Quick Reaction: Raptors 104, Magic 102

Barnes had a great drive in the first half where he rejected the screen and took it hard to the hoop for an acrobatic switch-handed layup. We didn’t see this same aggression for the rest of the game, as he favoured working in the mid-range or trying to slowly, incrementally, breakdown his defender towards the rim. This approach mostly resulted in misses and blown layups. Twice Barnes tried to breakdown Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. in isolation at the end of the first half, with minimal success (he initially drew free throws against Banchero, but the call was challenged and overturned). Yet, Barnes’ high-event defence was as impactful as ever. He showed great anticipation jumping the passing lane for a steal on KCP/Banchero pick n’ roll and did an outstanding job deterring Magic shots at the rim. He did sink a nice baseline fadeaway on a SLOB play. Barnes was charged with his fifth foul with 2:29 remaining in third quarter, limiting his minutes down the stretch.

Star-J lived up to the nickname with his performance tonight. Between Barnes’ foul trouble and passivity and Quickley’s slow start, he had to take the reins of the offence early. His passing when working as a pick n’ roll ball-handler was on par with the excellent standard he’s set this season; he did an outstanding job setting up Poeltl for easy buckets. They ran an angle pick n’ roll and Barrett made a perfect pocket pass to the rolling big. Later he rejected a Poeltl screen, inch-wormed his way deep into the lane, and made composed last-second wrap-around pass to Poeltl for an easy finish. His defence has also been better lately, and aside from a few avoidable fouls, he was strong here again. Barrett stuck at the point of attack, once forcing Franz Wagner to take negative dribbles. He also remained proactive off the ball, positioning himself well for steal after pressure from Shead and Mogbo caused a bad pass. Barrett was a freight train pushing in transition as well, near unstoppable.

Poeltl made an outstanding read finding Walter in the slot for an open 3 after Scottie entered to him at the elbow. He did a great job contesting at the rim on drives by Wagner and Banchero, and also managed to stay with them on a couple of switches – to mixed results. He did all the big-man stuff, including vacuuming up offensive rebounds, a couple of which resulted in open 3s. Poetlt is the ever-steadying presence for the Raptors with his masterful screen craft, reliable finishing, and steadfast rebounding, all of which were on display against the Magic.

Really rough start. Caldwell-Pope sunk a couple mid-range looks early after Dick was unsurprisingly erased on screens. He also airballed a 3. His lone make was on a nice fader in lane. Dick eventually left in the second after taking a shot in the face from Cole Anthony as RJ Barrett fell into his legs. He was visibly shaken up but was able walk of the court under his own power, although he did have a slight limp. He was unable to return and is reportedly still being evaluated.

His driving to the rim in this game started off as a mixed bag. Quickley was occasionally able to beat Anthony Black and get to the rim, finishing a couple right-handed scoops. But he was also turned away at times and had his dribble fizzle out. Then late in the third quarter he got into another gear, and was suddenly knifing into the lane repetitively, finishing a variety of floaters and two and-1s. Quickley scored 15 on a 23-3 Raptors run and assisted on four more. He also ran a slick little get action with Poeltl on a baseline out of bound play – Poeltl made a “blind pig” style feed back to Quickley off the inbound – and a canned step-back triple.

Streaked into the thick of the defence and found Shead for a 3 in transition. Mogbo had a quiet box score to start, but his versatility on defence was once again instrumental in the Raptors flattening out opposing two-man actions with switches, particularly with the Magic’s star duo. Later on it got loud. He fronted the post on Banchero, grabbed the steal, and ran it the full length of the court for a big-time dunk. THEN Mogbo grabbed another steal on an attempted lob over the top by Black in transition. He proceeded to finish at the other end when Quickley found him on a baseline cut.

Had a great hit ahead pass to Mogbo for the hockey assist on a Shead 3. Operated skillfully in the pick n’ roll with Barrett, making a nice catch in the lane and going up strong for the finish. Also stuffed Anthony Black in the third and was generally an imposing presence at the rim. Ended up fouling out down in the fourth as the Magic’s stars battered him with drives.

Came out gangbusters. Shead drilled his first two 3s and got one of his customary push-shot bank-ins to go, leading all Raptors with eight first-quarter points. Also got into Cole Anthony at the point of attack, forcing negative dribbles and truncated actions. His pressure helped force a bad pass from Anthony that Barrett grabbed for a steal. He had some outstanding activity on defence, particularly in transtion, and got into the lane for another bank-shot. Shead was able to touch the paint more or less at will against Anthony, driving on him and finding Robinson for lay-down.

Came out with some incredible energy on his first stint. He canned his first triple, wrestled for a board on the offensive glass the next trip down, and then took it into the teeth of the defence and drew free throws. Walter showed some strong screen-navigation (an area he apparently struggles in according to proprietary data that has been cited) and stickiness on a Wagner-Bitadze action, keeping Wagner in front and forcing a heavily contested shot in the lane for a miss.

The Raptors 905s G League Next Up game representative got first-quarter minutes in Ochai Agbaji’s absence. He mostly stood in the corner, posting the Tony Snell line with one miss and one foul fighting over a screen. It was more of the same during his second shift, but he did show good instincts as a cutter, jolting baseline to open up space for a Walter drive.

Opted to give AJ Lawson early minutes and keep Chris Boucher on the bench. This is understandable since Lawson has hardly gotten any non-garbage time run with the Raptors, and the Raptors want to see what they have in their young, fringe players. Later we saw a solid run from the two point guard lineup featuring Quickley and Shead, which looked promising. Both guards were on the floor together for the majority of Toronto’s 23-3 second half run, which included 15 from Quickley.