Raptors Film Room: Why the bench players changed everything vs Magic

The Toronto Raptors pulled off a miraculous 21-point comeback on the second night of a back-to-back versus the Orlando Magic. Their bench led it, mainly Jamal Shead, Gradey Dick, Collin Murray-Boyles, and Ja’Kobe Walter, who combined for 50 points.

I broke down the bench spurring on the comeback, Shead’s brilliance, and what this means for the Raptors moving forward:

Louis Zatzman recapped the game:

“Our second-unit guys coming off the bench, they did an outstanding job,” said Rajakovic. “It was about character.”

Ingram scrounged a few points, but he then got swatted at the rim, followed by him and Quickley missing alternating jumpers as Barnes grabbed a series of offensive rebounds. The Magic scored in transition after each miss. Murray-Boyles blocked a Desmond Bane layup through the molten core of the earth, but Quickley missed the ensuing transition triple to end the quarter. The Raptors continued twisting the stick into the earth, hoping at some point it would spark a fire.

Eventually, it did. And it came, perhaps in a risky political move from Rajakovic, with Quickley on the bench for the closing minutes. He had been playing poorly, and the Raptors caught fire with him off.

“Immanuel wasn’t on the floor because Jamal was on instead of him,” explained Rajakovic, deadfaced, after the game. (Did I really need to ask?)

Walter hit a triple to go along with his defence. Barnes splashed one of his own. Shead drove for a game-tying layup. Ingram put them ahead moments later with a middy. And the defence remained fantastic. It had spent all game tightening, slowly clamping down and down, until in the fourth quarter it seized the Magic offence in a vice grip that didn’t relent. Walter locked all comers, including Paolo Banchero. Ingram swatted a shot as the helper. It was manic. The crowd pulsed and frothed. Murray-Boyles ate glass like Hobo with a Shotgun. Up one with six seconds left, Barnes defended a Banchero isolation and forced a miss.

So Toronto closed it out. This, finally, is momentum. Two nights in a row, the Raptors have snatched victory after a series of poor quarters to open both games. Dick, Shead, Walter, and others on the bench carried Toronto for long stretches, until the heart finally started th-thump thumping on its own once more.

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