Toronto Raptors<\/a> have a roster where all their starters have at least five years of NBA experience and includes two players \u2014 Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl \u2014 who are in their 10th\u00a0season in the league.\u00a0<\/p>\nSo the notion that the Raptors are in \u201cyear two of a rebuild\u201d \u2014 which is how head coach Darko Rajakovic tends to refer to his team in good times and bad \u2014 defies the standard definition, where a team is reliant on players still on their rookie contracts, with more work in the draft still to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It might be more accurate to say the Raptors are rebuilt. They just don\u2019t know what they have, and what changes they need to make.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But on the other hand, the Raptors as a group are new to this playoff-race concept, lack a significant number of collective repetitions in the crucible of a stretch drive and have a young and inexperienced bench that they have no choice but to rely on as the season reaches its crucial stages.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rajakovic referenced the ‘rebuild\u2019 again Friday before the Raptors’ 122-115 win over the Phoenix Suns, a victory his team needed so badly after listing and slipping for most of the past two weeks that his first comments post-game were to praise a higher power.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod is great. I can thank him for the performance of our team tonight,\u201d Rajakovic said. \u201cHe kept us together during the whole game, and the whole ups and downs.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were plenty of both.\u00a0The Raptors trailed by 11 in the first half and by 10 with eight minutes to play and didn\u2019t take the lead for good until an RJ Barrett floater with 1:35 left. They still needed another spectacular last-minute block from Scottie Barnes \u2014 this time on a Jalen Green dunk attempt that otherwise would have made every highlight reel and cut the Raptors’ lead to two with 43 seconds left.<\/p>\n
Instead, Barnes got his 2021 draft-class pal from behind and then sent Barrett in for a dunk on the ensuing fast break that put the Raptors up six, which proved enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The win snapped the Raptors’ losing streak at two games, marked their first win over a team with a winning record since Jan. 26,\u00a0and pulled them back within a half-game of the sixth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference before they host East-leading Detroit on Sunday. After that, it\u2019s a five-game road trip.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No one said this would be easy, and maybe the Raptors are learning as they go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barnes said after the game that he felt compelled to make the play on Green\u2019s dunk because he\u2019d reached in on the lightning-quick guard, who led the Suns with 34 points and some spectacular shot-making, and got beat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going to jump no matter what,\u201d Barnes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Playing through an illness \u2014 Rajakovic monitored his minutes closely as Barnes played about five less than he would normally \u2014 and still being able to dig in to affect the game pleased the Raptors star.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot out there. Was a little tired and a little winded,\u201d Barnes said after logging 14 points, six rebounds, four assists, a steal and two blocks. \u201cFight through and make it to live another day.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as for the Raptors’ struggles? He\u2019s finding beauty in that too:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty amazing. We hit adversity,\u201d said Barnes. \u201cWe had two options, to either quit (or) go out there and fight. This just shows the character of this team. We went out there and fought and got a dub. This was a great game. They had us in that first half. We fought back; we made winning plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
No one made more than Ingram. It had been a while. The Raptors came into the game with the NBA\u2019s 29th-rated fourth-quarter offence, and Ingram is one of the reasons why. He has been shooting just 41.6 per cent from the floor in the fourth quarter and just 36.5 per cent in ‘clutch\u2019 situations: the last five minutes of close games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ingram led the Raptors with 36 points on 13-of-20 shooting, including five threes on six attempts. He scored seven points in the fourth quarter while converting three of four shots, all while suiting up in his 64th\u00a0game this season, the second-most he\u2019s played in his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Raptors’ loss Wednesday in New Orleans \u2014 in his first visit back since being traded to Toronto last year \u2014 didn\u2019t sit well with him and was a factor in the team’s collective resolve Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was an urgency to compete and most of all stay together,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cWe’ve been through some times where the other team was scoring offensively and we weren’t able to stop the bleeding or find a rhythm on the offensive end. At those times, we would put our heads down a little bit and sort of take it upon ourselves to try to fix it. I think tonight we just stayed connected.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t just the Raptors’ leading scorer and highest-paid player delivering the goods<\/p>\n
Second-year wing Ja\u2019Kobe Walter (12 points, three-of-five from three) hit one of the biggest shots of the game after Barrett delivered him the ball wide open in the corner and then screened off the nearest defender to make sure it would stay that way. Walter had missed a similar look a few possessions earlier. This time, he squared up and let it fly, part of a game-changing 11-2 run that cut the Suns’ lead to two with 5:22 to play.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Barnes said Barrett\u2019s biggest contributions were on defence. Barrett said being in the mix was its own reward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the fight we need to have,\u201d said Barrett, who finished with 22 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals on 9-of-16 shooting, scoring nine points on five shots in the fourth quarter. \u201cA lot of these games we have fought and just come up short and this game, we fought all night long, and that\u2019s the result. That\u2019s just the intensity we gotta have.\u201d<\/p>\n
They haven\u2019t had enough of it lately, and they certainly didn\u2019t on Wednesday in New Orleans when they were bullied around by the Pelicans in the fourth quarter, culminating in the frozen image seen around the basketball world: New Orleans guard Dejounte Murray straddling a prone Jamal Shead, fists clenched, glowering \u2014 the universal sign of basketball dominance, and not a good look for the Raptors, especially when the team’s response to the incident was tepid at best.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Was their lack of fight going to be a galvanizing moment to build on, or a metaphor for a team not up for the battle \u2014 literally or figuratively?<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter watching the film, I thought that we did not handle the situation the way we want and how we were supposed to,\u201d said Rajakovic. \u201cOur players had conversations with each other. They know that\u2019s not the true picture and image of our team. They all agreed that\u2019s never going to happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a way that you need to stand up for each other and protect each other,\u201d Rajakovic said. \u201cThis team that we have is all about that and all about connectivity. It needs to be addressed the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if the Raptors don\u2019t match the standard definition of a rebuild, it doesn\u2019t mean they are close to a finished product. The future is not set in cement. The Raptors need to learn to fight, at least in the basketball sense.<\/p>\n
Against the Suns, they showed they understood what was being asked of them.<\/p>\n
The Battle of New Orleans\u00a0<\/p>\n
That Shead didn\u2019t jump up and immediately confront Murray on Wednesday night was probably the main reason his teammates\u2019 response was muted, and in the eyes of many \u2014 including their head coach \u2014 inappropriately so.<\/p>\n
But Shead said on Friday his first reaction was one of confusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in the moment I was just like, \u2018Oh snap, he\u2019s over me.\u2019 That was about it,\u201d said Shead before chipping in six points and eight assists in 25 minutes off the bench against the Suns. \u201cWe were really focused on the outcome of the game. We just weren\u2019t happy with that. It got blown out of proportion a bit. We weren\u2019t really focused on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Any idea what Murray was on about?<\/p>\n
\u201cWho knows? I guess he was (excited) about the play,\u201d said Shead. <\/p>\n
But he said the experience was one to learn from for the team as the stakes get higher. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I responded in any type of way … (but) if it comes up again, I think we\u2019ll respond a little differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Immanuel Quickley (17 points, 3-of-6 from three vs. Suns): \u201cWe talked about it. It stays in house. As long as we\u2019re there for our teammates, that\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
With everyone on high alert for how the Raptors might respond if things got a little testy at any point, people took note that when Suns wing Grayson Allen \u2014 who has a checkered reputation for playing on the physical edge \u2014 knocked Barrett to the floor with a body check as the Raptors wing was driving to the rim, Barrett jumped up and his teammates were quick to gather.<\/p>\n
Allen was hit with a fragrant foul for unnecessary roughness, essentially. But it wasn\u2019t quite as it seemed. <\/p>\n
Barrett and Allen are friends, with Allen having acted as Barrett\u2019s host on his official visit at Duke, their shared alma mater.\u00a0Just before Allen\u2019s body check, Barrett had stood Allen up and knocked him back with a stiff shoulder and elbow to start his drive.<\/p>\n
When the two came together after the whistle, Allen told Barrett he had leaned into him pre-emptively because he thought Barrett was going to send him backwards again on the way to the basket. \u201cAnd I was, too,\u201d Barrett told me. <\/p>\n
The pair dapped up, all good, acknowledging hard play but no hard feelings.<\/p>\n
The Battle for the Dillon Brooks Cup<\/p>\n
The hope is that the Suns forward and Canadian national team star will be back on the floor for the Suns in time for the playoffs. He told me his left hand \u2014 which he had surgically repaired after fracturing it on Feb. 21 \u2014 is coming along well. He\u2019s had a career season in Phoenix and is credited for the year-over-year turnaround.<\/p>\n
He was disappointed to miss his one chance to play at home this season, but he still plans to attend the Dillon Brooks Cup on Saturday at Father Henry Carr, where he went to high school for Grade 9, 10 and 11 before going to Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev. and the University of Oregon.<\/p>\n
Brooks has supported the prep basketball program at Father Henry Carr financially for the past two years. Without it, the highly rated program might not operate, says long-time head coach Paul Melnik. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe financial support is invaluable,\u201d said Melnik. \u201cWe still have to charge a fee, like all prep programs, but we do it at a much more reasonable cost, because the reality is most kids aren\u2019t wealthy and if you can save a few thousand here and there and still get a good program, that\u2019s huge … Getting a little bit of help from Dillon, it makes it easier to run our program.\u201d <\/p>\n
The program fields teams at three age groups, and all three will be playing Saturday, with the freshmen hosting St. Michael’s at 11 a.m. ET, the juniors hosting Royal Crown at 1 p.m. ET and the seniors hosting King Heights at 3 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 More than one thing can be true at once.\u00a0 On one hand, the Toronto Raptors have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-535604","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\/535604","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=535604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}