Sandro Mamukelashvili<\/a> had 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists in his ninth start of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\nAs for the Raptors’ new, two-headed point guard, Quickley and Shead combined for 33 points, 14 assists, 11 rebounds and four steals against just three turnovers, data points that were split fairly evenly between them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Jamali’s on the ball, he knows how to get Quick involved and get him back on the ball,\u201d said Rajakovic. \u201cHe does a really good job of touching the paint, and finding extra pass there, and Quickley, I think, he’s doing a really good job of balancing being really aggressive and looking to score.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Having them on the floor together seems to suit just about everyone, especially against the Kings who tried to play zone, seemingly, on every possession in the third quarter. Sacramento had no answer when the Toronto point guards were able to gain the paint and move the defence, or help the Raptors get in transition so they never had to deal with the zone at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJamal goes so quick that guys kind of have to commit to him and then it\u2019s like a late dump off,\u201d said Mamukelashvili. \u201cAnd Quick is really good and coming off and hitting you straight in the pocket so you can kind of go for a lay-up.\u201d<\/p>\n
But having them on the floor together seems to bring out something a little extra.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the season, the Quickley-Shead pairing has been statistically robust. In 262 minutes together before the Kings game, lineups featuring the two guards were +9.3 points per 100 possessions with a True Shooting percentage of 60.7
\u2014 significant improvements on the Raptors’ overall +1.9 net rating and 57.2 per cent True Shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say it makes IQ\u2019s job a little easier when Jamal is out there,\u201d said Mamukelashvili. \u201cI feel like he can space out more and get his rhythm shots, kind of take that pressure off him a little bit as well. And Jamal is just doing his job to a tee, where he kind of calms us down, finds openings, finds BI (Ingram) when he needs to get the ball and tries to facilitate and get everyone involved. I feel Jamal helps IQ\u2019s aggressiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s cool because we know we got two ball handlers, they can both come off a screen, they can both pass, both make shots \u2026 it\u2019s all good.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It helps too that the two guards share chemistry and can identify how they help each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, for me, I\u2019m always in, like, a scorer\u2019s mentality, aggressive mindset, and then Jamal just adds another dynamic,\u201d said Quickley. \u201cSo, when you got two guys like that … it puts a lot of pressure on the defence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It will put a good kind of pressure on the coaching staff when the Raptors’ lineup returns to full health (an assumption, granted).\u00a0\u00a0The expectation is that Barrett will be back on Friday against the Trail Blazers, and Walter won\u2019t be far behind him if he doesn\u2019t play Friday. The rotation will get crowded again soon enough, but finding more minutes for Quickley and Shead as a pairing will likely be a priority going forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Raptors’ injury news was more good than bad Wednesday. Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, out since leaving Sunday\u2019s game against the Los Angeles Lakers after getting a hard chop from Luka Doncic, was deemed day-to-day after being evaluated on Monday and Tuesday. There is optimism that he won\u2019t miss a long stretch of games with what has been diagnosed as both a bruise and sprain of his left thumb. He worked out before the game against the Kings. Barrett did too, and when I bumped into him as he was coming off the floor, he said he would be back \u201cvery soon.\u201d Let\u2019s put him down for Friday against the Trail Blazers.\u00a0\u00a0Walter went through a good workout pre-game as he recovers from a hip pointer that has kept him out of the past six games. He, too, is \u201cvery close,\u201d said Rajakovic. The bad \u2014 or at least the concerning \u2014 news? Jakob Poeltl went home from Los Angeles and is scheduled to meet with a back specialist in Toronto on Monday. The seven-footer has been out of the lineup \u2014 save for a six-minute appearance on Dec. 23rd \u2014 since Dec. 15th, a stretch of 19 games. Poeltl\u2019s back has been an issue since training camp and has allowed him to play in just 21 of the Raptors 46 games.<\/p>\n
For all the problems the Kings have \u2014 a largely group of under-performing veterans that they want to trade but can\u2019t because the rest of the NBA doesn\u2019t want them, which is a tough way to start a rebuild \u2014 Russell Westbrook hasn\u2019t been one of them. The 18-year veteran was added to the Kings just before training camp to bring his legendary brand of competitiveness and toughness to a Kings roster short on both. He came in Wednesday\u2019s matchup averaging 15.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 7.0 assists while shooting 44 per cent from the floor and 35.6 per cent from three, while appearing in every game for the struggling Kings, which is pretty good value for a future Hall-of-Famer on a veteran minimum. He was honoured throughout Wednesday\u2019s game for becoming the highest scoring point guard in NBA history, which he achieved when he passed Oscar Robertson on Jan. 3rd. He has a fan in Rajakovic, who worked with Westbrook for six years when they were both with the Oklahoma City Thunder organization. \u201cI think this whole generation has taken his greatness a little bit for granted,” Rajakovic said. “Unbelievable competitor. He\u2019s one of those guys who every single game is on and competes to the highest level … off the court he\u2019s the nicest guy ever, and then he touches the court, and he turns into a beast, and that\u2019s what I like about him.\u201d Westbrook finished with 23 points (on 9-of-22 shooting), three assists, three rebounds, three steals and four turnovers against his old coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That was \u2026 efficient:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not all 40-point games are created equally. Not only did Immanuel Quickley\u2019s 40-point explosion against the Golden State Warriors match his career-high, set against Houston in March of 2023, but it was also the most efficient 40-point performance in NBA history. Quickley scored his 40-ball on 11-of-13 shooting while going 7-of-8 from three and 11-of-11 from the line, for a True Shooting mark of 112.1 per cent. As well, Quickley is now the only player since Wilt Chamberlain to have 40 points and 10 assists on at least 80 per cent shooting, something Chamberlain did three times. And Quickley joins Vince Carter as the Only Raptor to have at least 40 points and 10 assists in a game. Interestingly, Quickley was almost as prolific in his other career 40-point game as he shot 14-of-18 from the floor (5-of-7 from three, 7-of-9 from the line) and had nine assists in just 30 minutes. Quickley was pleased with his big night but wasn\u2019t dwelling on it when I asked him about it before he took the floor against the Kings. \u201cThe thing about the NBA is whether you play good or play bad, you got another game coming in 24 hours, so it was great to celebrate (Tuesday), but all my focus is on Sacramento.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The lessons have come somewhat out of necessity. As injuries have whittled away at head coach Darko Rajakovic\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-425560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}