Top 10 Raptors Plays of the Week: Mamumania steals the show
We are back for week 10 of the Top 10 Raptors Plays of the Week, as Toronto heads into the All-Star break with a 32-23 record after only winning 30 games all of last season. It’s been a tough limp into the All-Star break with a bunch of double-digit leads being thrown by the Raptors, and of course, the record should be better, but let’s take a moment to appreciate that Toronto is currently in a fight for a top 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. The week kicked off with one of the thrown leads at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves, to the Chicago Bulls game that was nationally televised for the Americans for some reason, to a Super Bowl Sunday victory against a familiar foe, and finally an embarrassing blowout loss against the top-seeded Pistons at home.
10. 2014 Toronto Spurs open up the week
Yes, it’s yet another entry of the 2014 San Antonio Spurs beautiful game ball movement, as the Toronto Raptors open up the Top 10 Plays of the Week on the first possible day (we usually upload on Wednesday, so every Wednesday night is a recycle of a new week) with their first bucket being an offensive possession that touches everybody’s hands and they work their way into the paint with some nice bounce passes, and Collin Murray-Boyles’ first touch of the possesion ends up being the last one as he’s able to finish off a possesion that could put a tear into a basketball fans eyes.
9. Collin Murray-Boyles’ airborne assist
We follow up with our number nine entry being the second bucket of the week’s opener as Collin Murray-Boyles is yet again a part of the highlight, this time for his hustle as the rebound is just so awesome the way he runs into it, and the assist mid air is even better for an RJ Barrett catch and shoot knockdown three. The opening two possessions gave CMB the momentum to have a solid night of 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block.
8. Brandon Ingram finishes through contact
To the most comfortable win of the week for Toronto, on Super Bowl Sunday, as the Raptors had the Indiana Pacers in town. The first half was actually close, but the Raptors started running away with it here in the third quarter, and it provided a nice highlight from Brandon Ingram, who deservedly will be replacing Stephen Curry in the All-Star game. Aaron Nesmith, if you’re going to hack a professional scorer, you gotta do better than that, as Ingram had no trouble making a cool-looking bucket through contact.
7. Brandon Ingram soars in the air
To our third different game of the week, this time the second night of a back-to-back, surprisingly on national television for the Americans. However, we stay with Brandon Ingram on this one as the notorious BI3 gets a surprising amount of hang time, at least for me, as I can’t recall him ever hanging in the air like that. It’s nothing special as Ingram just hits a spin in the post after catching a high pass, but the hang time makes it for me.
6. Scottie Barnes hammer
Another dunk on back-to-back plays, but this time we go back to Super Bowl Sunday, as Scottie Barnes had one heck of a game in this one. He had a game high of 25 points, 14 rebounds, and a team high 6 assists (just shy of 1 assist to tie T.J. McConnell for a game high 7), while adding 2 steals and another game high of 4 blocks. Scottie All-Star continues to be the heart of the team, doing it all, and the spin move I thought was crisper than Ingram’s, plus finishing through contact makes it a slightly better highlight.
5. Ja’Kobe Walter posters Patrick Williams
Back to the Bulls game, as we have an entry from Ja’Kobe Walter, who we haven’t seen on the list in quite some time. Raptors run a simple play for him as Scottie “the heart” Barnes sets a nice off-ball screen for Walter, and all he has to do is use it, catch the pass from CMB and hammer home a poster dunk on Chicago’s 90 million dollar man. Props to Williams for going for the contest, though, as we’ve seen players these days make “business decisions” to stay off of posters.
4. Sandro Mamukelashvili finishes over two defenders
Mamu didn’t have a great game whatsoever against the Eastern Conference leaders, Detroit Pistons, but this was too good a bucket to leave off the list. He makes three defenders look foolish on this play as Kevin Huerter plays himself with a swing and a miss steal attempt, he then catches a body from what I’m pretty sure looks like Caris LeVert in the paint, and even Tolu Smith slides over to offer rim protection that is just simply not enough for Mamu’s double clutch finish. A tough and beautiful finish.
3. Mamu’s dance class
A thing of beauty from Mamu yet again as the forward reels in an offensive rebound from a Brandon Ingram miss, completely spins away from Bones Hyland, leaving him in the dust and then throws a nice dish to Jamal Shead, who is just waiting on a free layup opportunity. It looked like Sandro was dancing here with how crafty the dribble moves and even the finesse on the pass was.
2. Mamu block leads to wild offence
Oh, brother, this guy again? It’s starting to look like Mamumania with three straight plays highlighting the Georgian forward, but what can you do when the guy is just providing highlight after highlight? He kick-starts Toronto’s favourite, a fast break from a nice block on the perimeter, and even the Ingram save is impressive. On the break, Mamu decides against going up for a shot, but thankfully keeps the ball in with a loose pass that is just waiting to be pounced on. Shead decides to reset the play, dribbling the ball back out to the perimeter, and in that span, he finds a wide-open Immanuel Quickley who is waiting to let the three fly and SPLASH! The fact that the shot almost pops out too makes it that much better, and a funny but effective Raptors sequence that results in three points.
1. Immanuel Quickley throws a dime
For the last and top play of the week, IQ reclaims his top spot (last #1 entry was his game winner in Charlotte) after not really being a huge contender for the series. I tried to find the sequence of Barnes and him complaining at the camera in the possesion just before the Quickley steal, but unfortunately couldn’t, but the ball didn’t lie, at least in Scottie’s eyes here as he got his justice of a free two points just seconds later. Anyways, the accuracy of Quickley’s pass, with his back turned to Barnes, was quite impressive, no matter how open the All-Star is as the ball lands right on him. Also, the fact that he did that while saving the ball from going out of bounds was just too slick not to have as the top play of the week, even if it was nearing garbage time.
There you have it, we’ve finally reached double-digit weeks, and after the All-Star break, I will try to get back to the original schedule of uploading every Wednesday by 2 p.m. as last week got thrown off due to the trade deadline and then for this week I figured waiting an extra night to ensure the first “half” of the season is finished off. Hopefully, the second half gives us just as great plays from the Raptors, if not even better. Also, if I can find enough highlights of the Raptors at the All-Star Weekend, I will make sure to upload one for a special All-Star weekend edition.
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