Mamukelashvili drops career-high eight assists in Raptors’ win

Mamu’s career-high eight assists is a byproduct of all the positive growth in his game. It’s indicative of the trust he’s earned from Coach Darko. It’s indicative of what makes him unique when Toronto signed him – a big man who can put the ball on the deck, move like a guard, and hit the 3.

Mamu’s first assist of the night came from his floor-stretching ability, even if he went 1-5 from downtown last night. He pump faked from the perimeter, touched the paint, and threw a beautiful dime into the hands of CMB. He also had another dime after taking Onyeka Okongwu off the dribble. He had a nice spin move in the paint and kicked the ball out to Jamal Shead for a wing 3.

“Today, Quick and other guys found me on the short rolls a lot, so I could kinda facilitate from there and hopefully my 3-pointer starts going in again,” Mamu said smiling in the post-game interview. The short roll he was referring to got him his sixth assist of the game, where he pick-and-rolled with IQ, caught the ball at the nail, and swung the ball out to RJ Barrett for a 3.

“When you’re making your shots everybody now is more alert, so you pump fake it, you drive it, they collapse, you kinda try to find it.”

Mamu also had three dimes in transition, and he honoured the trust Darko has in Mamu’s point forward skills. He’s mentioned this before. He attributed his career-high today to his team “trusting me with the ball. Coach telling me every time if I have a chance to push the ball in transition, I should do it. He knows I can dribble, pass the ball.”

Two transition plays stood out. He initiated a transition offence during a 8-0 Raptors’ run, throwing an outlet pass out to BI, which resulted in the first of back-to-back dunks. In the fourth quarter, Mamu got a steal, pushed the ball in transition, and threw a Showtime-esque bounce pass into Scottie.

Mamu was two assists shy of a triple-double last night with 13, 12 and eight with a game-high plus-minus of 27.