Samson Folk & Trevon Heath detail the latest with the Raptors.
“There aren’t many moral victories for teams that just (partially) mortgaged their future in exchange for an oft-injured (and currently not (?) injured, but also not playing, and extensively rehabilitating) superstar. But the Toronto Raptors faced a 6-3 Memphis Grizzlies team that has looked a lot like what the Raptors intend to be. Memphis plays fast-paced team basketball, has a bruising young big who reads the game like Magnus Carlsen, wins the possession battle with brutality, and is chockablock full of defensive-minded wings. And the Grizzlies were healthy in the contest, while the Raptors were missing four of their best five players (Kawhi Leonard, Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and Collin Murray-Boyles).
If there’s any game for which a good effort in a loss can be excused, it was going to be this one.Â
But the Raptors didn’t want a moral victory. They wanted the whole hog. But if they were going to turn the contest into a foundation game, a pillar victory, it was going to take RJ Barrett coming along for the ride. Virtually every Raptor was playing above his head. Except for the player who should have led the team. Largely as a result, Toronto didn’t get the whole hog. Instead, it got a moral victory.
Jamal Shead followed up his 16-assist masterpiece against the Milwaukee Bucks by switching up his kung fu from Wing Chun to Shaolin. In other words, he switched from a paint-to-paint short-range passer to a long-range bomber. He drifted to the corner off of teammates’ drives, keeping the passing lane open, and drilling the catch-and-shoot attempts. He pulled up from near midcourt to hit a pull-up from 28 feet. Defensively, he tipped away oodles of passes to protect the paint in his very own way. At one point, he drew an off-ball offensive foul in transition by getting in front of a cutter who wasn’t looking where he was going. He finished with 20 points, 11 assists, and two steals, and he was the best player on the court for multiple stretches of the game.”
Have a blessed day.
