Raptors 905 win wild shootout with Windy City Bulls
The Raptors 905 are the best defensive team in the G League by some measure. They’re a full three points in defensive rating ahead of the No. 2 Austin Spurs. But the 905 haven’t looked like a defensive juggernaut against the Windy City Bulls. They gave up 135 points on Friday, their highest total this season, but scored 141, still managing to win.
The second game of the two squads’ back-to-back somehow had an even more torrid start. The 905 and Bulls were a combined 22-of-31 from the floor and 11-of-14 from 3 with only a couple minutes remaining in the first quarter.
Windy City started six-of-seven from deep, largely on the back of sensational shot making from three-time dunk contest champ Mac McClung. He went mental, first banging a 3 near the logo. Then he pulled up off a pick-n-roll and snapped the mesh. There was a zip to these triples. Boom, another from nearly logo territory, this time a step-back he was fouled on.
But the Bulls’ talented backcourt didn’t just launch from deep. McClung and Yuki Kawamura are quad-A guards. And probably the most notable aspect of their games is their athleticism. Both are exceptionally fast and twitchy, and they used their shifty speed to repetitively break down the 905 defence and create opportunities at the rim. Familiar face Mouhamadou Gueye yammed as a trailer and was lobbed for a layup. Windy City scored 45 points on 17-of-23 shooting in the first quarter!
Alternatively, the 905 mostly shot over the top. And they did it well, making 7-of-10 triples in the opening frame. Olivier Sarr splashed a couple pick-n-pop 3s. Lawson canned two triples as he was left alone a few feet behind the line. But despite the scorching shooting they were still stuck nine through 12 minutes.
A confluence of the 905 coming together on defence and Bulls starting to miss shots yielded far better results for Mississauga’s finest in the second. Simply put, they were more intentional and proactive with their help in the gaps and limited Windy City’s drives. The Bulls got poorer quality shots and missed more of them. They scored only 28 in the second.
Meanwhile the 905’s top gunners managed to maintain their seemly unsustainable shooting stretch.
Alijah Martin hit both his triples in the second. He cashed a grenade 3 running off a stagger on a BLOB play, then hit another from the same corner the next trip down, bringing the 905 within three. Lawson added another pair of triples, knocking down a pull up and quick trigger from the corner, both in transition.
The 905 also started the second with a cool Pistol set, flowing into a double drag, then having Tyreke Key catch off a flare before running a Laker cut with Jonathan Mogbo for points. Creative and effective basketball.
After he scored only six points in the first half, the third quarter belonged to Martin. He physically imposed himself on the game, bullying smaller guards Kawamura and McClung. Martin got past his defender with a step through and finished a touch shot inside twice, and gave a hard bump on the second one. And he canned a triple for good measure. Martin had 11 points in the quarter and the 905 were 15-of-23 (!) from 3 at one point.
But the 905 defence softened again, and the Bulls were on parade to the rim. Outside of a couple more 3s from McClung, they almost exclusively scored in the paint. Kawamura made a Jokic-esque backwards no-look feed to Justin Jackson in the lane. Except he’s five-foot-seven. It was the Japanese guard’s 11th assist, and while he had more difficulty scoring the ball, Kawamura did make a wild line-drive and-1 shot from the free throw line.
The 905’s trademark defensive aggression mostly resulted in blowbys and missed gambles for much of the game, but it finally started to produce the intended results late. Hoggard peel switched and snatched a pass to the corner out of the air. Kawamura was blitzed off a get action and fumbled the ball away. They ran out for a bevy of transition makes and free throws. McClung laid a hard foul on Martin under the rim and tensions flared. The game truly was a battle between the guards.
So it’s only right that it was a high-powered offence-first shootout. And while McClung leads the G League in regular-season scoring, Martin ultimately came out on top as the 905 won 141-138 as they played out the foul game down the stretch.
A quick rundown of the numbers from both the obscene game and back-to-back:
- The 905 both scored and allowed their highest point totals for consecutive games. The combined score over the back-to-back, 282 to 273.
- They shot 19-of-33 (57.6 percent) from 3 on Saturday. Martin was 3-of-4 and scored 26, Lawson had 25 including his 5-of-10 shooting from long range.
- The 905 had four 20-point scorers – Sarr and Key joined Martin and Lawson – and nearly had a fifth as Tyson Degenhart scored 19, including a perfect 3-of-3 from 3.
- Meanwhile McClung, who leads the G League with an average of 28.4 points per game, scored game highs in both contests with 34 and 39, respectively. Former 905er Gueye had 26 on an hyper-efficient 9-of-14.
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