Quick Reaction: Bulls 122, Raptors 106

A somewhat haphazard night for the Maple Mamba. It was a lot of right ideas but shaky finishes. Barrett had eight points after the first but started 3-of-9 as he volumed his way to early production. In the second quarter, he got the ball above the break and correctly recognized a leaking Poeltl in the paint but sailed the pass out of bounds that would’ve led to an easy basket at the rim for the big Austrian. The defence was a step slow as well after a couple positive outings where he’s looked more engaged on that end. In the third, he tried to move his feet and get set to take a charge on Vucevic but stumbled into the restricted area for a foul instead. Again, good thinking, bad execution for most of the night despite what looked like a tidy box score. Them’s the breaks sometimes.

A polished effort for the Raptors frontman, albeit in a loss. Barnes picked his spots well on offence, hitting his now-patented turnaround mid-range jumpers with relative ease. And those looks didn’t come at the cost of his physicality as he even bowled over Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis a couple of times. When doubles came he kept calm and found the open man and he zipped around everywhere on defense. And oh yeah, a 360-degree slam! To finish with an even zero plus-minus in a 16-point loss pretty much sums up his effort.

If I didn’t have 20-20 vision I could’ve sworn I was watching Jakeem Poelajuwon early on. The big man was disciplined on offence, scoring through quality looks and moving the rock as required — even running PNR with Barrett as the ball handler at one point and throwing a nice alley-oop assist for a lay-in. On defence, he was a vortex just sucking up shot attempts. The burden was immense — and ultimately bore down, especially against Vucevic — even when teammates weren’t funnelling drivers his way and simply losing their man in the pain, Poeltl did his best to deter looks at the rim. Four blocks in the first half! A couple absolute backboard slappers.

Sluggish effort altogether for the sophomore. A couple ill-advised off-balance drives really spoke to the rim-conversion struggles he’s battled all year. On defence it was a mixed bag. He played his part in some quality defensive possessions but was far from perfect. In the second he was caught ball-watching and would have almost certainly given up a corner blowby to Matas Buzelis had the Bulls rookie not have stepped out of bounds. Otherwise, Buzeliz may have previewed some of his upcoming dunk contest material with the red carpet Dick rolled out. Later he was slow to run back after a miss and it led to an open Giddey triple and the very next trip down Coby White hit him with a cross and flew by before getting fouled. His saving grace was a nice dunk in the third, cutting left baseline and rising for an emphatic slam reminiscent of his poster over Orlando’s Tristan Da Silva recently.

An uber efficient night from the Raptors lead guard in his return from an eight-game injury absence. Similar to when he returned against the Nets at the start of the month, after missing 22 straight games, there was a fast twitchiness to his play. His first basket came when he grabbed an offensive rebound and quickly (pardon the pun) zipped to the right corner for a triple. The very next trip down he got to the right elbow and pushed in a floater, scoring the team’s first five points. Quickley hardly let the ball stick as he was putting up a shot or moving it near-instantly — definitely embodying the .5 offensive mantra. I wouldn’t call it a playmaking masterclass as he was relying on others (i.e., Barnes doubles or Poeltl screens) to create most of his looks, but that’s expected as he re-acclimates and it was a positive return in limited minutes nonetheless.

Back on the bench, Off Night had, well, an off night. Or, at least a quieter night impact-wise than he’d been having. Mitchell did plenty on defence, as he does, rotating like a maniac and forcing turnovers. He made things difficult for the likes of Ball, White and Dosunmu at times as well. Heck, even his jumper was falling, nailing a handful of bail-out threes throughout the night. He just couldn’t do enough to stop the defensive bleeding and his passing wasn’t quite as sharp as it had been. He attempted a couple ill-advised cross-court skip passes throughout the night and it eventually cost him with a Dosunmu pick-off that went the other way for a White lay-in.

A rare off night of late for the wily vet, failing to hit double-digit scoring for just the second time in his last seven outings. Just felt off-kilter for much of the game and wasn’t providing the same stabilizing presence he had during the win streak. Not surprising he saw the floor less than rookie Ja’Kobe Walter in the first half.

It wasn’t the usual quiet yet positive night for the oft-sturdy Agbaji. Not nailing his threes didn’t help of course, but hey, he ran in transition for some early points and didn’t play a big part in the defensive bleeding.

A so-so effort from Robinson. He made a nice push shot early to bail out a possession and was active around the rim but his eagerness pushed its way toward overzealousness at times. For instance, in the second he decided to help Scottie Barnes who was pinned to the hip of a driving Lonzo Ball and it left Jalen Smith wide open for a dunk. It was clearly not needed and Barnes let Robinson know about it yelling “don’t help” loud enough to hear through the broadcast.

The Baylor product has a quiet confidence to his game. He got blocked on a middy pull-up after attacking a closeout on his first attempt but that did little to deter him. His next shot, Walter showed zero hesitation as he strapped a triple from the left wing with a hand in his face. He also makes the most of his length on defence, digging when he deems fit and disrupting passing lanes. When he was with the 905 last week I asked him what his top priorities were in the G League and his entire response focused on defence, as there was this self-awareness that it’s the key to playing time in the NBA. Mid-way through the second he rotated over on a broken play and intercepted a sailing pass then tossed it ahead to Scottie Barnes for a nifty 360-degree slam.

Garbage time.

He managed Immanuel Quickley well and it was clear Rajakovic empowered his lead guard to do what he does best. Aside from that it was a strange night for the bench boss. I didn’t love the early Barrett + bench lineup in the first half and felt the same about his decision to go with Scottie + bench and no PG later on when they were already bleeding pretty badly. The challenge down 17 was commendable, I guess, albeit futile.