The Toronto Raptors headed to Barclays Center to face off against the Brooklyn Nets, and safe to say, they dismantled Brooklyn from the opening tip. Brooklyn is not a team known for winning this season by any means, as they sit at 13th in the eastern conference, at a record of 23-49 before the game began. Toronto only has a handful more in the win column, but they have much more of an identity than Brooklyn and that showed itself in a massive way during last night’s duel.
For the better part of the season Toronto has been ranked amongst the top of the league defensively. Head Coach Darko Rajakovic’s defensive scheme prioritizes on ball pressure, which by proxy forces a lot of movement from his players on that end, and safe to say it seems like the team has bought in for most of the season. Over the full season, the Toronto Raptors sit at 16th in defensive rating, which is much higher than a likely lottery team has any business being at.
The Brooklyn Nets did not really have anyone who could consistently attack this defense successfully, and with Toronto’s overwhelming size making every bucket an arduous task, Brooklyn simply could not stay in the game.
Toronto held Brooklyn to under 20 points in the first quarter, and to 30 percent shooting from the field. Scottie Barnes was his usual swiss army knife self on the defensive end, helping out at the rim, showing off his poise at the point-of-attack, and just really leading these defensive possessions for Toronto. Barnes’s ability to cover plenty of ground and still be in a position to help shined all night en route to Toronto’s blowout victory.
Orlando Robinson had a big night in his own right, scoring 23 points on 71 percent shooting. Robinson did not do anything too fancy on the way to his big scoring night, he just did the prototypical big man stuff, kept it simple, and finished reliably all night. He put himself in good position on his teammates drives, and waited in the dunker’s spot for them to draw the defense and open it up for him to finish. He slipped plenty of his screens, looking to be found on the roll for easy scoring opportunities. Robinson’s size and length also provided issues for Brooklyn, as he warded off would-be finishers at the rim.
Jonathan Mogbo had a strong game last night finishing with 16 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Mogbo’s offense this season has been a fluctuating thing, which is to be expected from a rookie, but last night he looked pretty comfortable and poised on that end. His touch specifically is what looked a bit more polished, finishing with hook shots over defenders multiple times. Mogbo’s defense also looked sharp as well, his versatility on that end provided yet another hurdle that Brooklyn failed to clear. Mogbo’s defense is something that will likely make his NBA career, and last night he showed why.
This was Toronto’s largest margin of victory this season and although they didn’t shoot the ball extremely well as a team, it was their defense that empowered this blowout victory. If Toronto’s defense can be this good during such a tumultuous season as this one, one can only imagine how good it will be with the full team being healthy, with more continuity under Rajakovic. There will likely be nights during the rest of the season where Toronto is on the other side of these blowouts, in the name of tanking, but it is important that there be nights such as last night, where the team can show that they are bought into the ethos of their head coach.
