The Toronto Blue Jays defeated the New York Yankees to move on to the American League Championship Series, the Toronto Maple Leafs took down their original six rivals Montreal Canadiens, in their season opener, and the Toronto Raptors capped off the sports-filled Wednesday night with a 130-122 win over the Sacramento Kings.
The Raptors, more specifically, Brandon Ingram, came out firing right from the tip. The former all-star got the party started by draining a pair of triples early to get the Raptors out to a 9-2 start. He followed that up with a smooth isolation mid-range pull-up against Domantas Sabonis, keeping the good times rolling.
It would flip into Sacramento’s favour, however, as the speed of the game picked up. The Kings responded with a 13-2 scoring run to take back a four-point lead, before a third Ingram long bomb ended a nearly three-minute scoring drought for the Raptors.
A little bit later, a fourth Ingram three would cap off a 14-point first quarter, sparking a 19-9 scoring run to end the opening frame, as Toronto held a 36-27 lead into quarter No.2.
The first four minutes of the second quarter were back-and-forth, with Toronto barely outscoring Sacramento 10-9, with a couple of Gradey Dick layups, an RJ Barrett three, and four Sabonis points mixed in.
The rest of the frame, Toronto basically got whatever they wanted offensively, a theme that continued all night. Another Barrett three and a Sandro Mamukelashvili triple capped a fantastic shooting half from Toronto, finishing 11-for-20 from distance (55 per cent), taking a 65-52 lead into the break.
To begin the second half, Collin Murray-Boyles and Ja’Kobe Walter entered the starting lineup, and they immediately made an impact. First, Murray-Boyles found Walter for three while coming off a flare screen, before Walter would reject a screen from Murray-Boyles and nail a step back three a couple of minutes later. The pair of former first round picks helped Toronto begin the third quarter on a 14-7 run.
The 3-pointers would continue to rain down for Toronto as Ingram would drain yet another deep shot, Immanuel Quickley got involved, with Ochai Agbaji also joining the 3-point party. The Raptors finished the game shooting 54.1 per cent from distance (20-for-37).
Ninth overall pick Murray-Boyles continued to look the part in this one, having one of the best sequences in the game after switching out to block a Malik Monk 3-pointer, before fighting through the contact for the physical jam leading to an and one.
Murray-Boyles finished the game with 12 points, seven rebounds, six assists (team lead), and two blocks while shooting 4-from-8 from the field.
The Raptors continued to do whatever they wanted on offence the rest of the frame, as a Jamal Shead transition runner, a Mamukelashvili and one, and a Jonathan Mogbo tip helped the Raptors nearly break 100 points through three quarters, as they took a 97-78 lead into the final frame.
In the fourth quarter, just like in the team’s opening preseason loss to the Denver Nuggets, the end-of-the-bench players were able to see some action.
Chucky Hepburn would make the biggest impact of the group with solid minutes on both sides of the floor. He began his time on the court with a great dig on defence, leading to a turnover, while being a pest on the ball defensively all quarter. The 22-year-old also hit a smooth midrange turnaround dribble jumper, an above the break catch and shoot 3-pointer, and also had nice assists to Jamison Battle and A.J. Lawson in the process.
The Kings, however, were not going down without a fight. With their bench pieces, including Nique Clifford, Dylan Cardwell, and Maxime Raynaud, Sacramento outscored Toronto 44-33 in the final frame, cutting the lead all the way down to six at one point.
But a fantastic Hepburn quarter, plus Brampton, Ont. native Lawson making some timely shots, and the Raptors would snag their first win in the pre-season.
Toronto still has four pre-season games remaining before the season opener in Atlanta on Oct. 22, beginning with facing the Boston Celtics at Scotiabank Arena on Oct.10. Two days later, Toronto will travel to Washington before heading over to Boston on Oct. 15, all before playing the team’s final tune-up game Oct.17 against the Brooklyn Nets.
