Quick Reaction: Jazz 100, Raptors 107

Say what you want about Murray-Boyles’ efficiency, but I’m just glad to see him try and shoot the ball down low rather than not even looking at the rim. Four of his rebounds came on the offensive end and I think most of them came on a single possession where he just scooped up every brick the Raptors were chucking. He was also outsized by Nurkic and Markkanen down low but still managed to block each once.

A freshly named All-Star, Barnes proved exactly how he earned that nod. His defense was excellent as always, blocking the rookie Ace Bailey early and he was the one to end the Raptors near 6 minute field-goal drought with a midrange pullup off his own missed shot. He had some uncharacteristically bad turnovers on multiple occasions, and really wasn’t that aggressive getting to the basket. He finished with four blocks (three of them on Lauri Markkanen) and was one of the few players that wasn’t completely dominated by the Jazz’s size throughout the game. A small scare late in the fourth as he appeared to tweak his foot but came back and threw down a dunk for the Raptors’ final basket.

Quickley kicked off a three-point avalanche for Toronto, hitting a three off the catch to open the game closely followed by threes from various other Raptors. In the second quarter he had a beautiful hesi-cross to freeze Kyle Filipowski for a split second, just enough time to get to the rim. Really beautiful stuff. He followed that with another slight hesitation, this time getting to the middle of the paint and floating one over Bailey to put him at seven in the first half. Quickley kept up the momentum to start the third quarter when Barnes found him in transition for another three but then followed that up with some awful turnovers. He slipped while being trapped in the backcourt, losing the ball in the process. And then later threw a stupid between the legs drop off pass, completely blowing a 4 on 1 transition opportunity. Still, despite his inability to beat the Jazz three quarter court press he hit timely shots and overall was an efficient scorer on the night.

When the Raptors went through a scoreless drought in the second quarter, Ingram wasn’t his typical bucket-getting self. He seemed slightly more passive, instead looking to set up teammates rather than hunting his shot. Not always a bad thing but sometimes he just needs to get a hoop for the team. Only six points in the first half. Even starting the second half he continued to look hesitant, not sure if he was in his head off an All-Star snub or what but he lost the ball twice while sizing up for a shot. Though not long after he seemed to snap out of it, as he stole a pass intended for Markkanen and took the ball coast-to-coast for a layup. Then the next possession he grabbed the rebound and confidently dribbled into a mid-range pull up and cashed it. In the fourth quarter he got to the free throw lines a couple of times, forced a Jusuf Nurkic miss down low and drilled a classic short corner pull up jumper to put the game out of reach.

Barrett looked far more like his former self in this one. In the first half he was Toronto’s most productive player. Knocking down two threes, cutting in transition, and bullying his way to the line to finish with 12 points in the opening half. He was really the only Raptor matching the paint physicality that the Jazz brought early. He definitely had a little more burst in his step today and used that to get downhill and drew a ton of fouls on the Jazz, even grabbing multiple offensive boards and getting to the line. Even better than drawing the fouls was the fact that he hit seven of his nine free throws, a rarity for Barrett.

The Jazz seemed happy to let Mamukelashvili shoot, and he seemed happy to make them pay for it. He hit two threes in the opening quarter and then got to the free throw line for an additional four points to finish the half with 10. Towards the end of the third quarter he pushed the Raptors ahead with a corner three off a Shead dish and followed it with another one less than a minute later. At this point Mamukelashvili may very well be the best cutter the Raptors have. He had a give-and-go cut early in the fourth to put the Raptors up four and then in the closing minutes got a reverse layup cutting in transition, both times Shead being the delivery man.

Only played two minutes, missed two shots…

Dick couldn’t defend anything tonight, at one point he was blown by Kyle Filipowski… And since he provided zero offensive output I’m surprised he played eleven minutes.

Shead did a good job calming things down when the Jazz press was causing panic amongst his teammates. He had some excellent passes to Mamu and drew a big offensive foul in the fourth while fighting over a screen, his area of expertise.

He got the most minutes of the bench shooting guards but couldn’t stop Isaiah Collier for the life of him as he finished with a season-high 19 points. He did get a putback off an Ingram missed three and was fouled on a three of his own to end the quarter but was fairly underwhelming at the things he’s supposed to be good at.

Only played four minutes.

I don’t understand what Rajakovic was doing tonight. The Raptors couldn’t figure out how to beat a three-quarter court press all night and he didn’t seem interested in helping them do so. Also the Agbaji, Battle, Dick, Walter stuff needs to end soon, I don’t know why he brought Ochai in halfway through the third and I don’t know why he felt the need to keep Dick and Walter on the court when they couldn’t handle the downhill pressure and physicality of the Jazz guards. Again, the Raptors won the game but he didn’t do them any favours with the rotation tonight.