Quick Reaction: Raptors 105, Warriors 120

How hard RJ continues to play remains impressive. RJ’s first right corner triple forced a Golden State timeout. On drives, it seems like nobody can stop him. He’s simply too strong, and this physicality shows on the defensive end too. Even Kuminga had a tough time moving RJ in the paint. Towards the end of Q4, RJ continued to play hard — he had two spin moves, I believe, and had a really strong take.

Hope his hand injury isn’t anything too serious. He did a good job shooting 3s in the flow of the offense — he shot his first transition catch-and-shoot triple with zero hesitation. He continued to show his ‘Coaches Barnes’ side, communicating to Dick where to go on both ends of the floor. He was doing this against the Mavs, and had the best potential assist to Dick on a wing 3 attempt. Hard to see him leave so early when it looked like Scottie was going to have a bounce-back game, compared to his GSW game in January.

Steady presence down low. Led game with five offensive boards. But can be a liability when he’s stretched out to the perimeter on defense.

Missed a lot of shots, but didn’t take any bad shots either. Biggest issue was that he could have stepped up more in the 30 minutes he played, especially with Scottie gone in the fourth. Was a pretty big non-factor.

There’s been a lot written about Quickley’s screening ability on this site. He had a three-point attempt early in the game off a screen he set for Barrett. His transition pull-up three forced a timeout. He’s been shooting a sicko 19-for-37 from behind-the-arc before this game, but today was a regression to the mean; IQ shot 3-for-11. Also, he may have taken a page out of Luka’s game – Luka threw a crazy pass behind Brown’s head last game, and IQ tried this in Q1. He took a bit of a backseat role, and only came back alive in the fourth, hitting the team’s first 3 of the 2nd half at the start of Q4.

A pretty big non-factor throughout the game.

If middys could make highlight reels, he showed a slick pump-fake from behind the arc, and had a nice pull-up, but that’s all I can really remember him doing.

Another bright spot of this game. The mere threat of three-point shooting is sometimes enough to stretch the floor. He pulled one as soon as he came off the bench. When he didn’t shoot 3s, he attacked aggressively inside. And he had a beautiful pass from behind the arc to a cutting Carlton, who was able to do this because of Olynyk’s floor-spacing impact. Olynyk did all the small things right. Down 12, he grabbed an offensive board off Boucher’s missed three, and hit two at the charity stripe to make it within 10, and prevented Looney from walking into the paint.

Continuing to do all the things he didn’t before. He’s pushing the pace, and has the strength to take a bump and maintain his line on drives. Pushed the pace at the end of the game, even running to his favourite spot – the right corner 3 – and draining it. Playing in mid-Q4 moments like today can only accelerate his development. His teammates were looking to get him shots at the end.

Seemed a little lost in the brief moments he was out there, but good lob finish off the roll with IQ (though play looked kinda broken).

Memorable six minutes for Carlton. Hit an important wing 3 to make it a five-point game. Nice backdoor cut to get the pass from Olynyk. Looked good in transition too.

Interesting move to keep Olynyk and Poeltl out on the floor together. Some interesting big-to-big actions. In the first half, Poeltl pitched the ball to Olynyk outside the arc, then Olynyk fed Poeltl down low. On a later play, Poeltl got to the line after getting an offensive board off Olynyk’s missed shot from the baseline – Green wanted a challenge, but Coach Kerr waved him off. In the second half, Olynyk tipped in Poeltl’s missed push shot, and we witnessed their ability to play off each other.