Toronto Raptors vs New York Knicks Jan.11/08

Chris Bosh had 40 points and 11 rebounds, and the Toronto Raptors rolled to a 99-90 victory over New York on Friday night in the latest ugly night for the Knicks.

Starting forward Zach Randolph was benched the final 31-plus minutes after appearing to have a dispute with Knicks coach Isiah Thomas. Randolph was yanked 20 seconds after committing an offensive foul with 7:35 remaining in the first half.

Not that the Knicks were doing much with Randolph in there, anyway. They trailed the final 45 1/2 minutes and lost for the ninth time in 10 games, falling to 0-2 on a four-game homestand that Thomas said before the game was important for his last-place team.

New York has dropped five straight at home. The Knicks were booed frequently in the second half, with the "Fire Isiah!'' chants heating up late in the third quarter.

The Raptors led by double digits for nearly the entire second half of their second straight victory. Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker each scored 13 points for Toronto, while Jose Calderon finished with nine points and eight assists.

Jamal Crawford scored 27 points for the Knicks and reserve Nate Robinson had 24. Randolph and fellow starting forward Quentin Richardson were both scoreless.

Thomas' offseason acquisition of Randolph has sometimes seemed confusing - including to Randolph - because he and center Eddy Curry have rarely looked comfortable with the pairing. That wasn't a problem Friday, because the only place they spent much time together was on the bench.

Randolph played 10 minutes. Curry stuck around for 15, finished with six points and two rebounds.

Randolph's name even surfaced in trade rumors this week, though Thomas has called all his players "untouchable.'' Then again, he seemed to hedge on another statement earlier Friday.

Ten days after predicting he would be here to see the Knicks win a championship with some of these players, Thomas made an analogy to a construction worker that made it sound as if he'd be gone before the Knicks are winners again.

"We need to build a culture here. We need to build a foundation. That's our job, that's this group's job,'' Thomas said. "I've tried to put it in terms, I've told them we're kind of the concrete layers, we're the cement layers. When you move into your house, the guy who poured the concrete never really gets a chance to live in that beautiful house that he built. And our job right now is to make sure that we lay the concrete and we lay it correctly.''

The Knicks were indeed brick layers early, missing eight of their first 10 shots and falling behind 15-4 on a layup by Bosh, who scored 13 points in the first quarter. He had two more layups in the final 46 seconds of the period, giving Toronto a 27-17 lead.

Bosh had 10 more points in the second quarter and the Raptors led 55-46 at halftime.

Notes: Thomas on if he'd change the way he uses his rotation if the Knicks don't turn things around soon: "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it and that'd be a fair question maybe a couple of weeks from now.'' ... Toronto has won the series 3-1 in each of the last three seasons. ... Thomas had words on the bench with Richardson after removing him from a loss in Charlotte last month.

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• Jan.11/08

[tustari]

Big big ups for this

[Kobedude12]

FUCK U

[desiboy201]

fuck u asshole

[KiLLeRAdAm93]

unlucky knicks u rok

[nexclusive]

is the only reason this is up cause theres a nate robinson ridiculous crossover on calderon on youtube?

[MovieNetX]

wow fuck the raptors!

[bautistaundefined]

thanks bud