Top 10 Raptors Plays of the Week: Brandon Ingram shows off his midrange game
The top 10 plays are back after a mini top-five version for the All-Star break that saw Scottie hit a game-winner. He’s back in the list in this one, but Barnes suffered a right quad bruise late against the Oklahoma City Thunder last night, and hopefully it was minor, so we can see him back in the list for next week’s edition.
We had a three-game week that started with a return from the All-Star break in Chicago to a Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee, and finally back home against the defending champions Oklahoma City Thunder.
10. RJ Barrett hooks up with Collin Murray-Boyles
To start the list, we’ll kick it off in Chicago just like the Raptors did after the All-Star break, early in the first quarter, as Jakob Poeltl was benched in this one for the first time in a long time, which meant CMB got the start over the Austrian. Boyles got off to a nice start in this one with the Raptors as Toronto jumped out to an early 10-2 lead thanks to a good pick and roll that was executed to perfection with CMB and RJ Barrett. CMB was solid in this one and, more importantly, very efficient. 11 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, along with a block and steal with no turnovers while missing just one shot all game long in 29 minutes of action.
9. Raptors stagger action
For number nine, we go to the most recent contest with the defending champions. A drawn-up play that starts with a Brandon Ingram on ball screen, followed by a CMB screen off ball on BI’s defender, one more Ingram screen on RJ Barrett’s defender, and one final screen from CMB on Lu Dort, who’s trying to close out on Brandon Ingram. It’s a great play to open up a clean look for Toronto’s leading scorer, who surprisingly wasn’t that impressive in this one, scoring just 15 points. Regardless, a well-drawn-up play by coach Darko Rajakovic.
8. Quickley’s moving three
And now to Sunday afternoon’s delight in Milwaukee, as the Raptors got their most comfortable win of the week with a 122-94 scoreline, thanks to Immanuel Quickley’s game-high 32 points and a team-high 9 assists. He also added 3 rebounds, a steal and more importantly, just like CMB in Chicago, he was very efficient with just one turnover and shot over 50 percent from the field on 19 field goal attempts.
7. RJ and Yak 2-man action
Another play in Milwaukee, and another play midway in the fourth quarter featuring a Jakob Poeltl screen. It was Jakob’s third game back from injury since coming back from the lingering back issue that kept him out of competition for over a month, and he looked like the Jakob we all know and love in this one, mostly in the fourth quarter, with his great screens, rebounding and soft touch around the rim.
6. Jamal Shead’s hustle
Back to Chicago, and even though Jamal Shead doesn’t score or assist here, it’s the other side of the ball that earns him the honours of being the sixth-best play of the week as he clamps up Rob Dillingham, strips the ball and hits the floor to spark a fast break that Toronto loves so much. 2 passes later. The ball is now in the corner in Ja’Kobe Walter’s hands, who has shot the ball phenomenally this past week, and he makes it count to round out the play. Shead didn’t have the greatest game stats-wise, but when you’re playing at 110 percent on the defensive side, everything else comes as a bonus.
5. RJ’s tough finish at the rim
Would you believe me if I said that RJ Barrett only had 7 points in this one, as he made only 2 field goals out of 10 attempts? Well, that’s what ended up happening, as two of his seven points came right away on the opening play of the game, and despite his struggles, this was a nice bucket. A report came out last night where RJ Barrett admitted that he hasn’t been the same since returning from his knee injury, and that he’s definitely still feeling the effects of the injury and that he’s trying to push through the pain and struggle.
4. Scottie Barnes locks up Alex Caruso
Fool me once? Shame on you. Fool me twice? Shame on me is probably what was running through Alex Caruso’s head as Scottie strips him twice in the span of less than a minute. Scottie was amazing in this game as he was the only Raptor in the positive numbers for the plus minus category, along with 15 points, 7 assists, 3 rebounds and most importantly, 7 more stocks (steals and blocks) to add to his league leading tally. Unfortunatley he picked up an injury very late in this one, so hopefully he’s fine for future competitions.
3. 2014 San Antonio Raptors?
This is the closest thing we have to the weekly 2014 San Antonio Spurs beautiful game ball movement offence possession, as usually we see a minimum of four Raptors touching the ball, but this time we only got three. Still, two passes without any dribbles and a nice cut from BI3 from the baseline to the rim for a jam finishes off a beautiful possession.
2. Brandon Ingram’s tough shot over Lu Dort
Another play culminating in a BI bucket, for our second play of the week, Ingram has one of the league’s top defenders draped all over him, and there is a ton of contact and physicality going on, and he finishes over Dort to a no-foul call, surprisingly. It even leaves Ingram frustrated, as you can see him arguing with the ref on the floor right after he made his shot. Nontheless a professional bucket from a professional scorer.
1. Brandon Ingram with a tough shot…again
We’ve got three straight buckets from number three himself, as this time Brandon Ingram finishes an insane midrange shot over two defenders with the shot clock running out. His midrange game is just so deadly, and even at the end of this highlight, you can see the Bucks were double-teaming him. It happened a ton in this game as he went for 22 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 blocks.
That’s a wrap for week 12 of Top 10 Raptors Plays of the Week. Another three-game week is coming up for week 13, as Toronto will start the week off tonight against San Antonio, followed by a game in Washington and finally a matchup at home with the New York Knicks.
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