Quickley’s winner, Barrett’s 16-point fourth quarter power Raptors over Hornets
When in doubt, call “5”.
With 1.6 seconds remaining, guard Immanuel Quickley came off a Scottie Barnes pindown and nailed a fading triple as the Toronto Raptors stunned the Charlotte Hornets 97-96 on Wednesday at the Spectrum Center.
On a night where the Raptors struggled from outside (7-for-34), Quickley hit the most important shot, as Toronto snapped a two-game losing streak against Charlotte and tied the season series at two.
RJ Barrett was a big component in the comeback, finishing with a game-high 28 points — 16 of which were in the fourth quarter — and seven rebounds.
After Charlotte’s 27-point win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in their last game — which set a record for the largest road win by a team against the reigning champion and reigning MVP in NBA history — they remained hot to begin this one.
The fourth and final matchup between the Hornets and Raptors started all Charlotte, with the home team jumping out to an 11-2 start thanks to triples from the Duke rookies in Kon Knueppel and Sion James.
After a timeout by Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, Toronto responded. An Immanuel Quickley three, a couple of Brandon Ingram smooth midrange pull-ups, and a floater by Quickley were a part of a 12-3 run to tie things up at 14 midway through the first.
The defence picked up from both teams the rest of the quarter as they settled in, but Scottie Barnes was settling in as well. The former all-star started getting downhill and finishing at the rim multiple times to close the quarter, helping Toronto lead 25-22 after one.
The second quarter started in Charlotte’s favour too, as things were equalized at 27 thanks to a 5-2 run.
A bigger Hornets run would happen a couple of minutes later, however, as a big-time LaMelo Ball to Miles Bridges alley-oop was a part of a 13-2 Charlotte takeover to make it 43-32 with four minutes left in the frame.
To add insult to injury, Ingram was ruled out with a right thumb sprain after jamming his thumb while trying to poke the ball away from Knueppel.
Despite this, some Collin Murray-Boyles rebounding (he finished with a career-high 15) and Scottie Barnes defending sparked an 11-0 run near the end of the quarter, to cut Charlotte’s lead to 50-45 at the break.
It was a slower-paced, more stagnant start to the third quarter, as the teams only combined for seven points through the first three minutes of the half.
The Raptors went down by as many as 13 points in the third, missing 18 straight three-pointers at this point, when an all-bench lineup came into the game.
The grouping of Jamal Shead, Gradey Dick, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Jamison Battle, and Ochai Agbaji cobbled together a 15-3 run, helping cut the Hornets’ lead down to 72-66 by the time the third frame ended.
To begin the fourth quarter, it went from bad to worse on the injury front for Toronto.
Barnes was seen limping to the locker room early in the frame after landing awkwardly on his right leg while contesting a shot from Moussa Diabate. At this point, the Raptors were already down double-digits (78-68).
With both Ingram and Barnes out, it was RJ Barrett stepping up. The Mississauga, Ont. native led the charge on a 14-3 run through the middle of the fourth, contributing seven points of his own as Toronto took its first lead (82-81) since it was 29-27.
It would be back and forth until under two minutes in the quarter, where Rajakovic called a timeout to get the returning Barnes into the lineup, as Charlotte led 92-89.
Big buckets from Barrett and Ball back-to-back had the Hornets leading 96-44 with 1.6 seconds remaining, before Quickley called game.
The Raptors will put their three-game winning streak on the line and wrap up their two-game road trip against the Boston Celtics on Friday.
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