NEW YORK—Go on, all you Raptor fans who mocked coach Dwane Casey and his “pound the rock” mantra and rolled your eyes at the thought of some 1,300-pound boulder as some talisman for the season. Make light if you will but in the aftermath of a rather impressive victory, a guy who’d struggled all season before playing a significant role in a 90-85 road win invoked the rock, the mantra and the importance of doing your job every day because good results may come at any time. “There are no moral victories and for us to come through tonight was good because we’re a young team and it’s going to help us with our confidence and knowing we can win tough games by closing them out,” said Rasual Butler, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds in the victory

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NEW YORK—Go on, all you Raptor fans who mocked coach Dwane Casey and his “pound the rock” mantra and rolled your eyes at the thought of some 1,300-pound boulder as some talisman for the season. Make light if you will but in the aftermath of a rather impressive victory, a guy who’d struggled all season before playing a significant role in a 90-85 road win invoked the rock, the mantra and the importance of doing your job every day because good results may come at any time. “There are no moral victories and for us to come through tonight was good because we’re a young team and it’s going to help us with our confidence and knowing we can win tough games by closing them out,” said Rasual Butler, who had 13 points and 10 rebounds in the victory

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The Knicks’ poor first-half effort gave Toronto another big lead. Then their poor final-minute execution allowed the Raptors to keep this one. Andrea Bargnani and DeMar DeRozan each scored 21 points, and the Raptors held onto a big cushion this time, beating New York 90-85 on Monday night

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The lesson to learn from Monday night’s game (Jan. 2) is that if you live by the three-pointer, you also die by the three-pointer. The New York Knicks attempted 35 three-pointers against the Toronto Raptors, making just 10 of them to finish 28.6 percent from beyond the arc

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New York Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni likes the direction his offence is heading. Even if Amar’e Stoudemire isn’t on the court demanding defensive attention. The Knicks hope to have Stoudemire back as they try to build on their best offensive performance of the season Monday night against the struggling Toronto Raptors at Madison Square Garden (7:30 p.m.

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