Jamal Shead scoring his career-high 18 points in the blowout loss was one of the bright spots on Tuesday night.
With IQ sidelined, It was Shead’s first start of the season. The Raptors had a strong first quarter and Shead had seven points in the first frame. When Poeltl scrabbled for the loose ball, CMB got his hands on it and passed it to Shead, who was alone on an island. He knocked the triple down to give the Raptors a 32-30 lead. The Scotiabank crowd erupted and gave them hope of a NBA Cup quarter-final victory. Shead couldn’t keep the smile off his face.
“It felt like playoff atmosphere,” said Shead post-game, but then corrected himself as he admitted to never having played in one before.
In the Raptors’ strongest quarter, Shead had a nice two-man action with BI out of a BLOB play and forced a Knicks timeout. He also had a nice layup after he swung the ball to Barnes, who then threw a skip pass into Mamu in the cornerr, and got the ball back as he made a strong cut.
The Raptors went into the second half trailing 69-52, so Shead tried to help his team shoot itself out of the deficit. Shead went 2-4 from downtown in the third frame and made four of his 11 attempts from 3-point territory. All of his 3-point attempts, except one, were catch-and-shoots.
Kudos to Steady Sheady for dropping 18 in his biggest game as a Raptor.
