the first time (editor’s note: not to mention Canadians are basically French people in North America). Just to use a random example.

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Well, Toronto sounds like a lovely city but why am I reading about the exquisite details of Toronto nightlife on a Knicks blog?” Well, to answer that hypothetical question, that is because our young Knickerbockers took a trip north of the border to experience the after-hours first hand, and oh yeah, also play basketball against the Toronto Raptors, considering the fact that they are professional basketball players who are paid to play basketball, professionally.

The Knicks all looked hungover throughout this affair, with the exception of Jarrett Jack. They missed badly on easy shots, played sloppy offense, lackadaisical defense, dropped passes, didn’t hustle, etc. as the Raptors ran all over them from start to finish. From almost the opening tip, you could just tell the Knicks didn’t have it in this one. It took me until about when the Knicks were 10 or so down in the first quarter to count them out. And I normally do not think that way.

Honestly, it is my HOPE that the Knicks were hungover in this one. It is reasonable to expect a young team on the road to want to go out in a foreign city and have a good time every now and then. I mean, they are paid a very hefty sum to play basketball for a dedicated fanbase that pays to watch them, but at the same time these are aesthetic (no homo) young men in the prime of their lives making a ton of money. Sometimes, it is unrealistic to expect a good-looking (no homo) group of uber-rich early 20-somethings to behave like 40+ year-old professionals all the time (editor’s note: shouts to Jarrett Jack for trying (and failing) to lead by example). HOWEVA, if this simply resembles what this team looks like once they leave the warm cozy confines of the World’s Most Famous Arena, then we very well still might be in for another long, lost season of Knicks basketball after all.

The Knicks have started off this season as one of the surprise teams in the NBA, and while I wouldn’t necessarily call their schedule “easy,” it has been irregularly crowded with home games. Especially early on in the season, before the Knicks have a chance to really disappoint, it is relatively easy to feed off the energy of Madison Square Garden en route to some surprising victories that disguise the Knicks as a decent NBA team. After all, the Knicks went into this game carrying the same 8-6 record they had in the previous 2 seasons, and we all know how those played out.

HOWEVA, the real good NBA teams, the playoff caliber teams, even in the East, are able to compete and win games on the road. It is this distinction that separates them from the rest of the pack. Because once a bad team rears their ugly face on the road, that early season mystique tends to fade pretty quickly, making the home games tougher to win as well, due to a decreased level of confidence in both the players and the home crowd. So I mean it when I say that I hope the Knicks were all hungover in this one instead of this just being a glimpse to what this team looks like without having the energy of MSG to feed off of.

It is discouraging, to say the least, that while the Knicks are 7-3 at the Garden, where pretty much all of their recent impressive run has taken place, this loss drops them to 1-4 on the road, their lone victory coming in Cleveland. Because if that 1-4 is representative of how this team looks on the road this season, then I personally GUARANTEE that 7-3 will no longer become representative of what they look like at home, and quickly.

I’m not even going to begin to touch the nitty-gritty of this game, because it’s not worth it and knowing me, once I start I won’t stop until everyone else is bored half to death reading the finest details about a game that doesn’t matter (editor’s note: *standing ovation with tears in my eyes* “YES, YES!”). This game sucked. Every Knick who really matters sucked playing in it. Porzingis was abysmal, the Raptors interior length turned him into a non-factor.

Nobody stood out whatsoever besides Jarrett Jack, who must have stayed his old ass in the hotel and got a good night’s sleep while all the young bulls painted the town orange and blue until the wee hours of the night (editor’s note: 40 year old professional status)… Oh yeah, Michael Beasley dropped 10 points in almost as many minutes (12). Around these parts we like to refer to that as “a point a minute” aka “Walking Bucket” status for the Walking Bucket… I mean, I don’t for one second think that The Beas just ate a nice hearty dinner and stayed in the hotel with old man Jack, but we all know Beas Mode must be more than acclimated to the rage-and-rally routine by now.

The hangover angle is as probable as it is humorous for a Friday night Knicks game in Toronto (shout out to the homie Robert Randolph as well as his family band). T-Dot is a fun young city with non-American laws that benefit a young team looking to embark on some fun to celebrate their early season success. I could not find any evidence of this ALLEGED partying, but conspicuously absent were any social media posts of the players going to see a movie in their sweats or some shit that encompasses some road trips to boring ass cities (like Cleveland).

But, on the other hand, it is important to explore the tough question that nobody wants to ask themselves this early in a feel-good season: What if the Knicks really do suck again? I know, Mike Breen “Buzz Killington” status, but this question is especially important to ask ourselves considering how well the past two 8-6 starts finished up… That’s not well. Not well at all.

I’ve mentioned it in previous rants but there have been many discouraging signs still sprinkled in with all of the Knicks’ early season feel-good success. Namely, that would be the three-point defense, first and foremost. The Raptors didn’t necessarily scorch the Knicks from downtown in this one (not that they needed to), shooting 9/26, but the Raptors also are not a very 3-point reliant team despite being the NBA’s 3rd leading scoring team after the Rockets and Warriors.

This could actually be a good example for the Knicks to follow. Considering that their own 3-point percentage is tied with the Raps at 35.7% (17th in the NBA), and they rank 28th (ahead of only Sactown and the Lakers) in terms of 3-pointers made per game, as the Knicks continue to rely more and more on post play than 3-pointers in a league continuously going opposite of that trend.

Toronto is 12th in the league in 3-pointers made for reference, but they also rank 8th in defending it. If you aren’t going to make a lot of 3s in the NBA today and you aren’t going to shoot them at a high percentage, then you sure as fuck should at least be adept in defending it if you want to have any measure of success in 2017 NBA, where the original 7-seconds-or-less Suns would rank near the bottom of the NBA in terms of both pace and 3-pointers made. The Knicks currently rank 21st in defending the 3 in terms of percentage, and dead ass last in terms of total 3s let up per game. Verdict: Not good!

Listen, these are just stats, the Knicks are still sitting at a solid 8-7 with a young roster with room to improve, but being 3rd to last in the League in 3-pointers made per game and dead fucking last in 3s allowed per game is not exactly a positive sign of things moving forward from this point when the sample size begins to become more representative of the mean. We have seen this first hand the last two seasons after similarly encouraging starts littered with discouraging signs we (optimistically) thought were mere outliers as opposed to the (more pessimistic) predictors they would end up becoming.

You might call this an overreaction after one bad game, but you would have probably said the same last season. And the season before that. You know, as the old saying goes: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… shame on you still? Fool me three times though! Well, I guess three times would actually be quite an improvement considering all the “fool me 15 times!!” fans out there who are still, God help them, willing to believe that Steve Mills and Dolan are finally going to get this team back on track.

The good news is that while the Knicks are 8-7 once again, this time Jeff Hornacek is our coach and he is no longer handcuffed to the triangle (an offensive system preferred by ex-Knicks President Phil Jackson, you may have heard of it in passing). This team is young and hungry, and we have seen him grossly overachieve with another young and hungry team in the past.

And to his credit, he has run a very efficient offense predicated on ball movement and cutting (that actually still uses a lot of triangle principles but shhhhh don’t tell anybody!). But there might be one tweak for him to look into sooner rather than later that might be able to clean up many of these same deficiencies currently plaguing the Knicks. That would be to move Frank Ntilikina into the starting lineup and increase his playing time closer to 30 MPG than 20.