Raptors film room: Brandon Ingram’s disastrous game

The Raptors did a lot of things right in this game, but not enough to win. And most importantly, Brandon Ingram had one of his worst games ever. How does he respond in Toronto? The series now heads to Scotiabank Arena.

Recap here:

Here’s Samson recapping the rest of the game:

The Raptors defense reached a much better level. It started with CMB, I think, but the level of compete-contain-compete-contain they had throughout possessions went up by an order of magnitude. They switched more often, blitzed more often, and stayed connected as a 5-man unit. Linked not by rope, but by shared, common ideals of defense. The Cavs role players were less effective with the added pressure.

The shot quality compared to game 1 was far worse, but unfortunately for the Raptors, both Harden & Mitchell are top class difficult shot makers and were putting on a show. The arena damn near erupted when Harden dropped Barnes with a cross and banged a step back triple. The possession prior he hit a heavily contested, doubled triple as the shot clock expired. Pure wizardry. Still though, the Raptors were only down 7. Barrett was imperfect, but indomitable in spirit. Murray-Boyles was unbelievable for a rookie. Barnes carried over some of the jump shooting from Game 1, but the Raptors were still waiting on some dominance.

We got a funky, and successful look with Barrett on Jarrett Allen. It helped the Raptors keep Barnes out near the ball to apply pressure, and to scurry back into thing as a defensive playmaker after being switched in or out of actions. Still though, Mitchell & Harden continued to farm some points. Really standout plays, time after time as shot makers or with crafty last second lay downs to their bigs.

Have a good day everyone!

The post Raptors film room: Brandon Ingram’s disastrous game first appeared on Raptors Republic.