 Orlando Magic | 121 – 114 |  Toronto Raptors |
 D+ | RJ Barrett 34 MIN, 9 PTS, 3 REB, 5 AST, 0 STL, 3-10 FG, 1-4 3FG, 2-4 FT, 1 BLK, 5 TO, -1 +/- It took him quite some time to find his way into the game, and his breakout was brief when it came. He opened his scoring with a push shot out of pick and roll with Poeltl; those sets are becoming arguably Toronto’s best half-court initiation (outside of this game, of course). But Orlando tilted its entire defence to closing the cracks on his drives, and Barrett was not able to find other ways to contribute. Then in the third quarter, he found his way in the pick and roll again, which he followed with a triple, pulling Toronto right back into the game. His output died away, and he committed some sins late, too, including defensive inactivity and losing rebounding fights. | ||||||||
 A+ | Scottie Barnes 39 MIN, 41 PTS, 5 REB, 5 AST, 2 STL, 19-34 FG, 1-2 3FG, 2-3 FT, 0 BLK, 4 TO, -11 +/- Transcendent. He took a lot of jumpers throughout the night, but he was extremely precise on his turnarounds on the night, really settling himself into his spots with clean footwork. Orlando’s physicality seemed to be bothering him early, as it was clear the Magic intended to hit him early before his touches and push his catches further away from the rim. That meant a number of the shots that were in the paint in Game One were short mid-range jumpers tonight. He didn’t lose his physicality, though, as he tore the ball away from Wendell Carter jr. at one point in the paint and finished strong, screaming one of the loudest “and-1s” I’ve heard through the broadcast. Continued the dominance in the second half, still scoring, and finally seeing his playmaking chances open, as he laid it down to Murray-Boyles for an uncontested dunk. Closed multiple quarters with made jumpers. Opened the fourth with a triple, then a middy, which set his career high pretty, pretty early. Just shouldered Toronto back into the game. It wasn’t enough, but that was not Barnes’ fault whatsoever. | ||||||||
 A | Jakob Poeltl 23 MIN, 12 PTS, 11 REB, 3 AST, 1 STL, 5-10 FG, 0-0 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 8 +/- An enormous bounceback from him. His first game that looked like he was really winning some physicality battles. He opened the game with a great stop at the rim, using verticality to force a miss, and then won the contested rebound immediately. He was doing fantastically fighting in the paint, but two unearned whistles went against him almost immediately. Stayed in, hit a long push shot on his first touch. He continued smashing the glass and finishing his floaters when called upon. The defence wasn’t perfect, and Wendell Carter jr. was able to put him in the rim a few times, but it was by far the best it’s been all season. Toronto was visibly better with him on the floor all night. | ||||||||
 B | Immanuel Quickley 37 MIN, 17 PTS, 6 REB, 8 AST, 0 STL, 6-14 FG, 4-9 3FG, 1-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -11 +/- While his numbers were almost identical to Game One, he had a worse game and far fewer outside-the-box-score wins. He took some time to find his way into the game, as Orlando’s increased off-ball physicality gave him far less room to wiggle into catch-and-shooter jumpers. I liked his playcalling in the second quarter, making sure Barnes got some touches in the post when his primary defender was too small. But he really had trouble creating advantages with his dribble, which left Barnes on an island offensive trying to create with his jumper. In the third quarter though he found his way into the game with some pull-up makes, really forcing the issue with his jumper. His out-of-bounds triple gave Toronto a lead early in the fourth. Jumpers are good, but he didn't do enough elsewhere. | ||||||||
 C- | Ja'Kobe Walter 32 MIN, 9 PTS, 3 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 3-5 FG, 3-5 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -2 +/- Whistles really limited his defensive utility early, as he’s an outrageously physical defender, and the refs just weren’t letting him play defence at all. He had three fouls in his first eight minutes of play. Offensively, he hit some triples (that were much needed) but did little else. He missed a defensive rebound that the Raptors sorely needed, letting the Magic stretch the lead rather than giving Toronto a chance to tie in transition. His blind doubles, jumped passing lanes, and reaches for steals weren’t doing anything other than breaking down the defence. He did hit an extremely clutch side-step pull-up triple late in the fourth to keep Toronto somewhat alive. | ||||||||
 Inc | Trayce Jackson-Davis 1 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -2 +/- Rajakovic gave him a quick look, but he didn’t give instant impact, so he got yanked fast. | ||||||||
 C- | Jamison Battle 19 MIN, 2 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 1-3 FG, 0-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, -10 +/- His off-ball defence forced a backcourt violation with an errant pass in the first quarter. But offensively, he missed some open triples that the Raptors truly, desperately needed to close the gap. Rajakovic trusted him with a lot of minutes, but he did little with them. | ||||||||
 C+ | Collin Murray-Boyles 23 MIN, 15 PTS, 5 REB, 1 AST, 0 STL, 7-10 FG, 1-2 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, -4 +/- Another really quiet game from him, limited by fouls, but also by his own performance. He was late on defensive rotations, which is rare for him. Opened his game with a long push shot, which he made. His defence was again limited due to fouls, but he found some moments on offence. On the short roll, he made a nice interior pass to a cutting Barnes for a dunk. Hit a triple in the third. But he missed a layup from Barnes late that the Raptors needed to stay alive. | ||||||||
 A | Allen Graves 9 MIN, 7 PTS, 4 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 2-2 FG, 1-1 3FG, 2-2 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, 1 +/- With Orlando absolutely mauling the Raptors physically, Graves gave his Raptors a much-needed boost. Here was his shift: an offensive rebound and free throws early in the second quarter. He followed that with a great contest against a Bane stepback triple to force a red-hot Bane miss from deep. He canned a triple later, which he followed by winning a hustling offensive rebound. Forced another miss from Bane, threw in a Barnes miss on a putback. He had another stint later, and did very little (to my eye), but was yanked and didn’t see the floor again. I’m sure he did something to warrant that treatment from Rajakovic, but based on his impact in that one stint, I would have liked to have seen him get more second-half minutes. | ||||||||
 B- | Jamal Shead 23 MIN, 2 PTS, 1 REB, 8 AST, 1 STL, 0-3 FG, 0-2 3FG, 2-2 FT, 1 BLK, 1 TO, -3 +/- He was defensively strong, but the offence was extremely hampering for Toronto. When Murray-Boyles committed a screening foul to commit a turnover, Shead drew the very same on the very next possession to get the possession back. He swatted Bane at the rim as a helper. Offensively, he found it very difficult to threaten as a scorer, and the Magic were forcing him to do so. He had one possession at the end of the first quarter in which he used basically all 24 seconds to try to create an advantage, which he couldn't do, and he eventually settled for a fadeaway, which was blocked. His passing was much crisper in the second half, as he found cutters for layups and dunks during Toronto’s comeback. | ||||||||
 C+ | Darko Rajakovic He trusted Walter to stay in the game with three fouls in the first quarter, which was really good experience for the young guard to learn how to defend with physicality in such a bizarrely reffed game. Walter rewarded him by hitting a triple moments later. With Barnes red hot, Rajakovic gave him some rest in the fourth, but with the lineup getting shelled, I thought Barnes spent too long on the bench. I'm not sure how to judge this one, as Toronto's defence was massacred by fouls and shooting luck. But Toronto just never found offensive juice outside Barnes. | ||||||||
Things we saw
- Between Quickley, Barrett, Murray-Boyles, and Poeltl, the Raptors have a lot of players who absolutely adore push shots. I doubt there are other teams that attempt so many such shots. Toronto’s good at them! I’d prefer if Toronto’s push-ers took one extra dribble and turned them into layups, personally.
- Rage Monster Desmond Bane got tangled up with RJ Barrett, who was not taking any guff from him. Good on Barrett to show some spine with Bane trying to big boy him. And Shead immediately drew an offensive foul to get the ball back to support Barrett. Later Bane and Anthony Black mauled Barrett, who on review was given an offensive foul (!?).
- The refs were calling extremely tight whistles against Toronto in the first half, which wasn’t necessarily the same on the other end, let alone when compared to Wednesday night. It took Toronto out for a long stretch, but the team’s defence mostly didn’t loosen. In the fourth, there were some calls on the offensive end that were extremely unproven, specifically a Barnes offensive interference that was definitely out of the cylinder, and a Barrett spin move called a charge that was very much a flop.
- The Magic, a very poor 3-point shooting team, shot over 60 percent from deep in the first half. The Raptors at least stayed connected behind some incredible Barnes’ mid-range shooting, fairly strong 2-point defence, and a continued dominance of the possession count. But Toronto just couldn't overcome a huge 3-point shooting deficit, which is life in the NBA.
- Barnes took a lot of shots. Like, a lot. He attempted 24 in the first half en route to a career high in scoring. That actually wasn’t selfishness at all. Toronto just didn’t have anyone creating anything with the ball, which meant a huge number of possessions ground down to nothing. Barnes was forced to try to muscle his way into crowds to pull rabbits from hats. He frequently did! But it meant his usage was sky high and his efficiency okay. (Okay efficiency on good shooting from the field is what happens when you barely attempt triples and don’t get a whistle all night.)
