TORONTO — For the past two days, the Toronto Raptors have likely known that holding out hope for Brandon Ingram’s return would be a waste of breath.
His right heel too inflamed, the one day of rest too short, and the stakes far too high for a player playing at only a percentage of his powers.
The Raptors couldn’t afford another 30 per cent shooting night in the second half, another late-game collapse. They needed execution, guys who could provide that clutch-time scoring they turned to Ingram for countless times in the regular season.
Originally, head coach Darko Rajakovic hoped that it would be done by committee, but he did bank a bit on maybe getting a singular breakout showing from one of his players to help fill the gap.
“It’s (the) team. It cannot be, ‘Oh, we’re going to designate one player to do that,’” Rajakovic said before the game when asked who would be tasked with filling Ingram’s shoes. “As you can see, the whole series, every game is different, and you have different players to step up in different moments in the game. Those types of games, they always find a hero of the game. For us in Game 3, that was Jamison Battle. For them last game, it was Dennis Schröder. Hopefully, tonight, it’s somebody on our side.”
On Friday night, with their backs against the wall, Rajakovic got just that.
Ja’Kobe Walter answered the call to help the Raptors to a 112-110 overtime win to force Game 7, finishing with 24 points, five rebounds, three steals and a block while shooting 7-of-13 from the field and 4-of-9 from three in 43 minutes — nine minutes more than his previous career high, highlighting just how much the Raptors were counting on him in that spot.
Though he missed his first shot, a 22-footer only 27 seconds in, he bounced back with a steal on Max Strus a minute later, a three-pointer midway through the frame to take the lead, then an easy layup set up by fellow sophomore Jamal Shead.
Then, in the second, he found his rhythm from range, knocking down a triple from the corner and another from the wing to help the Raptors take a 10-point lead back to the locker room.
“It gives me a lot of confidence. A lot of people always tell me in these moments, I step up. For me, I see it as another game, try to stay poised and stay confident,” Walter said after the Game 6 win. “The lord, he keeps me steady through everything. I never have to second-guess anything. Just playing my game, playing off my teammates, giving energy and doing whatever I can to (help us) win.”
His shining moment came in the fourth quarter, the Raptors up only one point with just over two minutes to go.
Walter got the Donovan Mitchell assignment, and though the Cavaliers’ all-star got past him and went for his floater, the Raptors youngster recovered to block Mitchell from behind. In transition, Walter ran straight to the wing to set up in his preferred shooting spot. Collin Murray-Boyles drew in the defence on a drive, wrapped a pass around Evan Mobley to Jamal Shead in the corner, who then made the extra pass to Walter. Money.
“Coach always says if it’s an open shot, don’t second-guess yourself, no matter who you are. Just shoot the shot,” Walter said. “When you get that kind of confidence from everybody and your coach, it’s kind of hard not to be aggressive and take those opportunities when you can.”
Crucially, Friday’s performance looked like a return to form for a player who has had an up-and-down first-round series, going from forgettable showings in Games 1 and 2 to consecutive donuts at home in Games 3 and 4.
In that losing effort in Game 5, while he finished with a series-high 20 points on 7-of-16 from the field and 6-of-14 from deep, most of those buckets came in the first half. And when winning time rolled along, Walter fell short, shooting 1-of-6 from deep in the second half.
None of that diminished the trust his teammates have in him, however. Particularly not after he established himself as a force after the all-star break, shooting 47.6 per cent from deep in 27 games.
“We know how good of a shooter he is. Even though you said it was rough, he had about 20, and we needed all 20 of those points in that Game 5,” Scottie Barnes said. “We know he can shoot the ball at a high level. Wasn’t going in the first couple games, but he found his way. Staying confident, putting in that work, trusting in him. Gotta believe in yourself as a player, and we believe in him all the way.”
Rajakovic echoed: “Ja’Kobe Walter is a case study in itself. He is a guy who plays five minutes, 35 minutes, or he doesn’t play any minutes, (but) he is the same guy. Same approach, same professional preparation for every single game. He’s going to put everything he’s got to help the team win. … Really proud of him, really happy for him. We’re really, really blessed to have him on our team.”
The Raptors, without two of their top scorers in Ingram and Immanuel Quickley, have needed that togetherness, that belief that someone will step up and make the most of their opportunities. Especially with the margin of error so slim in this series.
With the game hanging in the balance, it would’ve been great to have Ingram. When that final shot of regulation with the game tied at 104 goes to Shead instead of a proven bucket-getter, the absence of the Raptors’ two most proven clutch-time scorers becomes all the more apparent.
The Raptors didn’t have that privilege. They didn’t come into Game 6 with the luxury of an isolation scorer or half-court player at Ingram’s level, nor did they have a pull-up three-point shooter at Quickley’s level.
But they’ve made do. They’ve won in their own ways, with the guys they have at their disposal, all stemming from that same trust they placed in Walter on Friday night.
“Someone like Brandon, the calibre of someone like him (who) scores the way he does. That’s a lot that we gotta replace,” Walter said. “But we just kinda do it in different areas, you know? Get out in transition more, get more stops on defence. To do what we’re good at. We just kinda gotta amp it up a little, you know? We know that it’s gonna take more.”
