Montreal shows love at Raptors open practice

Basketball is hot in Montreal. I don’t mean that figuratively either, as the McGill gym made sure the viewers put in a good sweat along with the players – there wasn’t an official report or anything like that, but it seemed like… capacity.

Everyone was introduced — both RJ Barrett & Chris Boucher receiving the loudest ovations, Scottie Barnes wasn’t present (personal reasons) — and the Raptors settled into a smattering of stretches and dribbling drills; those were followed shortly by closeout drills that were executed with very inconsistent energy. It was what you’d expect, the less established players chopping their feet like hell, the established guys dragging the puppies. DJ Carton ripped off a 360 dunk that the crowd loved. Ulrich Chomche bashed some jumpers off the glass. The fellas got loose and then jumped into a 20-minute scrimmage. It was as you’d expect, with Herbie Kuhn on the mic, the countdown music blaring, defenders slapping the floor.

The first 5v5 was (team black) Gradey Dick-Jonathan Mogbo-Jakob Poeltl-Davion Mitchell-RJ Barrett with Branden Carlson, Jahmi’us Ramsey and Ulrich Chomche off the bench vs. (team grey) Kelly Olynyk-Chris Boucher-DJ Carton-Ochai Agbaji-Jeremy Rhoden and Jamal Shead, Jamison Battle and Bruno Fernando.

First run play? A snug pick n’ roll with Kelly Olynyk on ball and Ochai Agbaji setting the screen – it went nowhere. The early good stuff? Barrett & Poeltl look pretty comfortable working together, Dick canned a movement triple after sprinting off a pin-down plus a clean standstill look, and Poeltl looked pretty good. Both Mogbo and Carlson found the scoresheet early with a dunk and a three. Some good reads from Agbaji as well as a cutter.

Team Black won the first quarter 22-18.

Boucher & Carton led a healthy run to start the 2nd quarter. Triples made, rim pressure, a willingness to try and shake things up and make things happen. On the other side Poeltl started looking for Chomche as an outlet above the rim, throwing two lobs his way for one dunk and one foul. Dick kept banging triples, though. A pin-down was three points. Olynyk & Boucher kept the pace for team grey. It was 38-38 with 4 seconds less and coach Mahlalela drew up an Olynyk drive with a slice cut off ball for Boucher – it didn’t go down. With .6 seconds left, coach Delaney drew up a back screen lob play for Poeltl – who missed a wide open look. Just dudes playing hoops.

As a result of all of this, they did some jumbotron wizardry and turned it into a 90-90 game with 5 minutes left. Olynyk & Boucher gave team grey an early 6-point lead, but a rampant run through the whole team from Barrett for an and-one, on one play, followed by a great dump off on a drive to Poeltl on another pulled team black within one. At the end of it all though, Olynyk put on the takeover snapback, bully-driving and shooting his team to a win. They made Poeltl defend him in space and around screens. It was tough.

There was lots to like, of course. Just a bunch of players getting minutes in new lineups, and there’s things to enjoy in that, as Poeltl discussed linking up with Chomche on lobs: “It’s fun trying to adapt to new linueps. With (Chomche) he’s a guy you wanna get close to the rim, he’s athletic enough and has enough length to go out there and get em.”

First of all, we’re very greatful to McGill for having us out and using their gym tonight. Big thanks to fans for coming out to support our guys. I think tonight we were able to use some different lineups, play a little bit with a different score there, to work on some end of game execution, offensively and defensively. I was happy how the guys competed for the open scrimmage, it was a lot of fun to play in front of the fans here in Montreal. – Darko Rajakovic

If you were going to hammer down on one thing, it might be that Carton looked every bit as good as Mitchell, if not better. The extra juice on offense papered over the difference in defensive ball pressure between the two of them. Carton was great knifing into the lane, didn’t make many mistakes, played off of Olynyk when he was running offense, and he sprinted and slid with any ball handler that was put in front of him. With Shead being a late scratch — after bumping his hip prior to the game — the guard situation really did come down to two guys. There’s heaps of time for this stuff to play out, but it’s meaningful that Carton is coming in to punch up.

I didn’t keep the stats, but eyeballing it I think the top 3 scorers were Olynyk, Barrett and Agbaji. Dick didn’t miss a triple the whole time. Boucher had a lot.

Also, not to be too down on the guy, but Mogbo had a lot of trouble with the jumper, and the game speed decision making was a little bit lacking. He made some good cuts though, and the energy is always good – he just has to sort it out.

All in all, a really fun crowd in Montreal got to see the Raptors up close in a way some of them never will again, or will have to pay big bucks for – that’s the good stuff. After everything wrapped up, the players swam elbow deep into boxes of t-shirts and threw countless fastballs into the crowd. We’re talking 3 unbroken minutes of long toss.

Some hoops, a souvenir, a good time had.

Have a blessed day.

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