Quick Reaction: Raptors 115, Nuggets 121

Did his job by turning short-mid range touches into reliable points. There’s a subtle beauty in watching Poeltl softly toss the ball into the basket from 10-plus feet out. And that deft, seemingly-no-longer-impeded by a low-back strain footwork? A thing of beauty. Used his newfound mobility to wrestle with Jokic, push him way out for the catch and force a turnover and missed shot. Manhandled him really. And just kept tossing the ball in the basket. Gargantuan game from Jak.

Did yeoman’s work fronting Jokic and making things uncomfortable for both the superhuman Serbian big and Denver’s league-best offence in the early going. Also made contact on a screen (rare occurrence) and got Shead an open look from 3. Barnes’ communication always stands out. He motioned for Shead to start in the corner and come get the handoff. He’s the traffic controller on defence. Made a behind-the-back seeing-eye pass to Poeltl for easy points from the dunker. Still in an offensive slump but finds his way to impact regardless. Stuffed Jokic and it led to a Walter 3! Also poured it in late to keep the Raptors in it.

Came out gangbusters as he leaked out and banged a 3, maneuvered into the paint and whipped a wraparound pass to Poeltl in the dunker, drove and laid in a late-clock grenade. Played almost exclusively off ball for a stretch as Ingram and Shead took the reins of the offence. Ripped a couple more catch-and-shoots in quick succession in the third. Did a great job floating and shaking into space to hunt for shot opportunities. Ran a get action and rained in an off-balance three from the corner and then hit a baseline fader the next possession. High-level shot making.

Showed aggression early on a take to the rim and forcing the defence into a foul, but also often dribbled the air out of the ball and killed far too much clock. The timing of his reads improved as he weaved downhill and found both Barrett and Barnes for open 3s that they missed. Got his gusto back with a big two-handed slam in the third quarter. He progressively fit into more of an ancillary scoring role throughout the game and made a couple big shots late. The Raptors need Ingram to be the break-glass-in-case-of-emergency guy come winning time, and he has been more often lately.

Wasn’t getting the ball to go down early on but if there’s one thing you can count on Barrett for it’s that he’ll just keep chugging. The ultimate innings-eater for these Raptors. Plus, he’s usually so efficient on twos and in transition that it’s hard to quibble with a brief bout of misses. Sure enough, shots started falling in the second half. Trust the ever-churning process. His reliable transition finishing is big for a Raptors team that’s starved for it.

He plays with so much sauce. Don’t often consider it often, but he puts a little something extra on his dunks. Played less minutes as Rajaković tightened the rotation but ran hard on the break and applied himself on defence to the best of his ability. Just wasn’t the guy for the Jokic matchup.

Automatically turns closeout situations into paint touches and used those to successfully spray the ball out to shooters. So important for his game and this team that he both gets downhill and moves the ball along at opportune times. Used his road-runner speed to conjure a transition attempt off a make and bolt to the rim. Just doesn’t hit his shots.

Caught the ball in the dunker creeping in the from the corner and pinged to Barnes above the break for a 3. He’s looked more comfortable making passing reads from the interior of the defence lately. Then took a quick-trigger pull in transition and splashed it. Walter making a good number of his 3s is a huge deal for this team. And the shot was dialled in this game. Swatted old teammate Bruce Brown and ran to drill another triple from the corner going the other way. Made things tough for Jamal Murray too.

Played a couple first-half minutes and missed a triple but got an and-1 to go. Didn’t get many looks.

The tightening and execution of the rotation has gone a long way during this streak. So does Rajaković’s penchant for experimentation tactically. Putting Barnes on Jokic, Poeltl on Gordon and switching/showing early help threw Denver for a loop in the early going.