The casual observer might have thought the Toronto Raptors’ defensive pressure against the Atlanta Hawks wasn’t working. The Raptors couldn’t stop fouling and were in the bonus after six minutes of the first, with more than half of Atlanta’s points coming at the free throw line. Jalen Johnson shed Toronto’s full-court pressure with ease, driving around defenders, getting to the rim for layups, and drawing oodles of those aforementioned fouls. And the Hawks only committed one turnover more than Toronto in the first quarter, five-to-four.
And yet, the Raptors led, scoring 36 loud points in the first quarter. The defensive system, for its appearances of failure, was a big part of the calculus there.
For every open layup or opener free throw Atlanta created, Toronto pinged that kinetic energy into its own transition attack. Atlanta flung rushed, impatient passes to beat the break, and Scottie Barnes and Gradey Dick both caught some corner-back picks with stellar transition defence. Atlanta even missed some contested layups in transition, leading to Toronto’s runouts the other way. Juice in one team’s pace squeezes into juice for the other. Momentum and pace go both ways, and the Raptors were better prepared to play with frantic energy than the Hawks.
Darko Rajakovic has admitted that such intense pressure with yield mistakes. The goal, put simply, is simply to induce more from one’s opponents. It is a fine line to walk, but one that served Toronto against Atlanta.
To keep up the pressure, Toronto went deep on its bench, playing 11 in the first half despite missing Collin Murray-Boyles and Ja’Kobe Walter due to injury. The stars had small minute totals. Everyone stayed energetic with shorter shifts.
And in the second quarter, Toronto’s defence settled into a much cleaner rhythm. With Jonathan Mogbo playing center (alongside Barnes, to help with rebounding and rim protection), the defence actually started forcing some stops. Mogbo moved his feet in a switch, forcing a wild shot that was blocked by his teammates. Barnes ended up dunking in transition with no defence around him. Mogbo later forced a 24-second violation with a terrific closeout.
Meanwhile, the offence continued scoring. Sustainable, efficient, half-court offence has been something of a rarity over the last half decade, and it was something of a revelation. Yes, Brandon Ingram’s presence helped as he hit mid-range pullups while curling around pin-down screens, drove to the rim out of pick and rolls, and generally offered professionalism and dynamism.
But it wasn’t just Ingram. Immanuel Quickley didn’t hit his triples, but he moved well, passed well, and — most importantly — forced the defence to move when he did. Gradey Dick forced long and frantic defensive rotations as he scampered around screens without the ball and pump-faked his way into drives when he did touch the rock. With everyone else lifting the burden of offensive creation, Barnes found himself without help or digs on his bully drives, and he hit an easy turnaround jumper and an easy hook in the first half for his own physical, efficient offence in the half court. His interior passing when he caught or drove the lane was exquisite.
The defence remained stout — not just frantically hunting turnovers, but actually forcing stops — when Jakob Poeltl returned to the game. And he was the release point on offence, catching when others created for him, and finishing with ease in the paint.
When you throw in easy fastbreak points and consistent half-court points, the math starts looking pretty nifty. And this was all without Toronto’s heavy artillery — in the form of Quickley, Dick, Ingram, and even some other efficient shooters like Agbaji and Battle — exploding from behind the 3-point line. Despite those players all getting wide-open corner looks. As I said in my new (!) podcast with Samson, catch-and-shoot 3-point shooting is an effect of good offence, not a cause of it. And Toronto created good offence even without finishing its 3s. It finished with six made triples and 138 points scored — a higher total than in any game last season. Shooting was a problem, not the problem, last season. Toronto will shoot better than it did tonight, but the offence was exquisite despite the shooting not clicking.
As was generally the case last season, the Raptors created more shooting possessions than their opponents. This is good. Rajakovic has innovated in that area, just like his predecessor Nick Nurse. But the Raptors also were more efficient than their opponents on the shots they took. That’s genius math, a recipe for devastating success. It was only free throws that kept Atlanta’s head above water.
The transition offence remained relentless in the third quarter. Barnes threw down a two-hand dunk in transition, then finished a layup approximately 3.4 seconds after a Hawks score. (Pushing after makes is good transition offence.) RJ Barrett finished a lob on the run, as Poeltl (Poeltl!?) threw him the alley after running the fastbreak. Ingram picked Nickeil Alexander-Walker clean, leading to a Quickley and-1 finish the other way. The Raptors ran the Hawks out of the building.
The defence reverted to extremely sketchy with the starters back in the game. The offence made up for it. When Jamal Shead and the bench checked into the game, he instantaneously drew an offensive foul chasing around a screen. (Is there a stat for that? He may lead the league this season.) And with Toronto drawing so many fouls, it was the Raptors’ turn to hit the free throw with every opposing foul midway through the quarter. Dick continued scoring in transition. The rest of the crew kept crashing the offensive glass. Rajakovic closed the quarter with Dick screening for Quickley, a fun wrinkle that maximizes shooting on the ball. Toronto scored 110 in three quarters. Despite Atlanta’s run early in the third, Toronto stretched the lead larger than ever by the end of the quarter.
In a way, the Raptors assumed the personalities of their best offensive and defensive players, Ingram and Barnes. They were consistent and professional, like Ingram, never changing their approach. Their athleticism jumped off the page, like Barnes, resulting in transition dominance and bundles of offensive rebounds.
And when the free throws dried up for Atlanta, Toronto’s winning engagement turned into a route. The cavalry rode down the retreat, as Toronto pushed the least to 20, then 30 (actually 29), all in the span of a few minutes across the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth. The interior passing looked downright Summertime Spurs at times, with Barnes looking like an absolute maximizer in his new role. Rajakovic pushed the right buttons throughout the night. The defence may have looked silly at times, especially when Agbaji was fouling Trae Young with a push at halfcourt, but it did its job to perfection. Sure, there were mistakes. But the defence forced more mistakes from Atlanta. And Toronto’s offence was boosted into the stratosphere by half-court competence combined with transition lava, plasma, frothing fire.
It is not an exaggeration to say that practically every Raptor played his role to perfection. The bench flat-out dominated. Even erstwhile weaknesses turned into strengths, at least for one night. And so the Raptors are 1-0, first in the East, after smacking a team that even plugged-in, intelligent observers believed to be clearly superior to Toronto coming into the season. The Ingram era is off to a blazing start.
