Quick Reaction: Raptors 129, Mavericks 139
Immanuel Quickley / D+ / 14 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 5-of-16 from the floor
Ultimately, he tried too hard to find points and didn’t convert nearly well enough. He started out outside of the flow of the offence early and it seemed like he was forcing to find his way into things. He shook loose a little bit in the second quarter with a putback then a triple. It’s just not even for a lead guard.
There were some small positives. At one point in the third quarter, he drove, pretended to dribble out, and then got to the rim and got blocked because he picked up early. But moments later, he drove past his initial mark, and this time finished and-1 by taking a deeper dribble — despite being contested by Lively on both occasions. Good. He Nash’d a drive under the rim and found a teammate for an easy floater (which was missed), but that’s also very good process.
Eventually he will make more triples; I’m not worried about that. But he’ll get high grades in those games. Even tough he’s getting great looks from deep, he’s missing them for now. And he’s just not choosing his spots well. So not the outing Toronto needs from him.
RJ Barrett / A- / 16 points, 3 assists, 4 rebounds, 7-of-13 from the floor
The efficiency remains stellar. He’s just so comfortable in this offence, with this role, finding his shots in this flow. He’s a monster in transition, and he continues hitting his triples, too. He cuts and finishes. His first attempt was a no-hesitation attempt above the break, which is something his teammates could learn to do (shoot without pump-faking or hesitating). In the second half, even as the scoring dried up a little, he passed very well, especially to Barnes. On the other end, he gives up the same type of drives that he loves (pushing for extra space in the paint, churning those last few yards). He needs to find more ways to impact the defensive end. That being said, he is nowhere near the problem for Toronto at this point.
Brandon Ingram / B / 22 points, 3 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 10-of-16 from the floor
Not my favourite Ingram first half. Even though the Raptors desperately need him, he has been at his best so far as a Raptor when he’s driving to the rim or at least deep into the paint. It felt like he was picking up his dribble a beat too early here, and it resulted in fadeaways from 12 feet rather than opening up his bag from 10 feet and in. He can certainly make those shots, and he did at a fair rate, but it doesn’t put stressors on the defence in the ways that Toronto needs from him.
Then in the second half, thing started out better. He turned to more triples, drove deeper in the paint, and generally turned the screws in ways that he wasn’t in the first half. Extremely encouraging to see him make that change. Unfortunately after that solid stretch to start, he didn’t find his way into things for a long stretch. Did not help rescue Toronto as Dallas pulled away. And defensively he got beat by PJ Washington multiple times due to Washington’s superior strength.
Scottie Barnes / A / 33 points, 6 assists, 11 rebounds, 1 steals, 13-of-24 from the floor
A very aggressive start to the game, with a nice interior pass to Jakob Poeltl, then a catch middle and easy short jumper. His 3-point stroke is opening the season quite well, as he followed up a hot night on Friday (2-for-4 from deep) with a confident pull-up triple in transition when he saw himself unguarded. He maybe got too aggressive with the jumper and took a bad pull-up later in the quarter. His hit-ahead passing is tremendous, and he was looking for them all night. Defensively, he was fantastic throughout the night.
He did show some jitters late in the third as Toronto was losing the plot. He missed a reverse layup due to the presence of Anthony Davis, then he threw away a pass along the baseline and was too busy arguing with the refs the other way to play defence. It wasn’t perfect. But on the whole it was very good.
Jakob Poeltl / D- / 4 points, 4 assists, 8 rebounds, 1 steal, 2-of-3 from the floor
The defence hasn’t been there to start the season, and it wasn’t there tonight. It’s not that it’s terrible, but he’s not cleaning up anyone else’s messes, and he’s getting beat on the glass more than he should be, and he’s fouling. This was how last season started, too, before he really settled into defensive success towards the second half of the season. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s likely due to the same back injury that kept him out of much of preseason. And then in the third quarter, he checked out only moments after it began (although did return to the game later). Hopefully his play / injury status clears up sooner rather than later because Toronto desperately needs him to be himself.
Jamal Shead / B+ / 6 points, 8 assists, 0 rebounds, 1 steal, 2-of-3 from the floor
His defensive aggression really pulled Toronto back into the game late in the first as the offence was flagging without transition attempts before Shead checked in. And he amassed four assists in just five minutes in the first quarter, as he thrived in the open court. His jumper was falling, too. He’s doing a solid job of offering spark as a bench guard without trying to do too much. He didn’t see too many minutes later on, though.
Gradey Dick / D / 10 points, 2-of-6 from the floor
Hit D’Angelo Russell in the Gradey. He smoked a layup and seemed to see his minutes vanish in the first half. I would prefer Rajakovic give Dick a little bit more run, but Toronto has plenty of shooting guards ready to play competent minutes. Just never found his way into the game until late. Making him earn his time isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think he gives Toronto value that no one else does. (His triples came in garage time.)
Ja’Kobe Walter / Inc
Sandro Mamukelashvili / A+ / 16 points, 3 assists, 1 rebound, 6-of-8 from the floor
The jumper wasn’t falling early, but he does enough off the bounce to still offer a lot of offensive punch off the bench. Then the jumper started falling, and wow he does a lot on the offensive end when that’s the case. Floaters off drives, dunks off stampede cuts, just incredible offensive punch. Had a Statue of Liberty layup in transition. Cut for an and-1 layup from Barnes in the fourth. He led rotation players in net rating over the first two games, and it’s clear why.
Collin Murray-Boyles / D / 0 points, 0 assists, 2 rebounds
Perhaps a tad overeager in his first NBA game. He defended fellow rookie Cooper Flagg on one of his first defensive possessions and fell for a spin, then an up-fake, giving up an and-1. He looked too eagerly for an inside-to-inside pass to Poeltl when he should have gone up (resulting in a turnover) shortly thereafter. Airballed a triple in garbage time. Not a great start, but I’m more than willing to chalk it entirely up to it being his first career game. He’ll contribute in many more ways as he finds his legs.
Jonathan Mogbo / Inc
Only saw garbage time.
Ochai Agbaji / B / 5 points, 0 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 steal, 1-of-5 from the floor
A great tag from the corner in the second quarter to break up a lob to a seven-footer that he had no business impacting. He hit a nice dribble-up triple in transition, too. Still, he wasn’t his usual efficient self, and he didn’t do enough in his time to warrant playing the bulk of the wing minutes off the bench.
Jamison Battle / Inc
He saw some run late in the third quarter as the Raptors were letting go of the rope a little bit. He missed a floater and didn’t find his way into the game too much beyond that.
Darko Rajakovic / D+
He is clearly coaching to win, and Agbaji was already eating Dick’s minutes based on his defensive contributions. That’s not necessarily a bad thing (even if I would find more minutes for Dick). And I could quibble with his playing Quickley so many minutes and Shead so few. But broadly, Toronto’s defensive process is not able to contain teams if it’s not forcing turnovers. And that is a bad thing. Toronto’s bigs aren’t finding their way back into plays after applying high pressure, and Toronto’s guards aren’t containing the ball while applying high pressure. Toronto’s wings (other than Barnes) aren’t finding ways to turn drives as the middle of the defence. It’s just not working. And the offence still has some kinks to work out in the half court. Hard to judge an individual game for a coach, so this grade is largely based on Toronto’s systems on both ends to this point.
Three Things:
1 – As has become tradition at this point, Toronto’s defensive aggression sparked a lot of fastbreak chances. But when the team was trying to score in the half court, things were a lot tighter. There are positives in the half court to this point, but nothing consistent. Players seem confused about sets at times. The ‘everyone initiates’ thing means possessions can go 18 seconds with no advantage created. The team is still finding an identity there. Of course, because the team is playing in the open court just so darn much, it’s still scoring pretty well overall. When the Raptors find themselves a little better in the half court, this offence has some extra heights in can reach.
2 – To this point of the season, it seems like all of Toronto’s trio of initiators, Barnes, Ingram, and Quickley, are at their best when catching on the move. Barnes has been great catching in the post or on a cut, Ingram on an Iverson cut, or Quickley sprinting in transition on the wing. The thing is, one of them needs to initiate and create advantages from a standstill. It’s great that they all have been or project to be successful catching on the move, but an offence can’t benefit all three of them in that way at the same time.
3 – I know it’s been said a lot, but Barnes’ abilities as an off-ball defender are just tremendous. He stunts so well, recovers with vigor, and takes away drives and shots at the same time. He’s so fantastic. That being said, he’s more or less the only player defending well right now. Toronto needs to find ways to turn Barnes’ excellence into consistent stops across 48 minutes. Right now he’s being left out to dry.
4 – I get why Toronto is playing this defensive strategy, and I wrote as much after the first game. And I think they’ll dial it back at some point in the season. But despite knowing all that, it must be deflating for the Raptors to watch their opponents parade to the free-throw line like that. Right now, Toronto seems like it has a three-result defensive process: turnover, free throws, or a made shot. That’s not an ideal trio of results (in that it’s missing, you know, a miss). Toronto is not going to win enough game until it can force stops that aren’t turnovers.
5 – Cooper Flagg is already so good. Gosh. Really gave Toronto fits.
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