Raptors 905 suffer first loss of season in Showcase Cup final
The cliche goes: All good things come to an end; nothing lasts forever.
Yet there was no preordained fate that said the Raptors 905’s miraculous undefeated start to the G League season had to come to an end in the Showcase Cup final on Monday.
But it did.
Sean East II and Mo Bamba played like superstars, the Salt Lake City Stars’ unstoppable offence got the 905’s immoveable defence to budge and the Stars shot the leather off the basketball to hand the 905 their first loss of the season, 137-112, and win the Showcase Cup.
Bamba bossed the paint, engulfing the glass and missing only one shot from inside the arc. He also sparked a scorching shooting night from the stars with back-to-back triples in the first quarter. Meanwhile East came off the bench as a blur, darting past defenders in transition and into the paint on drives. The fluidity of his passing off the dribble and touch on the interior were both exceptional.
Elijah Harkless and Max Abmas also starred as scorers, raining hellfire from deep to the tune of a combined 9-of-16 from 3.
Alijah Martin scored a game-high 33 for the 905 on 11-of-22 shooting and 4-of-10 from 3, also adding six boards and four assists. His shot has stayed pure, and, when it wasn’t falling, he was quick to will his way into the paint and finish regardless of bumps and bruises. It was a also a career-high in scoring for the 23-year-old rookie.
AJ Lawson had 18 points on 16 shots, also grabbing six rebounds while Jonathan Mogbo struggled to a six-point, nine-rebound, four-assist night. He’s mostly thrived while on assignment with the 905, but the push shots that have often dropped for him weren’t going on Monday as he shot 3-of-10, lacked aggression and didn’t shoot a free throw.
Abmas led the Stars with 29 points, raining in six 3s (also taking home the Showcase Cup MVP), Harkless scored 25 and East had 21 with six assists. And while his namesake song came out six years ago, Bamba was balling on Monday night in Orlando like it was 2018. He scored 17 points on seven shots, going perfect from the free-throw line, with 12 boards, five assists and three blocks.
The Stars had the best offensive rating in G League by far during the 14-game Tip-Off Tournament by a wide margin. Their 127.5 was 7.6 points above the second placed Cleveland Charge, the same difference between the Charge and the 16th placed team. Meanwhile the 905 had the best defence in the league by a 3.1 point gap at 102.1.
The 905 fell behind again. Yet a comeback still felt probable after they overcame 25-6 and 21-10 first-quarter deficits in the quarters and semis, respectively. Chucky Hepburn, normally the team’s de facto leader on both ends of the floor, picked up three fouls before the end of the first, limiting his playing time throughout the game.
The Stars applied the pressure with a rampant battering of quality transition play, toothy drives and all-around paint dominance. For most of the first quarter they hit only one three but went 12-of-15 from 2-point range.
Elijah Harkless relentlessly bludgeoned the rim. East went from sitting on the bench to breaking the sound barrier, bolting down the court in transition for a tough finish. He then drove and hit a baseline cutter who dumped off to Bamba for easy points. (The six-foot-three guard broke the CEBL’s single-season scoring record with the Edmonton Stingers last season.)
That was before an unlikely candidate started the deadly bombardment from deep. Bamba hit his back-to-back 3s, including a four-point play, at the end of the first quarter, and the 905 were stuck 16.
But the 905’s depth made an impact. AJ Hoggard audibly screamed for a hit-ahead pass on the broadcast, and Tyson Degenhart threw a dart to spring him for a dunk. Degenhart continued his penchant for perfect shooting and David Roddy rumbled down low but missed his 3s.
A ball reversal, Chicago action for Hoggard, pocket pass to a rolling Degenhart and extra pass to the corner amounted to a Lawson 3.
The Stars lead swelled to end the second half as the 905 bricked 3s and East’s forages downhill bore fruit. He blew by on the wing, knifed into the paint and bounced in a fader.
Martin finally drilled one from the corner in the final minute of the half to stop the bleeding. East and Hepburn then traded step-back triples to take pressure on and off the wound. The 905 were down 20 at half.
They shot only 39 percent from the floor and 30 percent from 3; the Stars shot 64 and 40, respectively, and most glaring, they were 79 percent (!) from 2-point range.
Hepburn navigated the middle of the floor and kicked out, but an ensuing pass was fumbled out of bounds. Harkless kept driving like a locomotive on tracks to the hoop.
But the 905 started to find their game midway through the third quarter. Stops and steals led to opportunity on the other end, a recipe that’s fueled their tremendous success all season.
Mogbo hustled hard down the floor behind Lawson on the break and his effort paid off with a big putback dunk.
Lawson streaked out in transition and euro-stepped around East for a smooth finish. Some of the Stars shots started to find rim. Resident sharpshooter Tyreke Key ran wide in transition, the ball found him, and he nailed a corner 3, cutting the lead to 11. For a moment it felt like the 905 had one more miracle up their sleeves.
But against the Stars’ high-powered offence, it wasn’t meant to be. That was as close as they got.
East got to the rim again with his cool driving prowess, Bamba rejected a Mogbo layup and the Stars hit five straight 3s in quick succession to rebuild their lead and douse the 905’s comeback.
Despite being down 23 to the league’s best offence starting the fourth, the 905 really tried. Hepburn played with verve on both ends, trapping and then driving baseline and kicking out for a 3 on the other end. They put in work on defence too, guarding the length of the floor, swarming actions and closing out hard.
But Abmas and co. rained in more 3s, East more layups. The Stars’ wave swelled and crashed over the 905 early in the fourth – a 26 point lead with less than a quarter to play felt insurmountable.
The 905 will head home from Orlando with a 16-1 start but without a Cup championship or $100,000 prize to show for it. And, that unbelievable record will reset when they host the Maine Celtics in the first game of the regular season on Dec. 27.
Both the finals loss and the record zeroing out are tough pills to swallow. The opportunity cost of losing a big game outweighs the reward of winning (by negative infinity, according to Sam Miller). And, continued success isn’t guaranteed in the G League.
The 905 undoubtedly stand in strong stead after posting the best record through the initial schedule. However, last season got flipped on its head after they went 11-3 in January and held top spot in the East, only to crash and burn to a 2-17 finish. That was largely due to their top players like AJ Lawson, Jared Rhoden, Jamison Battle and assignment eligible guys like Jonathan Mogbo, Jamal Shead, and Ja’Kobe Walter either getting standard NBA deals or just spending all of their time down the stretch with the Raptors in general.
And while Martin, Hepburn, Lawson and Mogbo can’t be plucked by NBA teams because they’re on two-way contracts (and in Mogbo’s case a standard NBA deal) any other player on the roster can be. There’s a possibility at least one gets nabbed on a two-way by another organization after the 905 had such a strong showing to start the season. There’s a reason they call it the Showcase Cup, after all.
Also, with how well Martin’s been playing and how poorly Gradey Dick has played (and to a lesser extent, Ochai Agbaji) an opportunity with the Raptors remains within the realm of possibility for the NCAA national champion.
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