Familiar faces look on… from the sidelines. Kawhi Leonard & Brandon Ingram stood on opposite benches from where they may have expected to be in say… May. Suited and booted in navy blue and sporting his new number 9, the lone herald of the change, was Gradey Dick. Leonard’s teammates, led by Scottie Barnes, looking to prove to their newest addition that they are in fact, a core that he can join with an expectation to compete. The Clippers, well they’re not trying to convince Ingram of anything. They’re a collection of young guys all trying to convince the world of their own place in the league.
For the second preseason game in a row the Raptors started IQ-Ja’Kobe-RJ-Barnes-Poeltl. The first minute was a convincing reminder of what these guys succeeded at last season. Aggressive defense, deflections, a late shot clock attempt for their opponents. Things we’ve come to expect. Truthfully, what the Raptors (and Leonard) are probably looking for from their players sans Leonard, is offensive output. As he is wont to do, RJ Barrett carried the Raptors offense early. Downhill momentum, a willingness to shoot, and around him, a group of guys (mostly Barnes & Poeltl) absolutely bludgeoned the offensive glass to open up an early 7-1 advantage there, and a 15-4 advantage overall.
The Raptors bench slowly trickled in, and with their arrival came a short term death of the offense. With the Clippers biased towards the rim, allowing jumpers or floaters, and swiping liberally on anyone who could catch the ball near there, the Raptors’ lead bled consistently. No shotmaking. At 17-15 for the Raptors, Dick checked in to face the team that drafted him and missed the first three he took. Ahh, memories. Collin Murray-Boyles got a few looks around the basket to drop in to go along with a three that dropped for Nimari Burnett propelled the Raptors to a 6 point lead by the end of the first frame (24-18).
For those who are wondering about Barnes, he went 0/3 in the first quarter for 0 points. The best look was probably a 12 foot pull that came in transition after a rub screen by Poeltl. Type of possessions I would like to see Barnes attempt to finish at the rim. However, if he’s shown anything in preseasons of the past, he’s going to rep out his jumper more than anything. He got a triple to drop a couple minutes into the second quarter.
Another big takeaway was Murray-Boyles’ steadfast dedication to the big man stuff. He was good, don’t get me wrong. He’s good at the big man stuff. However, a lot of his untapped potential resides in the forward-y stuff at the NBA level. He was generally pretty reluctant to put the ball on the floor. He was positioned in the dunker spot quite often, and he was clearly most comfortable running automatics into DHO’s. That has value of course in providing pace and screening in the offense, but he did very little in the way of attempting to space beyond the arc or drive bigs in space. Something to watch for in the future, but something I wish I had seen more of here in the present.
Quickley was another standout from the first half. He wasn’t dominant, but calm and professional as a scorer checking in to add the exclamation mark to a few of the Raptors offensive possessions.
In fact, the longer the game went on, the more it became clear that the Raptors back court was the reason they were ahead and in control. A 20-point lead for the Raptors largely built off of 20 points on 7/11 shooting for Barrett and 18 points on 6/8 shooting for Quickley. Hyper efficient. Filling it up. Essential volume from the 3-point line. A change from the first preseason game, where the Raptors starters didn’t touch the court in the second half. That quality definitely helped put the game out of reach.
Once the Raptors emptied the bench, the majority of the ball handling duties fell to Jamal Shead, who was far better tonight than in the opener. The 3-point shot still wasn’t falling, but the Clippers guards didn’t put up much resistance at the point of attack and Shead punched into the paint with regularity. Despite being one of the worst high volume floater players in the NBA last season, it’s a shot he believes in and one that he’ll continue taking – he hit a few tonight. The passing is always worthwhile moving downhill, but it’s nice to see a bit of scoring punch from the Raptors newly extended guard.
I don’t think anyone else really stood out towards the end of the game, but Jaden Bradley probably had his best performance as a Raptor. Better than anything he did in Summer League, better than the preseason opener. It’s a low bar, but the hustle plays started to show up on the court and any time a ball was loose Bradley could typically be found in the area. He and the crew of camp invites and two-ways weren’t creating great looks but they played hard enough to keep the Clippers from pulling off the comeback, even as they crept within a handful of points.
Nothing has happened yet to sell the Raptors as a vastly different team than they were last season. They hold themselves to the same ideals and they haven’t been able to introduce their MVP candidate to the floor yet. They’re a gritty, pace controlling, physical team. And they desperately need more offensive finesse and shot making. Can’t wait to see Leonard eventually hit the floor and look to change that.
Have a blessed day.
