Raptors Film Room: Quickley goes off against the Bucks

Immanuel Quickley goes off for 32 points on 19 shots in a Raptors win over the Milwaukee Bucks. No Scottie Barnes for the Raptors, but Jakob Poeltl had one of his best games of the season.

How those two things relate to one another:

Here’s Samson Folk on the win:

Also, three point variance is a thing, and the Raptors going 0-11 before going 8-12, that’s the name of the game.

After the Bucks made a short run to start the third quarter, Coach Darko went to an old friend – the two point guard lineup.

A nearly 90th percentile point differential behemoth that turns other teams over at a rapid pace, rarely turns the ball over themselves, and typically does a decent job of creating looks? Well, it helped the Raptors as they stiff armed the Bucks. More shot making from Quickley, some playmaking in general from Shead. Uber small with Ja’Kobe Walter playing the 3, so Shead & Walter could pressure both Rollins and Porter Jr. while keeping Quickley comfortably off ball. A front court of Ingram and Mamu. By the end of the third quarter the point guards had combined for 37 points and 12 assists on 1 turnover (27 & 6 for Quickley and 10 & 6 for Shead).

All the while, the Raptors defense remained quite stellar. The lifeblood of the Bucks offense early on was push shots and fairly brilliant live dribble shot making from the likes of Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas, but that didn’t last. When the ball was funnelled elsewhere, it died. The Raptors were obviously quite involved in the killing of the ball. They maintained a few of the hallmarks of their elite defense; chasing teams through the whole length of the shot clock, full closeouts, a significant motor from guys 1-5, and in this case a knuckleball of Poeltl to gum up the lane with more size. Coach Darko has his guys locked in and playing with a level of intensity that can border on suffocation.

Both Ingram & Quickley deserve the lion’s share of the credit for this one. Of course it’s a team game and everyone chips in, but the Raptors two leaders in this one were particularly good. During the sprint to the end of this season the Raptors will be hoping for more out of this duo. That’s not to say they weren’t important through the pre-All-Star portion of the season, just that this roster is designed to get a little more out of them. In this one they were both plenty resilient in shouldering the offensive load. They took the hard shots, did the hard things, and offloaded the easy stuff onto their teammates who are lower on the totem pole. That’s a great combination of things for creating good offense. On a Sunday afternoon against the Bucks, the both of them struck the perfect balance.

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