Scottie Barnes outduels Banchero as Raptors dominate Magic
The first half was a tale of two halves, or rather, two quarters. After starting off in a 32-11 hole, the Raptors began digging themselves out of it, almost in the exact inverse of how they got into it – they played fast, ran off of the Magic’s missed 3-pointers, and hit some of their own. This was a game of huge swings.
When it comes to the Magic, they love their ball pressure, and they love to turn teams over. Despite everything that Jakob Poeltl brings to the Raptors, replacing him with a combination of Chris Boucher & Kelly Olynyk proved to be very effective. The Raptors needed a way to circumvent the ball pressure of the Magic, and adding a little bit more dynamism to the offense through the aforementioned duo, well that helped a lot. The extra room and spacing also granted their star, Scottie Barnes a bit more breathing room, and more opportunity to use possessions on the block – he finished the first half with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.
Also, Bruce Brown — who is being discussed heavily as a trade option the league over — got a bit of run and took every opportunity for a shot that he could, launching 9 shots in his first stint and providing a decent punch offensively. Still, the Raptors couldn’t stop the Magic’s downhill playmaking/finishing often enough and went down by 5 heading into the first half.
The start of the third quarter went fast and furious for the Raptors. The Magic were wearing down to some degree due to the relentless on ball pressure that Davion Mitchell was subjecting them to, and on the other side the Raptors went 3 for 3 against the Magic’s zone possessions — with a couple nice zone busters — and they got a few chances to get out and run. All of that led to a 20 – 8 run for the Raptors to open the quarter, and for those of you who care deeply about the performances of Gradey Dick? He factored in, in a big way.
In the same way that Boucher & Olynyk allowed the Raptors to get away from some of the ball pressure that the Magic were throwing at them, so too did Dick’s off-ball movement. Whether it was running him off flares, setting pin-ins, or just having him come off of some motion plays, the Magic cared a lot about where he was. He didn’t just serve to move the defense, but was able to provide some scoring punch as well – he finished with 17 points on 9 shots, his best scoring game in some time.
Not to mention, Dick got Paolo Banchero to bite hard on a pump-fake, tossed a throw ahead dribble and punched home a monstrous poster over Tristan Da Silva, and the style and ferocity on the dunk would be much more at home in a catalogue of James Johnson posters than it would alongside a collection of Gradey’s. Nasty. Awesome.
The Raptors also got a little bit freaky on offense, as they tried a lot. We got an inverted, snug pick n’ roll between Olynyk & Brown that resulted in a roll and an and-1. Olynyk was a knuckleball all night, and his awkward form of live-ball creation, his shooting + the professionalism of his passing in the triangle concepts all allowed the Raptors to outskirt much of what the Magic wanted to do. As crazy as it sounds, through 3 quarters and 15 minutes of play, Olynyk was a +35.
Underscoring all of this stuff, of course, was Barnes. Barnes was playing well within himself as an offensive player — taking what comes, doing so in stride — and finding his way to points and assists fairly regularly, but his most important role was providing punctuation on the back end of defensive possessions. Mitchell would set the tone, and Barnes would bring the noise. They hammered the Magic in the 3rd quarter, literally doubling their score – 40 to 20 and taking a commanding lead into the final frame.
The 4th quarter was a surehanded continuation of the dominance the Raptors displayed in the 3rd. The high-low passes and the ball movement worked on offense, and defensively the Raptors routinely flattened the Magic out and forced them into isolations. Banchero is a pretty slick isolation player, but an offense can’t be made completely out of those things. Even Poeltl, who struggled immensely earlier, managed to find his way to impact later in the game as a roller and finisher.
About as much went correctly for the Raptors on offense as possible. No one player was overextended with a creation load, assists piled up easily, and they shot remarkably well from downtown. RJ Barrett started slow, but let the game come to him and eventually started driving the offense down the stretch to put the Magic away. Per Cleaning the Glass, this was the second best offensive rating the Raptors have put up in the halfcourt all season.
A comfortable, professional win for the Raptors, and on the best looking court in the NBA. Fun night of hoops. We even got some Ulrich Chomche minutes that included a decent high-low pass, and of course, a bunch of boundless effort outside of that.
Have a blessed day.
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