Immanuel Quickley returned to the Raptors’ lineup for the first time since October 23rd. They pushed the Clippers and Quickley made some big plays down the stretch, but the team couldn’t pull off their first road win of the season, falling to 2-8 on the year.
Quickley finished with 21 points and four assists on 8-18 shooting from the field. He struggled out the gate, going 1-4, before picking it up in the second half. The Raptors were led, for the most part, by Ocahi Agbaji, who tied Quickley in scoring with 21 points, made three 3-pointers himself (all from the corner), and played lockdown defense on James Harden, who shot 5-17 from the field.
RJ Barrett had a relatively quiet night, only scoring 13 points, while Gradey Dick chipped in with 15 points, including a barrage in their second quarter that helped the Raptors stay in the game. Chris Boucher also chipped in with 14 points.
The Clippers were going to run away in the fourth quarter, but Darko Rajakovic pulled off an interesting lineup change, subbing in Bruno Fernando for Jakob Poeltl (who had struggled, 5 points, 1-6 shooting) and he helped spark a run. Fernando scored four points, dished out three dimes, blocked a shot, contested a few more, and committed five fouls in 9 minutes to help the Raptors mount a late comeback versus the Clippers in Intuit Dome.
The Clippers pulled off their fourth win in a row thanks to former Raptor Norman Powell, who continued his hot shooting and scored 24 points.
Toronto will now travel to downtown LA to play LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers — whom they played last week.
If you’d like a more detailed analysis of the game, check out the Raptors Republic YouTube channel for the recap by Esfandiar Baraheni and subscribe to the channel for more videos like it.
