{"id":305332,"date":"2025-11-24T09:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305332\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T09:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T09:52:08","slug":"short-handed-raptors-step-up-late-to-beat-nets-extend-win-streak-to-seven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/305332\/","title":{"rendered":"Short-handed Raptors step up late to beat Nets, extend win streak to seven"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Raptors<\/a> have won some games easily over their month-long heater, but on Sunday night they won defying the higher power of sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How good are the Raptors going right now?\u00a0<\/p>\n

They messed with a streak, and it didn\u2019t come back to bite them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gunning for a seventh straight win and their 11th\u00a0in their past 12, the Raptors voluntarily sat down centre Jakob Poeltl (back injury management), altering their starting lineup for the first time since they lost on the road in Philadelphia back on Nov. 8.<\/p>\n

They got away with it as they outlasted the visiting Brooklyn Nets 119-109 in a game that was within two possessions for nearly the entire second half. The Raptors put their surgical gowns on for the final four minutes, got clinical, and won going away, settling things with a 15-5 run after the Nets had tied the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That they even had that opportunity was due in large part due to another big bench contribution, albeit from a new source. This time, it was second-year wing Ja\u2019Kobe Walter doing his best Jamison Battle impression \u2014 the Raptors’ hot run started when the little-used marksman hit six threes on six attempts in the second half against Cleveland back on Oct. 31. Walter popped off for a season-high 16 points while shooting six-of-seven from the floor, including four-of-five from three.<\/p>\n

He hit a pair in the space of two minutes late in the third quarter to bracket a dunk on a feed from Gradey Dick (12 points, three assists, two steals) that kept an early Nets surge at bay on a night when the Raptors were short-handed and not in top form. Already missing Poeltl, the Raptors lost starting wing RJ Barrett \u2014 who had 16 points on four-of-eight shooting, along with two steals \u2014 in the third quarter after he sprained his right knee on an uncontested dunk. The remaining starters \u2014 Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram and Immanuel Quickley \u2014 started the fourth quarter shooting nine-of-32 combined.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Somehow the Raptors led 87-82, but it seemed flimsy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It only got more tense when Tyrese Martin \u2014 who finished with a team-leading 26 points, including five threes \u2014 tied the game with 9:15 left. The Nets never managed to take the lead, but were not behind by more more than two over the next five minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the balance s hifted when Quickley returned to the floor \u2014 he\u2019d been sitting with five fouls \u2014and shared the backcourt with Jamal Shead, Barnes, Ingram and Sandro Mamukelashvili, who got the start in place of Poeltl.<\/p>\n

After a pair of Shead free throws, the second-year guard engineered a quick catch-and-shoot three for Quickley on the first possession after he checked in to put the Raptors up by five. On the next possession, the ball went to Ingram (14 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals) in the mid-post, and when the double-team came it was a cross-court pass to find Quickley for another open three.<\/p>\n

Suddenly the game wasn\u2019t so close.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose last four minutes, that\u2019s winning time,\u201d said Quickley (13 points, four assists), adding that it was no coincidence that Ingram was able to find him open on the triple that put the Raptors up eight with 2:22 to play. \u201cWhen I used to play in New York, Julius [Randle, now with the Timberwolves] used to get a lot of the doubles, so I kind of got a feel for where the soft spots are on the double teams and stuff like that, but also, we work on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and BI spent some time [Saturday] on when he\u2019s getting doubled and where he wants me in it and where I feel comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quickley finished three-of-six from three after starting the game one-of-four. Quickley is now shooting 43.8 per cent from three since the Raptors started rolling, impressive given he started the season shooting two-of-18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another resurgent Raptor is Walter, who has struggled \u2014 like several of the team\u2019s younger players \u2014 to get comfortable playing a more varied dose of minutes in a deeper and healthier rotation than in his rookie season.<\/p>\n

After pressing offensively, he\u2019s settled into a groove. He’s made eight of his last 10 threes to pull his overall percentage up to 43.8 per cent, after it was languishing under 30 per cent for long stretches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s always a good day when you’re making shots,\u201d Walter said. \u201cIt just comes with confidence and trust in your work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more to it than that. Part of the challenge of getting on the floor as a young player when you\u2019re shooting poorly is to not allow the missed shots to bleed into other parts of the game. Walter\u2019s game started picking up when he got a larger-than-usual chunk of minutes last Wednesday against Philadelphia. That night, coach Darko Rajakovic credited him for his defensive presence against the Sixers’ young guards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, goes back to work,\u201d said Rajakovic after Sunday’s win. \u201cHe put an extremely huge amount of work over the course of summer and pre-season, and he’s the guy that usually weekly, he’s one of the guys taking the most shots in our gym.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, he’s really committed to develop in that part of his game. And seeing him being confident out there and taking good shots, not forcing anything that was … really helpful. For a young player that wants to prove himself, it’s very important to take good shots. I thought that he did really good job tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had plenty of company. Walter was one of eight Raptors to score in double figures. Barnes shook off a slow start to finish with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and four blocked shots. He got the key defensive assignment on Nets leading score Michael Porter Jr. down the stretch.\u00a0Shead had nine assists off the bench. Mamukelashvili had 12 points, including his own big late three to seal the win in his first start as a Raptor and his first of any kind since the end of the 2023-24 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Raptors needed all of it to overcome Poeltl\u2019s planned absence and Barrett\u2019s injury. They will try to extend their longest winning streak in four years on Monday night against visiting Cleveland (Sportsnet, 7 p.m. ET \/ 4 p.m. PT).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barrett will have further medical imaging on Monday. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the decision to hold out Poeltl was made with the Raptors playing three games in four nights, including this back-to-back. The Raptors elected to hold out Poeltl to avoid undo strain on his back, which kept him out for four games earlier this season and saw him struggle in some other starts.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor now. It\u2019s situational,\u201d said Rajakovic when asked if Poeltl would automatically be held out from one half of back-to-back sets. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re evaluating after every game and every week to see where he\u2019s at. As he\u2019s progressing, I can see him playing in back-to-backs without a problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Poeltl\u2019s return to health after a slow start has coincided with the Raptors playing their best basketball<\/p>\n

\u201cHe helps us in so many ways that you can see in the box score. But there\u2019s a lot of stuff he\u2019s doing that you cannot see on the paper \u2026 but it\u2019s an opportunity for other guys to step in and help us out tonight,” Rajakovic said before the game.<\/p>\n

Over the past couple of days, Rajakovic has added wellness guru to his head-coaching title, emphasizing the importance of proper sleep in heath and recovery. <\/p>\n

He sounded like a podcaster on Friday, saying: \u201cIf somebody would offer you a pill that can help your brain recover, that can help boost your energy, that can help with your processing, reaction time and all of that, would you take that pill? It\u2019s a hundred per cent proven and healthy. Would you take that pill? You\u2019d take two? That pill is called sleep. … And I think people are not taking it seriously enough how important sleep is and all the benefits that sleep is bringing.\u201d <\/p>\n

He doubled down on it at practice on Saturday, noting that one of the challenges of the NBA schedule is finding proper rest. But does he follow his own advice? A noted coffee aficionado, he usually an espresso at 6 p.m., 90 minutes before tip for many weeknight games \u2014 not ideal. <\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Ingram, who takes four-hour naps on game days as part of his routine. Sleeping is not his issue.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cY’all see how he looks half the time?” said Shead of his veteran teammate. \u201cHe literally is always sleep(ing) until he’s putting the ball in the basket \u2026 He’s just really good at basketball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raptors have taken to having the singer go silent early in the Canadian anthem to encourage the crowd at Scotiabank Arena to sing in unison \u2014 something that might have happened in the playoffs in previous years, but not as a regular-season routine. It\u2019s picked up momentum game by game, as the crowd is going a decent job of singing as a choir. <\/p>\n

Some of the Raptors have been joining lately \u2014 Shead, in particular. The Raptors guard was picked up singing along while wearing a microphone for Sportsnet on the broadcast Friday, encouraging his teammates to the same. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve always sung the anthems, even in college, and then, being here, learning, getting to learn a new one. I think it’s pretty cool,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, it’s basically the complete opposite of the U.S. anthem. So, it’s cool knowing both, and then, you know, I’m basically half Canadian now, so I get to show my Canadian citizenship side.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The Toronto Raptors have won some games easily over their month-long heater, but on Sunday night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-305332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}