TORONTO — No game is created equal.
And for a Raptors 905 team that’s off to its best start in franchise history, every win has been slightly different — consisting of its own obstacles that have been overcome and a wide variety of high-note performances along the way.
Yet through 10 consecutive wins to open the season — tied for the best start in G League Tip-Off tournament history — one theme has remained constant.
“Everything is about ‘we over me,'” said 905 head coach Drew Jones on Friday after his team’s record-tying victory. “That’s the last slide these guys see in every single one of our film sessions. And I think offensively and defensively, they trust that.”
That exact mindset is what powered the Raptors 905 to a 124-120 win over the Capital City Go-Go on Friday at Scotiabank Arena.
In a contest where A.J. Lawson and Alijah Martin combined to account for over 50 per cent of the team’s offensive production, it was Chucky Hepburn — after continuously encouraging the aforementioned pair with his game-high 11 assists while struggling to find his own shot, going 3-of-10 from the field — who stepped up and delivered the dagger.
The lead guard didn’t take (and make) the game-sealing side-step triple because the points mattered to him, but because “(the 905) trust me with the ball at the end of the game, they trust I’m gonna make the right play. Sometimes it’s not even shooting the ball, sometimes it might be the pass. But tonight, (Capital City) backed off from me and I felt the space to be able to get the shot off.
“When you also feel the offence kind of being stagnant, then as a point guard, I feel like you gotta be more aggressive.”
So as a floor general, Hepburn put it upon himself to deliver, and his coach and teammates felt no two ways about it.
“(It’s about) competitive character,” Jones explained. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can go, a lot of guys that can score. And there’s one ball. And not one time throughout this early portion of our season have we had guys pout, have we had guys whine about shots.”
Martin echoed that sentiment: “(Hepburn is) unbelievable. All throughout the game, he’s just trying to make winning plays, and he knows when his time is, and he showed it … that’s our culture. We all put ourselves last. We put everybody else first. When you’re trying to do big things and win, that’s the first thing you’ve got to have is team chemistry. And just showing the next guy to you that he matters to you, that’s the quickest way to create a bond.”
Friday’s festivities at Scotiabank Arena — filled with a raucous school day crowd at the wee hours of 11 a.m. ET — got off to a scorching start for the Raptors 905, thanks primarily to Lawson and Martin.
Lawson scored 16 of his game-high 36 points, on 5-of-7 shooting in the opening frame as he helped the 905 carve out a 40-29 lead after 12 minutes. The Brampton, Ont. native’s final basket of the first quarter came on a rare AJ-to-AJ connection when rookie AJ Hoggard snatched the ball on one end and drove it the length of the court before dropping a slick bounce pass to the cutting Lawson for the layup.
Martin then took care of business in the second quarter, catching fire for 12 of his 32 points while doing most of his damage from beyond the arc, where he’s converting at a 45.5 per cent clip this season.
It felt as though whenever the Go-Go would spark enough momentum to ignite a run worth mentioning, Martin kept snuffing it out like he was Jeff Probst at the end of a Survivor episode with one timely triple after another — going 5-of-9 from deep on Friday.
The 23-year-old capped off his strong second quarter with a highlight-reel block that sent the ball flying into the crowd of 18,400 fans in attendance after the Go-Go’s Keson Gilbert threw up an off-balance floater to try and beat the halftime buzzer. Martin’s defensive play kept Capital City at arm’s length heading into the break as the Raptors 905 led 74-62.
Underscoring Lawson and Martin’s big day was a more muted performance from Jonathan Mogbo after the sophomore had entered the game amid a recent hot stretch.
Mogbo was averaging 21.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.7 steals on 65.6 per cent shooting over his last three games with the Raptors 905, before he finished with eight points on 3-of-6 shooting with three rebounds and a steal in 26 minutes of G League action on Friday.
“Just keep going, find that spark,” the second-year forward said when I asked how his teammates have held him accountable to be more aggressive lately. “I’m trying to be a spark guy, whether I come off the bench or start. Whether it’s me getting a steal, throwing an outlet pass … when my guys are going, it gets me going.
“I just want to come, you know, impact winning basketball.”
The Raptors 905 entered the final frame still up by 12 points after a stalemate of a third quarter, despite the junior dinos going on a 12-4 run immediately after halftime to lead by as many as 20 points.
It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that things truly got interesting — or uncertain from the 905’s perspective — when the Go-Go scraped together a 9-2 run that was punctuated by a Skal Labissiere turnaround hook shot, making it a 114-112 ball game with just 1:35 left.
Yet like they had done all night, the Raptors’ two-ways stepped up to the plate and delivered. First a cutting layup by Lawson — call it a double — and then a home run triple from Hepburn to give the Raptors 905 seven points of separation en route to victory.
From there, the game devolved into a foul-to-extend-the-clock frenzy, benefitting Hepburn above all else, who charity-striped his way to 15 points after six made free throws in the final minute.
The Raptors 905’s wins have hardly been of the one-note variety, but common among many of them has been leaning on winning the turnover battle by a cavernous margin. Yet that wasn’t the case on Friday, as the league’s best team in forcing turnovers (23.9 per game) only collected 15 takeaways.
And although the lack of usual transition opportunities meant more burn for a stagnant at times halfcourt offence, the 905 leaned on their “we over me” ethos to make just enough winning plays before the final buzzer blared.
“Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve been a part of anything like this,” said Hepburn when asked about the culture he’s experienced with both the NBA and G League squads this season. “At the pro level, in my rookie year, from the Raptors to the 905, everybody’s just connected … so it’s a real family here, and when we step on the court, that chemistry is just there.”
Up next
After four games in seven days, the Raptors 905 get four days off before returning to the Paramount Fine Foods Centre on Wednesday to host the Delaware Blue Coats.
