Gradey Dick stars as Raptors lose close one in Charlotte
The Raptors ran it again. The flare screen for Gradey Dick that transitions into him being the back-screener in Spain Leak. They scored on it again, because Dick is fantastic at attacking the top foot of closeouts; because Dick draws super aggressive closeouts, and because Dick is a talented at rim finisher. Dick is a larger part of the offense with each day that passes — partially because of injuries, partially because he is gobbling up usage while ramping up efficiency — and if there’s anything to be learned from all these injuries, it’s that the Raptors have a resilient bunch. On offense that’s been led by RJ Barrett and Dick, with a silver bullet.
Dick ran off screens, slipped in between spaces, sprinted out in transition, and attacked the rim with vigor on his way to 17 first half points on only 9 shots. His offensive punch, along with Barrett working downhill and providing 7 assists kept the Raptors alive as they sustained an unreasonably hot shooting half from the Hornets – who made 10 triples in the first 24 minutes. In the third quarter, a putback from Dick — indicative of his do-it-all offensive impact — finally marked the Raptors first lead in forever as they climbed back from a 23-point deficit to officially make it a game.
On the other end? Vigor? Passion? It came, chiefly, from Jonathan Mogbo. Mogbo, who made his first NBA career start tonight, was great on defense. Whether it was 8 straight seconds of deny defense on LaMelo Ball to stop the Hornets initiation at the point of attack, or clamping up Miles Bridges, or timing up help-side steps to dissuade drives – he did it, man. He wasn’t just a defensive contributor either. The game was a track meet in a lot of ways — a comfy spot for the Raptors who have the most miles traveled in the NBA — and Mogbo enjoyed trying to push in transition and sneaking his way into the dunker spot where he backed up the namesake – dunking multiple times from said spot.
For his part as well, Davion Mitchell did a phenomenal job on Ball. Not to be clever, but the ball pressure was really great. Ball is a huge point guard, but that means his dribble is relatively high, and he’s not as twitchy as other guards, and Mitchell did a hell of a job of claiming his space.
The center battle was kind of hilarious. Nick Richards & Jakob Poeltl had seemingly no ability to stop one another so they just… scored and rebounded in front of each other repeatedly — almost as if they had a gentleman’s agreement to help the other rack up stats — of course, since Poeltl is better, the Raptors won the big man battle. To reiterate though, heading into the 4th quarter, Poeltl had 16 points & 12 rebounds and Richards had 15 points & 12 rebounds. Two big ships passing in the night, as it were.
Unfortunately for the Raptors, after they crawled all the way back into this one, scaling the wall the 3-point deficit put in front of them – well, it happened again. The Hornets snapped off an 18-2 run, largely on the back of their 3-point shooting. As much as the Raptors battled, and they battled, they couldn’t climb all the way back in this one. They got close, but they couldn’t batten down the hatches on defense. Too many digs that didn’t break soil, too many threes given up.
A throughline though, and something that should be celebrated? Dick’s 30-point, 3 steal performance on 65-percent shooting. It might not have shocked anyone to think Barrett could go for 31 & 8 against the Hornets, but combining for 61 with Dick is a silver lining worth noticing. Dick doesn’t need anyone to do the work for him. He doesn’t need shot opportunities to fall in his hands. He is seizing the day, every damn day.
The injury luck has been horrid, the basketball has been marred with inconsistency, but not from the Raptors sophomore – who looks like he could attach the term ‘star’ next to his name at some point. Silver linings indeed.
Have a blessed day.
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