Boucher and the Raptors stay solid in wild win over the Hawks

Through the Darko Rajakovic era, there haven’t been a whole lot of positives from the team. In fact, during this year and last, the Raptors hadn’t managed to win four of five games. Again, until Toronto’s nail-biting over the Hawks. It has largely been poor. Until, now, things actually seem … pretty good. 

For the first time all year, the Raptors have had everything going right. 

There have been spot games, of course. Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes were the duo of destiny against the Brooklyn Nets on Jan. 1. But it hasn’t looked like this, for this extended a period of time, before now. 

The Raptors started out the cock-a-hoop cavalcade with a Gradey Dick bonanza. He lofted a wild, full-extension reverse left-to-right layup along the baseline. Which he missed, but drew free throws.  Then he hit an open catch-and-shoot triple on an inbounds play. Then another reverse, this time in transition going from the right to the left. He rejected a handoff from Jakob Poeltl, cut backdoor, and finished the lob pass with a sly two-handed flush. Then drove from the baseline again, finishing with a spry two-handed finish on the same side. 

If you’re out of breath reading that, imagine how the Hawks must have felt experiencing it. 

I asked Darko Rajakovic about Dick hitting the sophomore slump a few weeks ago, and he admitted the team was still searching for answers. But Dick has slowly been finding his pop. Coinciding with Rajakovic limiting his minutes, dropping them from around 30 a game through the first portion of the season to 25 a game since then, Dick has found his legs getting bouncier and bouncier. One one game after throwing down the best dunk of his career, Dick is back to his dunking and dancing ways.  

That wasn’t everything, of course. 

Scottie Barnes tossed a full-extension hook layup off the glass in the first quarter. It’s a move he’s been turning to of late, and it works very well for him because it allows him to keep his glacial drives moving towards the rim rather than having to turn his back for mid-drive post-ups. He also caught the ball for a drive and found an easy lob to Poeltl. When Barnes is able to fit in, rather than lift everyone around him, he is truly an exceptional luxury. 

Bruce Brown entered the game and found his immediate synergy with Kelly Olynyk. The two combined for 27 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists off the bench against the Orlando Magic in Toronto’s last contest, and they picked right up where they left off against Atlanta. Brown slipped a flare screen from Barnes in a horns set and Olynyk, holding the ball on the other elbow, slipped a low bouncer right into his hands for the layup. Brown followed that up by hitting a corner triple in front of Toronto’s bench and tipping his would-be cowboy hat to his own bench in appreciation of himself. He finished with a season-high 18 points, continuing his streak of 15 or more. (He’s peaking at the right time.)

In the third both vets repeated their roles as veteran safety nets. Brown got some runners to fall, while Olynyk hit a triple and drew some free throws with his glacial drives from the perimeter. 

They let go of the rope, of course. That will happen. Toronto started committing turnover after turnover in the second quarter, some just great picks by Dyson Daniels, and some completely unforced, butter-finger, head-scratchers. RJ Barrett was a particular magnet for those mistakes, committing five first-half turnovers, but he was far from the only culprit. 

Chris Boucher’s tradition of offering points-in-a-can kept Toronto in front. He tossed in a 3, a floater, a put-back slam. But the turnovers were too much for Toronto to keep a firm first-half lead. It was only six entering the third. But of course, Boucher repeated the performance in the fourth, catching a tough pass under the rim to toss in a layup. Driving from the corner to draw free throws. When the Hawks took a lead midway through the fourth, and it looked like Atlanta would run away late, Boucher’s ensuing triple stabilized the Raptors.

But even though the Raptors never managed to turn the game into the blowout it looked like it was going to become, they kept the Hawks a safe distance for virtually the entire game. They did so in large part on the defensive end. 

Toronto’s defence was generally strong against Atlanta. There were definite lows, especially in transition as Toronto gave up countless easy ones with all the turnovers. And in the fourth. But led by Barnes and Davion Mitchell, Toronto continued its good defensive performance that has become the norm over the last several games. 

For three quarters, Trae Young really had trouble shaking loose from Mitchell’s shadowing, and outside of some pull-up shooting and a tough running floater in the lane, he was able to find his way as a passer but not at all as a scorer. He got some to go in the fourth, but it wasn’t enough to take over the game. A Young bricked pull-up 3 one way turnover into a made Barnes pull-up 3 the other way late. Meanwhile, Barnes did what he always did as a stunter and helper and gap-filler and generally enormous body. 

Of course, the defence did fall apart in the fourth. A lot of the on-a-string stuff turned into miscommunications, and Toronto stopped forcing turnovers. As Atlanta charged back into the game, Barnes and Barrett and Boucher hit some triples, and Barnes got some mid-rangers and free throws into the net (and blocked a clutch shot late), and Jakob Poeltl hit some free throws, it was enough.

And that’s what good teams do. Not good teams. Normal teams. Middling teams — not middling as an insult, but in this case, a compliment. They find ways into the game when others fall apart. At first, the offence was blistering. Turnovers derailed that, and Toronto’s defence managed to push the Hawks back under the water. Then in the fourth, when Atlanta really made a charge, Toronto simply held on. Outside of committing numerous frustrating turnovers, the Raptors outplayed a .500 team in virtually every way. There was no I-am-the-best-player-in-the-game performance from anyone, not even Barnes. Instead, there was solidity on a variety of fronts, with seven Raptors hitting double-figure points on the night.

That’s also what solid teams do. And increasingly, with Toronto having won three of its last four games — all against over .500 teams (at the time of the game) — the Raptors are starting to look relatively solid. Long live watchable basketball.

The post Boucher and the Raptors stay solid in wild win over the Hawks first appeared on Raptors Republic.