Jakob Poeltl sets tone & RJ Barrett brings barrage of buckets in Raptors win over Mavericks

Coming into this season, before Anthony Davis was traded away, the Mavericks had designs on being a huge team. So too, did the Toronto Raptors. With the lingering injury Jakob Poeltl was dealing with, the Raptors had to move away from their ‘big’ approach. Since his return, they’ve slowly started to ramp up how often they make his general abundance of size known to the opposing teams.

In the Raptors sprint out to 15 points in the first 4 minutes — and importantly without much 3-point volume — they used Poeltl as often as they could. Screen early, screen often. Roll, roll diligently. Things of that nature. A bit of outside shooting was necessary, it’s NBA basketball after all, but the Raptors scored mostly by the method of Poeltl carving out large swaths of space on the perimeter for his teammates to drive, or through his own measured, deft, paint-stepping. It shouldn’t be a surprise that he helps tremendously, after all the Raptors are a far better half court offense when Poeltl is on the floor, and in fact they shoot better from everywhere, that’s right everywhere, when he’s out there in general.

It’s been great news to see Poeltl responding well physically to the increased work load, considering that the Raptors have been searching for improved offense. It was fitting that the closing play of the first quarter (where the Raptors scored 36) was a step up screen from Poeltl and a deep triple from Immanuel Quickley. RJ Barrett was also a tugboat pick n’ roll operator. He kept it moving along. Poeltl sets a screen and depending on the coverage receives a pocket pass, or continues to bulldoze down the lane and let Barrett snake and wriggle his way to the bucket. Good stuff.

“If we think about Quickley’s paltry 31.5% pull up triple performance this year, we have to turn our eyes to the 41-percent he’s shooting on pull ups out of the pick n’ roll. He’s always been a shooter who likes to operate at his own pace, and pick n’ roll possessions allow for that. Despite Poeltl playing close to a third of the Raptors games this season, two thirds of Quickleys made pnr triples have come with him on the floor. It’s a very important feature of the Raptors offense and Quickley’s game, and appears to be loosed almost exclusively by the Raptors large, Austrian big man. Also, on top of all of that, the passing read Quickley is most capable of making out of the pick n’ roll is the pocket pass to about 15-16 feet, and Poeltl is the only player on the roster who consistently takes that pass and turns it into points.”

If the Poeltl stuff was a sight for sore eyes, so too was the Gradey Dick burst of energy and transition that the Raptors got. The numbers are very staunch in saying that the Raptors play more transition when Dick is on the floor. Now, this isn’t some sort of unique quirk, because the Raptors use him as a hyper aggressive outlet man who is meant to sprint to the rim or corner to open up lanes. For the role he hasn’t fulfilled as a shooter this season, he has at least helped the Raptors play more transition and score more efficiently while doing so. His burst in the late first quarter was largely a product of open, full court play. The contributions from the bench 2 guard spot didn’t end with Dick either, as Ja’Kobe Walter was taking to his dunker spot/cutter role quite well with the transitional lineups – wiggling to and fro to stress the Mavericks defense that often lost track of him.

All the while, the Raptors were comfortably clamping down on the Mavericks offense. It’s more than worthwhile for the Mavs to put Cooper Flagg in a wide array of playmaking and initiating positions, but the Raptors, with Scottie Barnes as a primary defender or very attentive helper, came into this game in a very strong position to get stops and bother the young star. Jumping ball handlers and passes on defense helped super charge the Raptors transition offense — where they spent nearly a third of their first half offensive possessions — which promoted run outs and mismatched assignments for the Mavericks on defense.

For a Raptors team that has been very reliant on Ingram’s offensive stylings to move them through portions of games this season, the fact that they put together a very strong 108 ORTG in the half court despite their leading scorer putting up 2 points on 7 shots? That was really nice to see. Even Quickley, whose hot play of late has been uber important, only put up 5 first half points on 9 shots. The team as a whole was 4-19 from downtown (21%, woof), but they were passable in the mid range and dynamite from the rim.

IQ deserves a lot of credit for his play lately

obviously the shot came around, which it was always going to, but he's been pretty sharp in rotation on defense and has really helped the Raptors stay on a string on that end

— Samson Folk (the coach) (@samfolkk) March 8, 2026

Without a reason to leave the familiar form and process that was leading them to great results, the Raptors kept on pushing in the second half. It was up to the Mavericks to breakout the toolbox and see what adjustments could be made, but they had very little in the way of that. The Raptors cracked off to an 18-10 run to start things off. A lot of it was the result of dangerous convergence on the defensive end where they kept harassing the Mavericks. The Raptors are a team that is most often beaten by live dribbles, not passes. They lack for quick feet, not long arms. The Mavericks are severely lacking in the live dribble department and had little recourse to navigate the Raptors pressure.

The rest of the game was a true cakewalk. Very little in the way of new or intriguing outcomes, just utter dominance by the Raptors defense and some very craft, very professional scoring from Barrett to bury the Mavericks. With about 9 and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter a transition triple from Barrett took the Raptors up 27. He found his way to a very efficient 30+ performance.

very nice to see RJ scoring like this again — Jakob's return is a huge boon to his pick n' roll game — and it's easy to see why the Raptors halfcourt offense is miles (kilometers) better with him on the floor (+8.7 points per 100, 96th percentile swing)

— Samson Folk (the coach) (@samfolkk) March 9, 2026

A very tidy win from the Raptors against a team they’re supposed to beat. A very convincing one, too. If you’re a believer in basketball osmosis, that good performances beget good performances, then perhaps this game can mean more than just a singular tick in the win column. An addition to the flow the Raptors are trying to curate. It remains to be seen.

Have a blessed day.

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