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. Overall, the team went just 28-for-78 from the field (35.9 percent) in a game that simply got away from them at the end.

This 90-85 loss to the Raptors is extremely frustrating; especially with how good the Knicks looked against the Sacramento Kings back on Saturday (Dec. 31). The team had to play without All-Star power forward Amare Stoudemire again, and at first it didn’t seem like it would hurt the team. The Knicks took a nice 23-22 lead at the end of the first quarter and it looked like a great game was brewing. The second quarter got out of control though, as Toronto out-scored the Knicks 29-11 in those 12 minutes alone.

Heading into halftime with a 17-point deficit to a team that won 22 games last year is not what Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni wanted to see, and at least the team put in more effort in the second half. The Knicks fought back to within one point with just 35 second left but couldn’t stop the Raptors when it mattered most. In the early Atlantic division standings, New York now falls behind Toronto by means of the head-to-head tie-breaker. This is definitely not where the team wanted to sit after five games in a shortened season.

Carmelo Anthony finished the game 13-for-31 from the field, often taking shots he wasn’t comfortable with just to get the offense going. Far too many times there were other players passing up shot opportunities and it seemed like Bill Walker was afraid to even take shots on Monday night (Jan. 2). I don’t blame Anthony at all for attempting 31 shots, but I would have liked him to make a couple more. He did finish with 35 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists though, so fantasy basketball owners that have him had to come away happy from this game.

Next up for the 2-3 Knicks are the Charlotte Bobcats, who come to town on Wednesday (Jan. 4) for a 7:30 p.m. ET game.

More From YCN :

Knicks Beat Kings Without Stoudemire

Stoudemire Injures Ankle

No_Garnett_Suspension

New_York_Wins_Opener_Against_Boston

Baron_Davis_Comes_To_Knicks

Sources:

Full Knicks Schedule

New York Knicks Website

*Ryan Christopher DeVault is a fan of the New York Knicks that has followed the team since the days John Starks, Charles Oakley, and Anthony Mason instilled their defensive will on the rest of the league.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

It is only the second regular season game on 12/28/11, but the Cleveland Cavaliers will be meeting the Detroit Pistons for the third time. The only other team that the Cavs have faced this season has been the Toronto Raptors.

The Cavs beat the Pistons on their first meeting and lost to them on their second meeting. Right now, each team has had a chance to evaluate each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Looking back at the game against the Raptors, the Cavs are going to have to play harder and are going to have to penetrate the paint more. The Pistons are a physical team and if the Cavs are in the paint, they can get fouls, and in turn, foul shots.

The Cavs also have to greatly step up their defense. This really hurt them in the second preseason game against the Pistons. The Cavs were simply not playing a strong enough defense and the Pistons were running circles around them.

“This team plays hard and this has been their MO for years,” coach Scott remarked about the Pistons. “If you don’t match or surpass their physical style they are going to beat you. That’s the first thing we have to address. All our bigs and our team in general has to understand who we are playing and how they play. It’s going to be a physical basketball game. They are going to grab and hold you and you can’t cry about it. You have to fight fire with fire.”

Kyrie Irving is most likely going to start in this this third meeting against the Pistons. However, he has to up his shooting game. In the game against the Raptors, his field goal percentage was only .167. After his impressive games in the preseason against this Pistons’ team, hopefully he can up that stat. He did do well in assists though, so as a point guard, Irving did not fail his team.

On the defensive end, all Cavs’ players failed and they all need to step it up. They cannot beat the Pistons playing defense like they did against the Raptors.

R. Elizabeth C. Kitchen was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and still lives there. She was raised a Cavs’ fan and has remained loyal through all of the teams ups and downs. She remains confident that the Cavs will bring home a championship at some point in her life. Follow Rose on Twitter @Rose_Kitchen

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

The NBA season is obviously not going on right now, but there is still some competitive basketball around involving some of your favorite NBA stars. While I won’t be able to enjoy watching the Philadelphia 76ers open their season on November 2 against the Toronto Raptors, at least take solace in knowing that several 76ers players will be participating in Allen Iverson’s(notes) Las Vegas tournament on November 12. When looking at the way things shake out, I see some good things and bad things about the involvement of 76ers players in this event.

Andre Iguodala(notes), Thaddeus Young(notes), and Lou Williams are all taking part in the tournament. There are also other Philadelphia connections, including the leadership of Iverson and the presence of Team Philly, led by native son Hakim Warrick(notes). That is a lot of different things to pay attention to if you are a Philadelphia fan hungry for some basketball. The good thing for me is that Iguodala and Young will play some form of competitive basketball. Williams has already played in some of these exhibition events. But we haven’t heard about much involving Iguodala and Young, two of the most important players on the team. I’m looking forward to seeing how good they look in a competitive game. Both of those players will be on Iverson’s team. That gives Philadelphia fans to see the two famous A.I.’s reunite for a bit.

The bad things are obvious to me as well. I enjoyed Iverson while he was playing here, but I don’t think guys like Iguodala and Young have anything to gain by playing on the same team as him. I would have much rather seen them play on Team Philly, a group that’s not quite as superstar oriented. That leads me to the second negative element here. I think it is unfortunate that the 76ers players aren’t on the same team. I realize that Iverson and the organizers had nothing to gain by doing that, but it sure would have been fun if all three made it on the court on the same team at the same time. That would have been as close to a 76ers game as we might see for a long time.

In the end, the only thing I can hope for is that the three 76ers players look sharp and stay healthy. I don’t want to see any injuries in this event. It’s good that they are competing while the NBA is on hiatus. But in reality, the players have a lot more to lose than they do to gain. Hopefully, the three guys can just run the floor and stay fresh.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

76ers former general manager, Ed Stefanski, appears close to finalizing a deal to become the executive VP of basketball operations for the Toronto Raptors, Yahoo!Sports is reporting. Last week, Sixers new managing owner Joshua Harris announced that Stefanski was out with the Sixers. Reports had surfaced all summer and fall that Stefanski was engaged in talks with both Toronto and the Portland Trail Blazers.

In this new capacity, Stefanski would be reporting to Raptors’ president/GM Bryan Colangelo. Yahoo!Sports is saying the deal could be announced publicly as early as the end of this week.

As posted a couple of hours ago, the NBA and the NBA Player’s Association are getting together today in NYC for another bargaining session. To follow live from NYC, click here: Deep Sixer.

–Kate

Each week, Kate will check in from the road and answer fan questions about the Sixers. Click here to ask Kate a question or e-mail her at kfagan@phillynews.com.