Raptors 905 win ugly over Westchester Knicks
The Raptors 905 looked like a team without its point guard on Tuesday.
Sure, they had 30 assists, but few created truly advantageous shots for teammates. Instead, the offence often stagnated with Chucky Hepburn out due to right knee soreness, and they committed a regular-season-high 19 turnovers.
But the 905 are a remarkably dominant team this season – their only loss came in the Showcase Cup Final and it doesn’t count towards their regular-season record – and they were facing the Westchester Knicks, who are 2-17 overall and had the worst offensive rating in the 14-game Tip-Off Tournament.
So, they won the game 120-109, mostly on the back of shot making that came around just on time to slam a door that was left open for far too long.
AJ Lawson led the way with 21 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season. Alijah Martin flirted with a triple-double – 19 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. Tyreke key provided a steady 16 points on nine shots.
Olivier Sarr has looked increasingly confident around the rim lately, grabbing more boards than usual in his last two games, and he stood tall with a couple blocks early in the first quarter. He also hammered down a dunk on a baseline back cut. The 905 got more quality play from their bigs as Martin found Julian Reese slipping to the rim for a slam.
AJ Hoggard had already seen his minutes increase lately and took advantage of the greater opportunity with Hepburn out, cashing a corner 3 and transition layup on back-to-back possessions. He finished with 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting off the bench.
The bench contributions were both uneven and plentiful. Big body David Roddy banged down low to finish a hook shot over his defender. He had seven assists and punched up on the glass with a team-high 11 boards but also turned the ball over twice on ill-advised drives into crowds late in the game. Roddy also shot 2-of-8.
Tyson Degenhart was also inefficient despite entering the game with a 74.2 true shooting percentage. The six-foot-seven Boise State product is so sure-handed at the rim, and did finish a baseline drive by spinning to his dominant hand for an and-1.
He made 2-of-3 shots in the paint but uncharacteristically missed all three of his triples in the first half – Degenhart is shooting 53 percent from deep on the season after shooting 35 percent on moderate volume in college. He badly airballed another in the third quarter.
Lawson splashed a pull-up 3 out of a broken sequence on the 905’s final possession of the half to knot the score at 60. The rangy wing had a game-high 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting at half, feasting on his usual diet of catch-and-shoot triples, Bugatti-speed blowbys and transition runouts.
The 905’s first-ranked defence was out of sorts, as both teams gave up ample lanes to the bucket. Help either came late or not at all.
The 905 committed their 11th turnover when Jonathan Mogbo threw an errant pass to a relatively open Lawson in the corner.
It got high-school party sloppy to start the second half as Mogbo dribbled into a dig for another giveaway, only for Bryson Warren to see an apparition and toss a pass directly out of bounds going the other way. The teams combined for 10 turnovers in just over four minutes of play.
Donovan Williams started pumping enough heat from deep to warm the entire Paramount Fine Foods Centre on a freezing winter night, drilling tough triples and finishing 9-of-11 inside the arc, ultimately amounting to a game-high 33 points.
Hoggard tried to spin into an uninspired floater while on the other end Warren went to work on Roddy and lobbed Nick Jourdain. Roddy drove into a crowd, and Williams converted the ensuing runout.
Westchester maintained a narrow lead for most of the third until Degenhart drove a closeout and banked in a layup to make the score 77-76 for the Mississauga boys. He plowed his way under the rim and got the ball back out with the defence in rotation, but Roddy drove into another turnover.
The 905 found themselves by doing something different: playing zone late in the third. It was effective and got them running for easy offence. The momentum kept snowballing as the frame came to a close, with Joiner darting downhill and lobbing Sarr.
Lawson barreled down the gut, crashing into Dink Pate and flinging a falling pass for a Joiner corner 3. Williams kept raining molten lava to answer.
On two separate possessions, the 905 got a layup after fumbling the ball in the paint to a teammate. It counted as points on the board for the 905, for Key and Mogbo, and as an assist for Martin. That’s the kind of game it was.
Key took a controlled late-clock hoist a stuck it. The ball bounced the 905’s way and their shot-making came around.
Martin ran off a screen on a BLOB play – Roddy first set a back screen for Mogbo before turning and setting a cross screen – and stuck a dagger catch-and-shoot 3 to seal the win. The Westchester defence lost Martin on the next possession, and he tried to rip down the rim for good measure.
The 905 pulled away at the end but weren’t themselves in this game. Hepburn’s important. Particularly when it comes to bending opposing defences with his ball-handling and providing heaps of pressure at the point of attack.
Outside of a couple spurts at the start and end of the game, the 905 weren’t able to generate turnovers and score in transition with their usual verve or make hay in the halfcourt. Hepburn is third in the G League in steals and second in assists, after all. And his assist numbers are indicative of actual playmaking talent, not just fluff.
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