TORONTO \u2014 First, a public service announcement.<\/p>\n
Next Friday, Oct. 17, will be \u2018welcome Brandon Ingram<\/a> night\u2019 at Scotiabank Arena as the Toronto Raptors<\/a> host the Brooklyn Nets in what will be their final exhibition game before the regular season starts Oct. 22.<\/p>\n But as for the Raptors’ first exhibition game at home?\u00a0<\/p>\n The only way the fans at Scotiabank Arena could see Ingram was by watching him hang out with his teammates on the Raptors bench. He was joined there by three of\u00a0Toronto\u2019s other projected regular-season starters \u2014 Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett \u2014 while Jakob Poeltl, who has yet to play in the pre-season due to a sore back, was excused as he recovers from a cold.\u00a0<\/p>\n Having played Monday in Vancouver and Wednesday in Sacramento, and scheduled to leave Saturday for pre-season starts in Washington on Sunday, the Raptors decided to rest all of their starters on Friday night against Boston.\u00a0<\/p>\n And while that means Toronto fans will have to wait another week to see Ingram, well, they\u2019re used to that, given he\u2019s yet to suit up at Scotiabank Arena since being acquired at the trade deadline in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n The good news is Ingram looked great in those starts in Vancouver and Sacramento. Against the Kings, Ingram put up 21 points in 23 minutes after counting 19 in 22 minutes on Monday against Denver.\u00a0<\/p>\n More of that would be nice, even if it means waiting a little longer.<\/p>\n But figuring out who is going to start for Toronto has never been the problem. The Raptors first five has been pretty much on lock since it was clear that there wasn\u2019t much of a trade market for RJ Barrett this past summer \u2014 who the Raptors deemed most available because of the combination of his age, his scoring punch and his contract as Toronto angled to add a more established perimeter threat or briefly tried to work their way into the discussion Phoenix was having about a possible destination for Kevin Durant.\u00a0<\/p>\n No, the challenge for the Raptors is determining what their second unit is going to look like and who, if anyone, from their group of training camp hopefuls will factor into it.<\/p>\n What, if any, insights were gained in what ended up being a 107-105 buzzer-beating win over a team that didn\u2019t play their two best players \u2014 Jaylen Brown and Derrick White?\u00a0<\/p>\n Well, one thing is for sure: there’s no such thing as garbage time in the NBA pre-season, not with nearly a dozen players on the training camp roster vying for either rotation minutes or a roster spot.<\/p>\n You won\u2019t find a better example than how the Raptors scratched their way back from down 27 early in the third quarter to win at the buzzer, thanks to a clever play call after a timeout by Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic that freed up second-year big man Jonathan Mogbo in the paint. From there, Mogbo used some patience and crafty footwork to ease a left-handed finger over the rim just before the horn sounded.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn the whole game \u2014 even in the first half, thought we had pretty good fight,\u201d said Rajakovic. \u201cWe made a couple of execution mistakes, we missed a lot of open shots, but we stayed in the game and stayed together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n With the regulars out, the Raptors fans got an introduction to various new faces, including Chucky Hepburn<\/a>, the undrafted point guard out of Louisville, who the Raptors have on a two-way contract and who accumulated 13 points, eight assists and four steals in 27:29 of floor time, with most of the damage coming in the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an opportunity for me to step up,\u201c said Hepburn of his reaction when he learned that the Raptors starters would be resting, opening up a path to significant minutes at least for one game.\u00a0<\/p>\n But perhaps the most difficult decision facing the Raptors isn\u2019t who starts or who will chew up most of the minutes on the second unit, but who will fill out the 15th\u00a0roster spot. Based on his performance at the end of last season and through the summer, you would have to bet on the Mississauga native A.J. Lawson<\/a> to have the inside track on that opportunity. Lawson was impressive in a pair of 10-day contracts with the team that he was signed to a regular NBA contract with the Raptors, using some of their mid-level exception to do it. But that deal has no guarantees for this season, per sources, and would only become guaranteed if he\u2019s on the roster on Jan. 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n He was good in his first significant pre-season minutes as he was plus-12 in his 14 minutes of floor time and had a key layup that tied the score with 46.9 seconds left, converting a Jared Rhoden steal, which was one of the 21 second-half turnovers Toronto hounded Boston into to change the course of the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lawson has fans on the Raptors coaching staff and throughout the organization. He\u2019s appreciated for the pace he plays at offensively and defensively, and the demeanour he brings to the locker room, where he\u2019s built strong relationships with his teammates after joining his hometown team midway through last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the Raptors could opt to keep the roster spot open to save some money and maintain flexibility, or they could prioritize more depth at point guard or centre, given the Raptors are well-served on the wings.<\/p>\n Lawson can only take the opportunities he gets and make the best of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cYou just got to be yourself,\u201d said Lawson, who had NBA career highs of 32 and 28 points for the Raptors in consecutive games back in March. \u201cDon\u2019t worry about all the other factors that could possibly happen. Just do what you can do, control what you can control, and for me, play hard every time I\u2019m out there, show I can defend at a high level, show I can create and knock down the shot. If I keep doing that, I feel like I\u2019ll be okay. I just can\u2019t focus on the things that are out of my control.\u201d<\/p>\n True words, but the challenge at the time of the year is getting the chance to show what you can bring to an NBA team. For one night at least, the Raptors provided a number of their players just that, and they took advantage.\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. Chris Boucher<\/a> revenge game:\u00a0Not really. Boucher said he has nothing but good feelings for Toronto and the Raptors organization after the Montrealer spent seven seasons with the Raptors, leaving as the club\u2019s all-time leading bench scorer and one of the more beloved players in franchise history. He said so in a heart-warming The Players’ Tribune essay that was published Friday, reflecting on his incredibly unlikely path to the NBA and the good fortune of landing with \u2018Canada\u2019s team\u2019. From the Raptors’ point of view, it was time: Boucher is 32 and the Raptors were going younger and have a fair number of choices when it comes to playing \u2018tweener\u2019 type bigs. The Celtics seem like a good opportunity for Boucher, given they are in an in-between year as they wait for superstar Jayson Tatum\u2019s Achilles to heal. In the interim, they decided to save some money and saw big men Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford, and Luke Kornet leave in the off-season. Enter Boucher, who has already earned some important fans in Boston. \u201cHe just cares about winning, cares about people and takes pride in his work ethic, and there\u2019s few guys where they take no plays off, whether it\u2019s like shoot around or a game, and that guys one of them,\u201d said Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla. \u201cIt\u2019s impressive, the energy he has at 32 years old. Boucher looked at home at Scotiabank Arena as he finished with 19 points and nine rebounds while shooting 7-of-10 from the floor in 23 minutes. Boucher admitted he was initially confused about where to go when he arrived at his old place of work, but he showed that he still knows where the basket is and what an open shot looks like.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Collin Murray-Boyles<\/a>‘ elbow:\u00a0It was only eight minutes, but once again, the rookie forward looked very comfortable on an NBA court as he started for the first time. He muscled Boucher under the basket on a post-up, made a great pass out of the short roll to Gradey Dick<\/a> on the perimeter, and when that three didn\u2019t go, Murray-Boyles hit Dick again as he drove middle in transition and found Dick again, this one earning Murray-Boyles an assist. But his night was over after that, even though he didn\u2019t know what had happened. The Raptors called it an elbow contusion, and while X-rays were negative, Murray-Boyles was in visible pain after the game, and the expectation is that he will be getting more testing done. \u201cI don\u2019t know what happened, but when the adrenaline wore off, it really hurt,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n 3. Gradey Dick finding his legs:\u00a0The third-year wing has looked better as the pre-season has moved along, and he finished with a game-high 22 points in 24 minutes while knocking down 8-of-13 shots, including 3-of-5 from three. \u201cUltimately, doing what the team needs is important,\u201d said Dick. He said after starting most of last season, he hasn\u2019t found it difficult to adjust to coming off the bench \u2014 even if he got the start Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s just preparation. Personally, my routines and everything, I do the same thing I\u2019ve been doing since middle school, probably a little upgraded. I feel like when I do that, I\u2019m mentally in control of what I can control. And as for the competition for minutes? Bring it on: \u201cI feel like it\u2019s easy to get complacent if no one\u2019s trying to come at you. It\u2019s your job at the end of the day. You\u2019re going at each other on the court, but your best friends off the court. You just want to make each other better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 First, a public service announcement. 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