It was an amazing win, not just for the standard of the opponent, but in addition for the type wherein the Toronto Raptors pulled out their 130-122 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Monday.
Granted the Pacers had been enjoying on the second evening of a back-to-back, however they didn’t have depart house to do it. Indiana is preventing to remain within the prime six within the Jap Convention and was on a three-game profitable streak, so it felt like greater than a good battle.
The quantity that stands out for Toronto is 35 workforce assists, simply two nights after the Raptors had 37 in a win in opposition to Atlanta. The ball motion was sensible and inventive, and is a credit score to go coach Darko Rajakovic and his imaginative and prescient for the way the sport ought to be performed.
The opposite numbers that leap out are 21-12-12-5 – Scottie Barnes‘ factors, rebounds, assists and blocks totals for the sport. Barnes set a franchise report along with his fourth triple-double of the season, and have become the primary participant in 47 years to hit these 4 totals (or extra) in line with Basketball-Reference.com.
Extra importantly, it appeared like each play Barnes made was essential to the trigger. Additionally value mentioning: an impressive evening for rookie Gradey Dick – 18 factors, 5 rebounds and two assists on 7-of-9 taking pictures in 23 minutes, together with 11 factors within the fourth quarter of a detailed sport. Anybody who offered their inventory within the 20-year-old out of Kansas needs to be regretting it.
Toronto improves to 22-36 on the season because it wo their third straight sport for the primary time this season. Consequently, Rajakovic has promised his workforce dinner on his dime, location to be decided. The workforce is seemingly OK with pizza.
Some takeaways:
• A second unit can actually set a tone for a workforce. Clearly your starters will usually make or break your season, however a well-constructed second unit usually is the truest reflection of the teaching workers’s imaginative and prescient for the way it needs the workforce to play.
It is smart, proper? Stars or starters typically should be catered to or constructed round. A bench unit? It’s fairly easy: ‘‘’If you wish to see the ground, that is how we’d like you to play.’
So behold the Raptors’ second unit, which – for simplicity’s sake – is shaping up as Barnes joined by Kelly Olynyk, Dick, and a few mixture of Ochai Agbaji and Bruce Brown. The ‘Barnes plus bench’ unit acquired rolling with 4:09 left within the first quarter when Olynyk checked in and was in impact till the Canadian exited 10 minutes later, with 6:27 left within the second quarter.
They didn’t precisely tilt the sport – the Raptors had been main by one when the stint began and the sport was tied when it ended – however they did give the sport some path, I might argue.
The Raptors scored 9 subject objectives within the 10 minutes, all of them assisted, a few of them in very eye-pleasing methods: an Olynyk dunk on a pocket go from Dick after a two-man motion with Barnes; a wide-open Olynyk three after the defence misplaced the Raptors centre once more after a two-man motion with Barnes and Dick. Then. an alley-oop from Olynyk to Agbaji and a Dick lay-up when Olynyk discovered him on a minimize from the nook.
It’s all read-and-react stuff, for probably the most half, and all unfolding with tempo and intention within the halfcourt. It’s the type of basketball that Rajakovic needs the Raptors to play on his watch, and the second unit is displaying the best way. Agbaji, Olynyk and Dick had been a collective plus-12 on the evening. Olynyk had 5 assists and Agbaji had 13 factors to affix Dick as a double-figure scorer off the bench.
• In a sport with quite a lot of robust particular person performances, maybe probably the most unlikely got here from Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl. A small-ball, space-and-pace observe meet with Indiana wouldn’t appear to swimsuit the massive Austrian’s type but he confirmed he can cling offensively and defensively with the high-speed Pacers.
He completed with 15 factors, 10 rebounds and 4 assists in 21 minutes, throughout which he was plus-13, however he exited within the third quarter after he re-aggravated a sprain in his left ankle. The earlier damage saved him out 11 video games, throughout which the Raptors went 2-9.
Afterward, Rajakovic appeared to recommend the damage wasn’t too vital, however we’ll see. What’s obvious is that Poeltl – whilst a non-shooter who does his greatest work 10 ft from the rim – has a task in the best way the Raptors need to play.
He can go out of the elbow and is a superb goal to complete performs others begin. His greatest sequence got here late within the second quarter when he blocked Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton (who had a really tough evening, ending with simply 9 factors and 7 assists on 2-of-11 taking pictures) on the rim and ran and scored on a put-back on the quick break that adopted. He greater than held his personal on a few possessions the place he needed to guard Haliburton on a change and had some success in opposition to Bennedict Mathurin, too.
• Say this for Pascal Siakam: the dude is constant. Monday evening marked his 18th sport with the Pacers and thus far he’s offered precisely what anybody may have anticipated, based mostly on his observe report with the Raptors. It’s type of uncanny. Listed below are his numbers per 100 possessions (to make it as apples-to-apples as potential) with every workforce this season — he performed 39 video games for Toronto earlier than he was traded Jan. 16.
With the Raptors: 31 factors/6.8a/8.8r/58.4% on 17.1 2PA, 31.7% on 5.2 3PA/3 TO.
With the Pacers: 29.5 factors/6.6a/9.5r/59.6% on 17.4 2PA, 42% on 4.2 3PA/2.1 TO
Like, fairly comparable. The variations get even smaller if you acknowledge that Siakam shot 44.1 per cent from three is his final 20 video games with the Raptors and the small decline in his scoring in Indiana will be largely attributed to Siakam attending to the free-throw line much less (5.9 makes an attempt per sport with Toronto vs. 4.2 in Indiana) and taking pictures poorly (simply 64.6 per cent, as far as a Pacer).
His shot profile has modified ever so barely – a couple of extra twos, a bit of extra exercise within the mid-range space – however barely sufficient to be notable over such a small stretch of video games. Which is nice: the Pacers are getting what they’ll presumably pay for this summer season when Siakam hits free company – a flexible, two-way ahead who can rating in a mess of how, whereas contributing as a superb rebounder and playmaker.
Nevertheless it’s attention-grabbing that enjoying alongside Haliburton – arguably the NBA’s greatest passing level guard – and on a workforce that performs with great velocity and nice spacing, Siakam hasn’t hit one other stage in his offence, a minimum of statistically. The Pacers at the moment are 9-9 for the reason that commerce, however that probably has extra to do with Haliburton being restricted with a hamstring drawback for a portion of that.
Siakam has been good, however not but nice for Indiana. He completed with 29 factors, 9 rebounds and 6 assists in opposition to his outdated workforce Monday evening.
• The Raptors had been pleased to RJ Barrett again within the lineup in opposition to the Pacers after sitting out Friday’s win over Atlanta with an ongoing knee drawback. Will probably be attention-grabbing to observe the scenario, described to be as tendinitis in his left knee.
It flared for the primary time in early November, when Barrett sat out two video games when he was nonetheless with the New York Knicks, saying then that it was drawback that would want common administration. Since becoming a member of the Raptors, Barrett missed three video games in late January with the identical problem and has been held out on the second evening of two back-to-backs.
Nonetheless, Barrett was glorious in opposition to Indiana, as soon as once more displaying that his means to attain off cuts and make performs for others along with his passing was a component of his sport that acquired ignored with the Knicks. He completed with 24 factors on 11-of-15 taking pictures, whereas including 5 assists — one other in a string of robust performances as a Raptor. His efficient subject purpose proportion is at 59.9 with Toronto, his profession mark is 48.3.
However you have got be involved if his knee points don’t get tidied up – having this type of drawback at age 23 will not be perfect. It’s additionally one thing the Canadian males’s nationwide workforce has be monitoring, though there may be first rate relaxation between video games on the Olympic event in France , happily.
• A extremely spectacular sport for Mathurin.
The highly effective Montreal wing set a report for a Canadian in opposition to the Raptors, placing up 34 factors – tying his profession excessive – on 11-of-15 taking pictures, whereas including 5 assists and changing 5 of his eight three-point makes an attempt.
Mathurin performs a lot greater than his listed six-foot-six and 210 kilos. He barrels into contact like a working again, demanding to be fouled. At instances his aggression can work in opposition to him, littering his field rating with quite a lot of iffy shot decisions, turnovers and passes not thought-about, not to mention made. However at simply 21 years and in his second 12 months, Mathurin is displaying indicators of seeing greater than the rim.
He scored 24 factors within the second half, with a number of of his buckets coming whereas extremely contested. However with Haliburton struggling, the Pacers wanted them.
Maybe most spectacular is that each one 5 of his assists got here whereas he was on fireplace within the third and fourth quarter, together with a pair down the stretch within the closing minutes – one for a Haliburton three, one other for a Siakam lay-up – as Mathurin was attempting to steer Indy’s comeback.
It was a mature efficiency from a fearless offensive participant. That he was capable of finding his teammates whereas scoring up a storm himself bodes nicely.
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