Raptors cruise to much needed comfortable win at home
After a one-game road trip against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Toronto Raptors returned home to face off against a foe that they’re comfortable with, a non-top 10 team. They only had one win in their previous five games and needed a confidence booster.
The game started with fireworks for the Toronto Raptors as Brandon Ingram had a nice putback dunk to get Toronto on the board right away. It ended up being his only two points for the half, but he found ways to help the team as a facilitator and on defence, even when his offence was a struggle. Scottie Barnes also had a quick five points early on as he ended the quarter with seven points during the game’s opening quarter. Daniel Gafford was a huge problem in the quarter with his nine points and three rebounds in just six minutes of work, but Jakob Poeltl also did a solid job of answering his counterpart. We also saw Gradey Dick enter the game early in the first, as he had been eliminated from the rotation during meaningful minutes, and he made sure not to waste the opportunity, scoring seven of his 10 points.
The defence was quite poor for most of the first quarter, but the Raptors did what they do best: turn teams over and score on the break all game long. The intensity picked up late in the first quarter when Jamal Shead brought his hard hat and sparked more urgency on the dirtier end of the ball.
Sandro Mamukelashvili hasn’t looked the same since returning from the All-Star break, as he has only been able to hit the double-digit mark just two times before tonight’s contest, and the opening quarter looked like it would be another poor game from the Georgian when he kept clanking three-point shots. What did he do? He started locking in defensively, and after a block and a steal, it even got his offence going with a free score at the rim on a fast break, and he made his first three-pointer for the night in the second quarter, early in the frame from the corner.
RJ Barrett also struggled beyond the arc early on, but his relentless attack came in handy as he was able to bully his way into the paint all night long, which set him up for his 8000th career point in the second quarter, becoming just the 8th Canadian player to hit the mark.
The third quarter started with Toronto’s struggling All-Star finally making his second field goal of the game when he made a pull-up mid-range jumper that we’ve become so accustomed to seeing, and for a bit, it looked like the Mavericks were about to make a game of this, as Cooper Flagg and Daniel Gafford came out with a fast start on the offensive end. An early timeout from head coach Darko Rajakovic got Toronto settled in to the quarter, as their defensive energy once again picked up for the rest of the game and didn’t look back. The Raptors were able to win yet another quarter thanks to Jakob Poeltl, who was very consistent all night long, as he recorded his fourth double-double of the season with his 16 points and 10 rebounds, along with Brandon Ingram having his best scoring quarter of the game.
In the final frame, Cooper Flagg once again came out hungry along with Daniel Gafford, who was great all night for the Mavs as he finished with a 21-point and 11-rebound double-double on perfect shooting from the field. The 21 points for Gafford ended up being a season high for him, and RJ Barrett also responded for Toronto with a season high effort of 31 points. That makes it four games in a row for the Mississauga native of 20+ points, as he has struggled since returning from his most recent injury, but it looks like he’s once again comfortable and healthy to perform at the level that fans have gotten used to seeing.
Another Canadian, Aurora native Ryan Nembhard, also had a cool moment of playing his first minutes in the Scotiabank Arena late in garbage time, and he was able to score his first two points on a breakaway layup off the break when he stripped the game’s leading scorer, RJ Barrett.
Like usual, Toronto struggled to shoot the three ball, but they did a great job of attacking the paint, as Ja’Kobe Walter was a prime example of that, shooting zero for five from downtown, but managed to go four for six inside the three-point line and was great as an off-ball cutter.
The Raptors got it done in the only way they know how: great defence that turns the other team over and allows them to run the floor and make easy buckets in transition. It was mostly a tight nine-man rotation tonight, and eight of those players ended up hitting the double-digit mark in the scoring category, with Jamal Shead being the lone member to not reach that mark.
We also got an update on Trayce Jackson-Davis late in the second quarter as he picked up an injury during warmups.
A comfortable win for the fifth-seeded squad in the Eastern Conference, who needed a confidence booster like this, even if it came against a struggling Dallas Mavericks squad.
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