Quick Reaction: Raptors 89, Spurs 123

The frustration showed on Barrett’s face as he passed the ball right out of bounds in the second half. He had a rough start, but resorted to his dribble drive when things got stagnant. He drove from the foul line extended, spun and finished with a push shot. He made a couple of lay-ups with his dominant hand, and exploited a mismatch in the paint when CP3 was guarding him.

Barnes didn’t let a horrendous start to the game deter him for the rest of the game. In the first quarter, it was as if he was trying to turn the ball over. He had a highlight reel-worthy spin move and finger roll in the second quarter, and in the third he he hit three 3s and had another spin move that finished with a two-handed exclamation dunk. Barnes had six assists, but often times tried to get the young guns involved throughout the game.

Castleton’s strengths and glaring weaknesses were on full display. He got a big block on Castle that initiated the transition offence. That led to Shead making a bucket and forcing San Antonio to take their first timeout. He grabbed two offensive boards (he had three this game), and one while Kayla Grey was living her dream of interviewing Kelly Rowland on the broadcast. In the second half, he made his I-can-look-like-Jakob-too-push-shot. What he couldn’t do was be an offensive hub like Poetl – he tried to hand the ball off to Shead from the top of the arc, which resulted in a live ball turnover. He also had a wide open corner 3, but it was way, way short.

Agbaji was pretty much a ghost this game. He had one defensive possession where he guarded Devin Vassell from half and played tenacious defence, even though Vassell still scored.

Potential ROY Stephon Castle on the Scotiabank floor was enough juice for Shead to prove he belonged on the All-Rookie First or Second team. He reached peak confidence – or ‘aura’ as the kids say – in the second quarter. He made a transition bucket, hit a triple and shot another one (but missed). He ran a pick-and-roll with Castleton, Sandro switched on Shead, and double crossed him and scored. Shead also showed he could contain Sochan down low before Castleton came to help.

A lot did not go Mogbo’s way. He burst out of a pick, caught Walter’s lob pass and was stuffed by the front of the rim. He airballed a corner 3. He gathered and blew the transition lay-up. He tried to feed Robinson down low and threw the pass over his head. But his athleticism was evident. He threw down a dunk and showed some hang time in the paint. Defensively, there was a possession where he guarded Castle from the perimeter to the rim, but ended up fouling at the very end of the play. He flew by Sandro on a contest and the latter made him pay, finishing with Air Jordan logo lay-up. Like Castleton, he got to experiment. Like Barrett, he could not mask his frustrations even with his face gear.

Robinson’s numbers don’t jump but he had a solid game and succeeded in trying different things. He chased down a shot in the first quarter, and ran coast to coast. Offensively, he hit a triple, and showed good decision in the backcourt when the Raptors faced ball pressure. He seemed poised and waited for Barnes to leak out and then threw the pass. He succeeded here in playing outside his role.

Walter had a solid game on both ends of the floor. He hit two triples. He made the quick decision in the paint to pass to Mogbo in the second half. He willed himself a bucket when nothing was being created. Defensively, he drew two fouls: one from Castle and the other from Raptor killer Vassell.

Like Agbaji, Battle was pretty much a ghost and barely noticed his presence. Struggled behind the arc.

I only noticed Temple on a defensive play where Harrison Barnes cut to the opposite baseline, Temple was confused briefly, and gave up the corner 3. But then he had a nice contest on former Raptor Justin Champagnie, running him off the line.

Here’s one positive. He played Scottie for 30 minutes in front of the home crowd. Resting him more and losing by an even bigger margin would have been far worse. Devin Vassell picked apart the defence consistently. There had to be a better way to contain him. Even when he wasn’t scoring (game total 25 points), he was impacting the offense. Case in point: towards the end of the first half, he leaked out, touched the paint, and reversed the ball to CP3. Paul was already running downhill, so he used the momentum to find Harrison Barnes for the triple. Where was the POA defence? Malaki Branham entered the game briefly and even he picked apart the defence at the end of the game.