Raptors film room: Alijah Martin shines in loss to Celtics

It was a valiant effort from the Toronto Raptors versus the Boston Celtics, as they pushed the 3rd seeded team in the Eastern Conference despite missing Brandon Ingram, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl. Immanuel Quickley had a season-high 13 assists. RJ Barrett left the game with an apparent left ankle injury, and while X-rays are negative, we await an update.

But the real story tonight is Raptors 905 guard Alijah Martin getting opportunity and showing why he deserves some attention. I broke down Alijah’s game and the Raptors close-but-no-cigar effort:

Here is Louis Zatzman, recapping the game:

Some good things happened, to be sure, for the Raptors. Dick hit a triple! Shead threw some brilliant passes, including finding a cutting Jamison Battle whom he had no business identifying as open. Mogbo had some impressive defensive stops. Martin dunked a cocked-back one-hander in transition over a pile of flailing limbs. A lineup that had played together in Summer League clawed Boston’s 20-point lead back down to 11.

Sandro Mamukelashvili cut for a layup in the fourth. He made hay with his legs all game, running in transition, cutting in the half court. Sometimes he can camp out and blast away from deep, but he knew the assignment with the stars absent. He remains a vital and malleable offensive weapon. Walter never stopped digging in those 3-point mines, and he found the gold in the bedrock in the fourth. He finished with 19 points and five made triples. Dick drove for another physical layup after a hard closeout. Toronto finished with 117 big points.

None of it was enough. Brown got loose on his drives, finally, and he dunked and found some and-1s and generally wreaked havoc around the rim. As mentioned, Barrett seemed to turn his ankle after stepping on a defender’s foot and left the game, precluding him from another late-game miracle.

The Celtics ended up scoring 125. It was a monster number that showed about 40 minutes of pure offensive dominance. Toronto was without Barnes, who is the sun, moon, and stars of the defensive system. Losing, and giving up 125, is life.

But Toronto played well. Its bench played well. Not only did rotation players like Shead, Walter, Dick, and Murray-Boyles find great moments of success, but the deep bench, the 905 stars like Alijah Martin and Jonathan Mogbo found moments of success, too.

In the grand scheme of things, it’s nice to have moral victories back on the table. Now the Raptors have to hope the stars come back soon, and Barrett doesn’t miss much time after turning his ankle, so that moral victories don’t remain this team’s diet for long.

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