Immanuel Quickley of the New York Knicks attempts to get past the Raptors' Kyle Lowry during their game at Madison Square Garden on April 11, 2021 in New York CityRich Schultz/Getty Images
Julius Randle scored 26 points and the New York Knicks recovered after blowing an 18-point lead to beat the Toronto Raptors 102-96 on Sunday night.
RJ Barrett added 19 as the Knicks (27-27) won their second straight to get back to .500. Nerlens Noel finished with nine points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots.
New York led 66-48 early in the third quarter but lost momentum when the game was delayed because the court was wet. The Raptors used a 37-15 run to surge to a four-point lead with 7 minutes remaining, but Barrett hit a 3-pointer with the Knicks leading by one with 35 seconds to play.
The Knicks snapped a nine-game losing streak to Toronto. New York had not beaten the Raptors since Nov. 22, 2017, at home.
Gary Trent Jr. had 23 points and Chris Boucher added 17 points and 14 rebounds for Toronto, which scored 87 points in the first half of a rout at Cleveland on Friday but found things much tougher against the Knicks.
Kyle Lowry finished with 19 points in his return to the Raptors’ lineup after missing five consecutive games with a right foot infection.
Toronto’s Malachi Flynn hit back-to-back 3s to give Toronto an 87-83 lead with 8:19 left. The Knicks then put together a 9-0 run to go up 92-87 on Alec Burks’ 3 with 3:34 remaining.
Toronto got as close as 95-94 on Lowry’s layup with 53 seconds before Randle found Barrett for his 3-pointer.