TORONTO – The best thing that can be said about a pretty bad ankle sprain for Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes is that the timing could have been worse.

How long Barnes will ultimately be out is difficult to say at this point, as medical imaging and everything else is still pending. He was x-rayed at Scotiabank Arena after leaving the game early in the third quarter in what ultimately resulted in a 113-108 loss to the visiting New York Knicks, but they came back negative. He will be examined further on Tuesday.

But whatever the injury ultimately costs him, it is offset by the fact that it comes at a time when the Raptors are entering the shortest phase of their schedule thanks to the break that comes with the NBA Cup. The Raptors, who did not qualify for the single-elimination phase of the tournament, only have to play two games in nine days.

Regardless of whether Barnes suffered a relatively minor sprain or something more serious, his absence from work — and he has already missed 11 games this season due to a fractured eye socket — will be somewhat shorter because the Raptors simply have fewer games to play in the short term Expression.

Of course, that won’t matter too much if Barnes’ injury is more serious and he’s out for a month, six weeks or more, but it’s something.

It’s a different story with the Raptors. Already this season – which is only seven weeks old – they have had to deal with significant time losses due to injuries to four of their five starters and several of their key players in the rotation.

Barnes injured himself while jumping to block a shot from Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, and his right foot appeared to catch the edge of Towns’ foot on the way down. Barnes was a little off balance, so his weight also shifted more to his right side. It certainly had all the makings of a bad sprain, so to speak.

To their credit, the Raptors didn’t let the Barnes injury discourage them. The Raptors were leading the high-scoring Knicks by four points when Barnes left the game with 6:47 left in the third quarter, appearing to have the momentum. Barnes had hit two triples and had 15 points and five rebounds before he went down in obvious pain and had to be picked up from the ground before hopping his left foot down the tunnel and into the Raptors’ locker room.

“I never ask myself why this happens,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said. “These types of injuries are beyond our control and I don’t question anything about it. We just have to go through it and it’s one more thing.”

The Raptors didn’t use Barnes’ injury as an excuse to fade, leading 86-83 early in the fourth quarter. RJ Barrett in particular kept the pressure on en route to another big night at Scotiabank Arena, and the Raptors wing posted 30 points, eight rebounds and four assists in his first game against his old team at his home arena.

Barrett took center stage as the Raptors pushed the Knicks to the sidelines. He tied the score with a finger roll with 4:11 left, drove down the lane and found Davion Mitchell in the corner for a three-pointer and sprinted out in transition to tie the game with a quick break layup through a crowd Knicks finished with 42 points with seconds left. But that was the Raptors’ final basket.

The Knicks scored with a clever inbounds play after a timeout that ended with a Towns layup set up by Jalen Brunson. Barrett was blocked at the rim by former Raptor OG Anunoby before Towns tied the game with a whopping three-pointer with six seconds left to put the Knicks ahead by five.

“Losing Scottie was a tough blow, we played so well, especially with Scottie on the field,” Barrett said. “But it was a hard-fought game and we had a chance there at the end. Those are the ones you want to win, but I think we played pretty well.”

The defeat was Toronto’s third straight as they complete their season-best five home games at 2-3 before traveling to Miami to face the Heat on Thursday. They are 7-18 this season. The game was also marked by rookie Ja’Kobe Walter scoring a career-high 19 points in his 22 minutes of playing time. His highlight may have been assisting with a Barrett Alley-oop that the Canadian wing had to catch and complete in the air.

“I’m not going to lie, it slipped,” Walter said of his passport. “I don’t know how he understood that.”

The Raptors shot 44.6 percent from the floor and 13 of 35 from three-point range. They had 17 offensive rebounds compared to the Knicks’ six, but hurt themselves by converting on just 53.7 percent of their chances in the restricted area, compared to the league average of 65.7 percent.

The Knicks, who improved to 15-9, arrived in Toronto with the NBA’s best offense and showed why, shooting 51.2 percent from the floor and 42.5 percent from three. All five starters scored in double figures and three had at least 20 points, led by Towns with 24 points to go and 15 rebounds.

Anunoby had 14 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and three blocks in his first game in Toronto – including two blocked three-pointers on consecutive possessions in the second quarter. He has been excellent for the Knicks, who hope he, along with Precious Achiuwa, can provide the additional defensive force they need if they want to advance past the second round of the playoffs, where their season ended last year.

Not that the Raptors missed out on acquiring Barrett and Immanuel Quickley. Barrett has led the Raptors in scoring since joining them, and Quickley — despite being limited to just three games this season due to various injuries, most recently an elbow sprain that will likely sideline him for another two weeks — showed enough Because of his playmaking and shooting ability, the Raptors signed him to a five-year contract worth $175 million last season.

“OG was different, his versatility and size was something we were looking for,” said Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau. “Any time you get a player like that – and of course Precious – it was important to give away good players, so I think it was a good deal for both teams.”

It’s an awfully boring way to evaluate a trade, but it could very well be true. The Raptors just need to get healthy to take full advantage of the upside on their end, which could take a while.