Raptors’ youth have their moments in loss to Nets

It was Eras night at Scotiabank Arena and I don’t know about you, but the Toronto Raptors were feeling 22.  

Scottie Barnes returned to the lineup after missing two games with a right ankle sprain, but Jakob Poeltl was out with the bilateral groin strain he sustained Monday against the Chicago Bulls and RJ Barrett was a late scratch due to illness. Jonathan Mogbo and Ja’Kobe Walter started in their absence and the starting lineup had an average age of 22, the youngest in team history.  

There was plenty of vitality and vigor, but also plenty of mistakes and blunders, and the older and wiser Brooklyn Nets (average age of their starting lineup was 27) ultimately took down the Raptors’ young guns 101-94.  

While they may have broken new ground, the territory wasn’t entirely unfamiliar for this iteration of the Raptors. They came into this game having played rookies for the second greatest number of minutes this season (1399) with only the Washington Wizards (1786) coming in ahead of them, a lead Toronto gained on Thursday.  

The youth? They brought energy early. Mogbo fronted the post and grabbed a steal on the first possession of the game. He was blocked on his break to the rim, but on the ensuing possession, Gradey Dick relocated to the wing that Walter just vacated on a veer cut and sunk a catch-and-shoot triple.   

Then the youngsters brought down the hammer. Dick crashed baseline off a missed Scottie Barnes turnaround and threw down a one-handed putback. On a sideline out of bounds play, Barnes came out of the corner and received the ball on a Miami action (dribble hand-off into a ball screen), which transitioned into a Spain pick n’ roll with Mogbo and Dick as the back screener. Dick planted it, the help was late, and Barnes lobbed Mogbo for the two-handed slam – tidy work. 

Mogbo and Jamal Shead’s activity on the defence often overwhelmed Brooklyn in the first quarter, cascading into mistakes, turnovers, and points going the other way for the Raptors. Brooklyn had eight turnovers to Toronto’s four at half. 

No bigs allowed  

Coming into this game, it was going to be interesting to see how the Raptors chose to play against a solid big in Nic Claxton without their starting centre. That was nixed early in the second quarter when Claxton was thrown out of the game, for throwing a ball out of the game.  

Backup Nets big Day’Ron Sharpe also showed his inexperience. The rookie picked up his fourth foul at 4:50 of the second quarter and sat for extended periods, making the remainder of this game close to centreless. It wasn’t exactly a good litmus test for how the Raptors will weather the storm without Poeltl. Although we’ll get a good look at that soon in upcoming matchups against Alperen Sengun and the Houston Rockets, Karl-Anthony Townes and the New York Knicks, and Zach Edey and the Memphis Grizzlies.  

For what it’s worth, the Raptors played the entire game with either Mogbo (who started as the nominal five) or Kelly Olynyk on the floor, with one coming out when the other came in. Positions were relatively fluid in this game, but it will be interesting to see if they stick with those two as the ostensible bigs going forward, or work Barnes into that role as well.  

While Olynyk is viable on offence and provides a decent facsimile of what Poeltl does as a connective passer, the Raptors will miss Poeltl’s delay action mastery and devastating screens. Olynyk did continue to be a liability on defence, even against a Nets team that has a 14th percentile offensive rating (106.9) without Cam Thomas, Dennis Schroder, or Nic Claxton on the floor this season.  

The kids were alright 

Despite their age, the Raptors had moments where their youthful vigor met with a precocious feel for the game. They displayed patience and some immaculate ball movement at times leading to wide-open looks.  

Chris Boucher made a play that is typical of the frenetic forward, diving to save a loose ball from going out of bounds. Mogbo picked it up, tossed to Shead on the wing, who then found Dick in the corner. After drawing a swarm of defenders, the sophomore slung a sharp skip-pass across the court to the opposite wing where Agbaji caught and cashed from 3.  

In the third quarter, they pinged the ball around once again – every Raptor got a touch. It eventually found Dick who lifted his close out with an up-fake, drove towards the lane, and kicked to Barnes. He immediately swung to Agbaji in the corner who drained another triple. The 24-year-old Agbaji was excellent, finishing with a team high 20 points on 8-of-16 from the floor and 4-of-8 from deep – he was also the Raptors oldest starter. 

The Raptors’ rookies all showed fun and promising flashes, as they do. Jamison Battle returned from his ankle sprain, and is still a shooter. Shead just bares down and makes tough plays. He ate three moving screens in this game, and lately has had a knack for chasing down offensive boards and making something out of nothing in late shot clock scenarios. Walter had a tough shooting night, but the photo that was snapped of him after his lone 3 ruled.  

And while the Nets had a few years on the Raptors, they made just as many juvenile mistakes at the start of the game. They had double the turnovers, they fouled just as much, I mean Nic Claxton got ejected for slinging a ball into the stands for no reason. They were a mess. 

Final stretch

The Raptors got red hot in the third, shooting 7-of-11 from 3-point range and led by as much as 10. 

But the fourth quarter was a different story. They played like the inexperienced team they are. Turnovers and fouls compounded their problems, they cooled off and missed shots, it fell apart. 

Cam Johnson nailed a triple inside the final two minutes to make the score 93-90 Brooklyn. Barnes came back down the other way, took an early clock pull up 3, and missed. Johnson then isolated on an empty side, drawing the foul and making both. Once again Barnes couldn’t answer, committing an offensive foul on a push-off. Johnson scored all of the Nets’ points on an 11-2 run to close the game, finishing with 33 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists.

And that was the game. It was good to see Barnes back, nice to see the glimpses from the young Raptors, but it was a tough result against a similarly injured and struggling Nets squad.  

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