TORONTO — “As soon as I got the rebound.”
That’s when Toronto Raptors point guard Immanuel Quickley made up his mind about what he was going to do in the final possession against the Indiana Pacers.
There were 11 seconds left in the game.
Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl had just come from across the lane to swat his old friend Pascal Siakam’s potentially game-winning lay-up off the backboard, and the floor was scrambled in what was a tie game that the Raptors probably didn’t deserve to win, at least on paper.
Teams that shoot 5-of-25 from the three-point line and 38.9 per cent overall on their way to scoring just 97 points in the super-charged offensive era of the NBA don’t win too many games like that.
The Raptors hadn’t scored fewer than 100 points in any game this season. Their lowest total in a win before Wednesday was 110.
But here they were, score tied, with a chance to steal one. So Quickley (15 points, five rebounds, six assists) did the smart point guard thing and got the ball to Brandon Ingram and got out of the way. And Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic fought the urge to call a timeout, instead trusting the players on the floor to figure things out.
Quickley knew the ball was in good hands.
“He’s a tough cover,” he said of Ingram. “He’s (six-foot-eight), can shoot it off the dribble, off pull-ups. He’s a heckuva player, especially one-on-one.”
Good decision. Ingram walked the ball calmly over half got into a few rhythm dribbles against Siakam, the former Raptor, before creating some separation, rising up and cashing the game-winning field goal with 0.6 on the clock.
The normally laconic Ingram acted as if lightning was charging through his body. Barnes jumped on his back. Ingram’s celebrity girlfriend, rapper GloRilla, was only slightly less animated.
What did he say when he was yelling at the crowd?
“That’s why I’m here,” was Ingram’s PG-13 version after capping off a 26-point, eight-rebound night with his first game-winner as a Raptor. “That’s the cleanest I can say it.”
No argument as the big shot secured a 97-95 victory and improved the Raptors to a perfect 4-0 in NBA Cup play while improving their record to 14-5 with their ninth straight win.
What looked like a risky, borderline desperate acquisition when the Raptors traded for Ingram despite a long injury history and a much shorter history of playing on winning basketball teams, has instead looked inspired.
The three-year, $120-million contract extension was a sound piece of business. Ingram has had his fingerprints all over three wins in the past 10 days that were decided late and in the Raptors’ favour because of plays he made in the final moments.
But as for why the Raptors are here?
In possession of the longest winning streak since Toronto won a team-record 15 straight in 2019-20, having won 13 of their past 14 and sitting in second-place in the Eastern Conference?
A lot of it has to do with adaptability.
With RJ Barrett (knee) out, Rajakovic decided to try rookie Collin Murray-Boyles as a starter after giving the nod to Ja’Kobe Walter on Monday night in Barrett’s first game missed after suffering a sprain the night before.
That was because the Raptors were hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers, and Walter would give them another option against Cavs star Donovan Mitchell. It was a smart choice as Walter was part of the reason Mitchell was held 14 points below his season average.
But against the Pacers, Rajakovic wanted to go a little bigger, to match up better with Siakam and Jarace Walker, Indiana’s big wings.
That didn’t work out quite as well, as the Raptors’ rookie picked up two quick fouls. Back out came Walter, who has been gaining confidence by the week, and demonstrated just that in the game’s crucial run: a 25-3 spurt bridging the end of the second and the start of the third quarter where Toronto went from trailing by 11 to leading by 13 midway through with eight minutes remaining.
Walter hit three triples, assisted on another basket and had a steal that set up another score, all in the space of seven minutes as he finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting while adding a pair of steals in his 33 minutes. Walter was having a hard time finding minutes even 10 days ago, but the Raptors don’t beat the Pacers without him.
“He knows that we have his back, and he’s a product of this organization,” said Rajakovic. “So he understands the culture and how we want to play, both on offence and defence and he brings the juice to the team every day. So really, really happy for him.”
There were minutes given to Jamison Battle and Ochai Agbaji as Rajakovic tried to find a combination that could work when the basket seemed to keep moving.
But perhaps the Raptors’ most impressive adaptation was that they kept competing even as they couldn’t score.
One of the biggest plays of the game was Scottie Barnes hounding Pacers’ Bennedict Mathurin into an over-and-back violation with three minutes to play after Mathurin (15 points) was showing signs of going into his microwave routine with a pair of triples. A moment earlier, Walter had stepped in and drawn a charge against Mathurin.
The Raptors couldn’t shoot, collectively, but Barnes bulled his way to the free-throw line a career-high 14 times and made every single one.
And then when they needed a bucket, they knew where to get it.
“I think at the end of the game, we just collectively (made plays),” said Barnes, who finished with 24 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and a crucial block down the stretch also. “Jak had a big block. I got the backcourt (turnover), Ja’Kobe got a charge. Just constantly fighting, constantly trying to get those stops … (on offence) we know what we’re going to get into, which makes it a whole lot easier.”
It wasn’t an easy win, even if the injury-riddled Pacers dropped to 2-16 on the season. But by winning so often and so early, the Raptors are learning all the different ways to finish the job.
“You have to win different ways,” said Quickley. “You got to win when you don’t shoot well, you got to win sometimes when you turn the ball over, you got to win ugly. There’s 82 games in the season, you’re not going to always shoot the ball well, but you can always play defence. You can always bring energy, effort and that’s what we did tonight.”
That, and get the ball to the right guy’s hands in the end.
Sick Bay: Barrett was officially declared to have a knee sprain by the Raptors on Wednesday, consistent with all the messaging since he left Sunday’s game against Washington limping after coming down on a routine fastbreak dunk. Barrett could be seen back-of-house after the game Wednesday, walking normally. He is expected to be re-evaluated at the end of the week, but is listed as day-to-day. Gradey Dick took a hard fall in the first half and didn’t come back in the second half as he was being ‘evaluated.’ “He’s fine,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “Just precautionary.”
Siakam’s present felt: It will be two years in January since Siakam was traded from the Raptors to the Pacers, but his ties to the community he played in for seven years run deep. His PS43 Foundation is still active, and on Tuesday night, Siakam was on hand for one of its most ambitious projects yet: an ‘EdTech Engine’ at DMZ — an on-campus tech start-up incubator at TMU. The evening was to recognize three different businesses that were part of the first cohort of fledgling companies that have come through the program, which focusses on finding tech-based solutions to solve problems in education. It’s only one of a number of initiatives Siakam’s foundation has taken on and supports on an ongoing basis. Being traded from the Raptors hasn’t changed that.
“It’s been awesome man, it’s been amazing,” said Siakam. “Having something in your mind and wanting to create it and seeing it grow and evolve, it’s super important. We always wanted to be different and do things in a way that I think haven’t been done and this EdTech engine is part of that. It’s super amazing seeing these founders, these start-ups and being able to help them create a community and have resources that could help thousands of kids … I’m just super excited to be part of it.”
Because of the Cup: The when and the who are still to be determined, but by finishing 4-0 in Group A the Raptors assured themselves a home game for the quarterfinal round of the NBA Cup, and for a young team trying to learn how to win and reignite a fan base that hasn’t had much to get excited about for the past four years, it’s no small thing.
“I think it’s a great opportunity, right?” said Rajakovic. “It’s an opportunity for us to play a game early in a season that gets you somewhere, that has more meaning than just a regular season game … it’s gonna mean a lot. I think that this city and the love that the team is feeling and receiving our fans, it’s going to be another festival of basketball here.”