Ingram and Raptors can’t stop winning as offensive wave crashes over Cavaliers

There was always going to be a run. These Toronto Raptors don’t go out quiet. Not that they go out at all these days. And for a quarter and a half, even if it looked like the Raptors were slow — second half of a back-to-back — or passive, it was always clear a run would come. Even when the starters couldn’t build a lead with Ja’Kobe Walter in place of RJ Barrett, something was bubbling beneath. When the bench came in, and Sandro Mamukelashvili went berserk with a pair of triples and a pair of blocks, yet the Cavaliers continued to build their lead, there was bubbling. When Cleveland’s total non-shooters started to hurl triples into the net, Toronto still had a round in the clip.

And, of course, Toronto’s run eventually comes. Immanuel Quickley settles things down as he stops on a dime on a drive, hitting a mid-range pullup. He’s quietly shooting a beefy 51.0 percent on drives (complemented by a monstrous and career-best 74.2 percent at the rim, albeit on a miniscule volume). He then drives in transition, hesitating in the mid-range after his previous make, before jetting to the rim for an easy lay-in. Quickley has been everything the team has needed recently, passing better, defending better, and being far, far more than a shooter. While, of course, also making his shots.

Jamal Shead uses his superbooster first step to jet into the lane and throw a dime to Mamukelashvili, cutting from the corner, for another layup. Brandon Ingram drives from the wing, half-spins away from the baseline before spinning back the other way, and tosses in a mid-ranger. Then he hits another to close the quarter.

And just like that, Toronto takes a lead into half.  

The Raptors at the moment are a strong enough team that they can turn on the gas for three minutes against a very good team and spring into the lead after a relatively uncertain half. Sure, the Cavaliers missed starters. But Donovan Mitchell played. Evan Mobley played. The Raptors had more torque, more power, and a better top-end speed. 

The Raptors have now eight wins in a row. That’s more wins than there were Wonders of the Ancient World. More than Ramona’s Evil Exes. More than the Pleiades. 

Scottie Barnes forced a timeout early in the third quarter with force. A rebound, a drive, an extra dribble, a fastball hook pass to Jakob Poeltl for the dunk. The Raptors saunter off the floor, casual, slow. Tired? They’re probably tired. It’s the second night of a back-to-back. The Jumbo Raptor ambles onto the floor to nom nom some security guards. 

The Cavaliers, also on the second night of a back-to-back, look tireder. 

The Raptors run Samson’s Play coming out of timeout, and Quickley curls his option screen to the rim and receives the ball. He catches, backs out, fakes a pass to the rim and hits the corner. Walter drills the three. Ingram dunks in transition moments later. Collin Murray-Boyles hugs Shead on the sideline, Murray-Boyles smiling and Shead mean-mugging. Ingram’s burst is on its way back. He hits a triple a minute later.

The Raptors are a bulldozer. They are Chekhov’s Punch in the Face, introduced before the game even begins. They will punch the opponent. In the face. 

The concept of this offence is constant pressure. The actions come in whirlwinds, yes. That’s modern basketball, and it’s extremely difficult for defences to corral for a single possession, let alone dozens and dozens in a row. And the players in those actions are crushingly talented. Sure, few of them are brilliant individual scorers beyond Ingram. But the concept of the offence puts them in positions in which they don’t need to be. The pressure remains constant through passing, screening, cutting. My god the cutting. The knives are manifold and sharp.

Then the bench is in, and Toronto’s offensive tidal wave only grows in questing, frothy rage. Minutes in which Dick and Mamukelashvili are on the court have been scything defences all year, and Cleveland’s is no different. It actually seems lesser for stretches. Mobley has been a target for this squad. Ingram drives right past him. Quickley isolates against him, steps it back, and starts the ball whirring around the perimeter. Easy money.

This is, more or less, how the Raptors’ game unfolded against the Wizards. Early first-gear casual play, followed by an eventual throttling. The Cavaliers are frustrated. Thomas Bryant tries to wrench Murray-Boyles’ elbow out of its socket, and a flagrant foul is called. Ja’Kobe Walter is thrown to the ground on an offensive foul while the ball isn’t even in play. 

Shead scores. Then drives, another assist to a cutting Mamukelashvil, up-fakes before feathering a righty hook over a hapless help defender. Ingram hits a triple. Another timeout. 

The Cavaliers are not a pushover team, at least not to regular NBA squad. They are third in the East, just behind the Raptors. Entering the game, they’d only lost four games to teams whose names didn’t end in aptors. They’ve been injured and beat up all year. And Toronto revved the engines and discarded them anyway.

Shead takes another turn running the show. He pushes after a make, finds Barnes, who finds Poeltl, who dunks. The wave crashes down. Shead drives, hits the paint, sprays to the corner. The ball finds Jamison Battle, who is fouled taking a triple.

But the defence is the story of the fourth quarter. Perhaps really the story of the game. Donovan Mitchell is contained, largely by Shead. He attempts his first free throws in the fourth quarter. (He’s attempting 6.9 a game on the year.) Shead stays attached, and the help is neither rushing nor dragging. Mitchell’s misses come over the top, which is the best a defence an do against a player who generally wreaks havoc against the best-laid plans.

Is Shead the NBA’s best bench player right now? Is Mamukelashvili?

Ingram’s jumpers are the bass line beneath the entire orchestral performance. He takes a switch, splashes the jumper. Lobs Barnes in transition after a Quickley steal. Stonewalls Mobley on a switch in the post. When Ingram is the best player on the floor, the Raptors are unbeatable.

Because the Cavaliers are a very good team, the Raptors couldn’t wash them out to sea like they could the Wizards or the Nets. Mitchell made some triples, and the game got close.

Ingram hits a side-step, late-clock, pull-up triple. Shead stonewalls Mitchell a few times, and Quickley, not to be outdone, locks down the pass away from the ball. Barnes steals the ball as the Cavaliers panic against Toronto’s extraordinary point-of-attack pressure. The Cavaliers don’t score over the final four minutes.

Toronto closes. The wave eventually crashes over the heads of the Cavaliers. It is salty and strong. Eight is more than the number of times humanity has been to the moon.

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