http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/22/sports/basketball/knicks-limp-to-another-loss-this-time-in-toronto.html 2014-12-22 01:10:36 Knicks Limp to Another Loss, This Time in Toronto The Knicks, with injuries continuing to sap their strength, fell to 5-25 after an uninspired performance against the Raptors. === TORONTO — It took the What followed was 47 minutes 21 seconds of subpar, predictable basketball from the Knicks, who never got particularly close and never made things remotely interesting. Thirty games into the Knicks’ season, the losses are blurring together. The only differences from night to night are the score lines. This time, the Knicks lost, 118-108. They are 5-25. The most noteworthy moments of the afternoon at Air Canada Centre, to a dispassionate observer, were most likely the pair of aesthetically beautiful dunks by Terrence Ross. With 7:11 remaining in the first quarter, Ross slipped through the Knicks’ defense on a backdoor cut, corralled a pass, cocked the ball behind his head and slammed it through the rim. More exciting still was his dunk with 7:09 remaining in the third, when he dashed down the court on a breakaway and levitated to the rim, his feet dangling absurdly high off the floor, all while absorbing a foul from Carmelo Anthony. Another notable sight was that of Anthony, who has continued to report pain in his left knee, playing a game-high 38 minutes — many of them after any doubts of the result were seemingly gone. Anthony, who scored 28 points, left the court with 6:06 remaining in the game, while the home fans chanted “We want Bruno!” — a call for the 19-year-old rookie Bruno Caboclo, who started the day with 13 career minutes under his belt. Caboclo played the final two minutes and missed all three of his shots — a feel-good moment provided by the lowly Knicks. One underlying cause of the Knicks’ current gloom has been their long list of injured players. It has been hard to gauge when that situation might improve, though, because the Knicks have not provided many details about the players’ situations. Before the game, for instance, Coach Derek Fisher revealed that neither guard J. R. Smith nor forward Amar’e Stoudemire had made the trip to Canada, but he was unable to provide much clarity beyond that plain fact. Smith was found to have a partially torn plantar fascia in his left foot on Dec. 13, and the Knicks had expressed hope from that day on that Smith could make a quick return. He was even penciled into the lineup on Dec. 14 before being scratched before tipoff. But has he has not played since Dec. 9, and Fisher acknowledged that the timeline had probably been a long one from the get-go. “It’s day to day,” Fisher said of Smith’s injury. “From the beginning, it may not have been day to day; it was probably going to be a few weeks or so.” Fisher added, “We’ll keep monitoring day to day.” Stoudemire’s situation seemed strange, too. He is, officially, not injured. Last week, he said he planned to play one of the back-to-back games this weekend and use the other as a recovery day. But he ended up sitting out both games. When Fisher was asked whether he expected Stoudemire to play in the Knicks’ next game, on Thursday, he said, “I’ll worry about that after today, but as of now, I’d say so.” And then there was Andrea Bargnani, the forgotten forward, who has not played this season because of various leg injuries. He was spotted working out on the court on Sunday afternoon before the game, but when asked whether Bargnani might return to practice soon, Fisher could only say, “We’ll see.” REBOUNDS Early in the third quarter, Samuel Dalembert was called for a flagrant-2 foul, and was ejected, for swinging a high elbow toward Jonas Valunciunas away from the ball.