Quick Reaction: Raptors 109, Hawks 97

Not a bad game, even if it wasn’t up to his usual standard, and he looked unlike himself. Not finishing offensively early, and not able to clean things up defensively. Big change in the second half. He fought for offensive rebounds in the second quarter, and even though he had trouble squaring up to the rim, his hook was good enough. Still: That back better heal up, or Toronto will be in serious trouble over the long term. 

A real “didn’t hit his ceiling, but really helped in other ways” game. Yes, he couldn’t find his spots tonight. He wasn’t very involved early on offence, and when he did try to find his way into it later, it wasn’t coming. The 3-point stroke abandoned him a little bit, and with Atlanta not yielding transition points, he didn’t have too many easy paths to buckets. It was basically just hook shots. That being said, he helped out in a ton of ways. Defensively, he was the head of the snake, really mucking up Atlanta’s attack with timely gap help, rim protection, and an ability to shrink the floor from the weak side dashing into space to steal passes. He absolutely forced Toronto into transition in the second half to find points one way or another. He does so much stuff that even a poor scoring night is still a hugely productive game.

Hot 3-point shooting papered over some strange offensive choices and an inability to drive past anyone, but that’s sort of the idea of Quickley. Was too unselfish early, passing up solid looks only to end up with a grenade, which eventually ended in him traveling trying to find a look from a standstill. In the second quarter, he found his flow a little with a pull-up 2 out of a snaked pick and roll, which is good. Defensively he was much more solid than he was earlier in the year. He showed help in gaps without giving up anything behind the play, and he had a highlight steal fronting Onyeka Okongwu. He’s still finding his way into things, but made triples make that journey a lot smoother.

Strange game from him. With Toronto cold and sloppy in the first, he kept the team alive with hot shooting. His footwork in the midrange was immaculate, and he hit some triples, too. But then his jumper stopped hitting, and he couldn’t find anything easy on drives. The defence was solid despite a few bumpy plays. Still, he scored enough to keep Toronto afloat in a muddy game, and my goodness he takes hard shots. Closed the thing out, too, with no one on Atlanta able to match his iso scoring.

You thought it was his first letdown game of the year, but you look down and he still finished with a fair number of points. They came late. He started strong; his passing to Poeltl was fantastic early. His pocket pass on the bounce, as a second-side creator, is a very nice little piece of creation that Toronto can unfurl against a moving defence for paydirt. But with Toronto’s motion stymied by Atlanta’s switching, Barrett was for most of the night forced into more stationary isos and pull-ups, which are not his strength. It was largely because of Atlanta’s defensive system. It didn’t help that defensively he had no teeth when guarding the ball. To be fair, he came alive late, including a huge offensive rebound and floater with five minutes left, and a power and-1 moments later. Even hit a triple with 40 seconds left for good measure. 

The whole package. Hit a trail triple on a Shead drive, protected the rim, tipped in a teammate’s miss. He rebounded fairly well on the defensive end, too. The team has consistently dominated with him on the floor all season. At what point is he the greatest (non-rookie category) free agency signing in franchise history?

I really liked his game. Cashed a triple posthaste upon entering the game. Like, I hadn’t even realized he was in. Got a touch trigger happy after that, throwing up some lower-quality looks. But he stayed with it. Made another triple at the end of the third that Toronto desperately needed, and another in the fourth. He attacked with aplomb in transition. He found himself in the right spot on the defensive end a few times. No stopper, but he survived there just fine.

He’s just a good point guard right now. Some very confident footwork on his drives to create early. He is so rapid that he can get into the paint, and he used a smooth euro to maintain his downhill momentum. Later, he spun and kicked out for an open triple. Defensively he was forcing turnovers and generally cashing in on his conceptual strengths on that end. His own scoring never came around, and Quickley started hitting his triples, so Rajakovic rightly cut Shead’s minutes in favour of the established guard. But Shead continued his impressive run of play even if the numbers don’t show it. 

He didn’t solve the half-court struggles when he checked in midway through the second quarter, committing two turnovers immediately. His jumper just hasn’t come around yet in his short NBA career. I’m a believer. But Toronto really could have used his stroke tonight. Wasn’t there, so he didn’t see much time.

Saw his first minutes in the fourth quarter. I guess he’s just the “come save us” guy? And he came through! Not with triples, but with some sneaky steals. (Obviously this wasn’t an A performance, but it’s really funny that he came through one way or another as the team’s actual closer, only seeing time in the ninth inning.) Look at the plus-minus!!

It started out looking like the quietest outing since his career opener. Atlanta’s length seemed to bother his drives, and his jumper has been cooling off in recent contests. But he kept shooting, which I loved, and he even made a corner triple later in the third, followed by a highlight block. Still, the defence was much better with him on the court, and his sticky mitts created some offensive rebounds out of thin air. 

I liked Toronto’s fight despite the offensive struggles. The defence was actually very connected, despite a few breakdowns here and there, and some miserable defensive rebounding. That’s really tough, to stay engaged under those circumstances. I like Rajakovic’s rotations, especially with a (brief) all-spacing lineup in the third to try to close the gap (Quickley-Barrett-Ingram-Murray-Boyles-Mamukelashvili). He gave Dick much more room to work in this game, which Dick paid off with some timely second-half shooting. Yes, the win wasn’t always pretty, but this game smelled like great coaching.