LAS VEGAS — It might be July in the desert, but the Toronto Raptors played like it was Spring at Scotiabank Arena.
It was just like old times. Looking on in street clothes at Cox Pavilion on the campus of UNLV were the members of the Raptors who will most likely have the greatest impact on the team’s fortunes in a few months: Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram and Jakob Poeltl — the Raptors’ $157 million (projected) starting lineup.
It was reminiscent of the end of last season when the starters played intermittently, if at all, as the Raptors tried to position themselves for lottery balls.
Unsuccessfully, as it turned out, as the Raptors’ nonstarters played harder and played more together than their opponents most nights, a big reason Toronto went 22-21 after an 8-31 start, including a 10-5 spurt in March, leaving them with only the seventh-best lottery odds.
Coming into Summer League, the plan was to pick up where they left off, and the Raptors’ crew of former rookies, now heading into their second NBA season, delivered.
The over-matched Chicago Bulls were the victims, getting eviscerated by the Raptors’ full-court, sideline-to-sideline pressure on their way to a 116-72 defeat. The game cracked open in the second quarter as Toronto forced Chicago into four turnovers in the space of 63 seconds to start the period, beginning with Raptors point guard Jamal Shead forcing his Bulls counterpart into an eight-second violation on the first possession.
“We take pride in that,” said James Wade, the Raptors’ Summer League head coach. “We want to be disruptive, and those little plays work in our favour, but they (build) morale, also. It only gives us a concentrated effort to keep going, keep going, keep going and then the next person does it too. That’s something that (Shead) has done, but that’s something that a lot of guys on our team strive for.”
The defensive pressure did indeed keep coming. By the time the buzzer sounded mercifully for halftime, the Raptors — who were trailing 24-21 at the end of the first quarter — were up 48-33, having forced Chicago into 17 turnovers in 20 minutes of action (Summer League games are made up of four 10-minute quarters).
In the end, it was 33 turnovers forced, an absurd number, even given the disarray of most Summer League games, but reflective of the advantage the Raptors have in assembling a team of older players who have racked up their share of NBA reps individually and collectively.
Looking on, the starters loved it, with Barnes, Barrett, Quickley and the rest relishing their role as cheerleaders.
“It’s crazy, having that support system,” said Raptors forward Jonathan Mogbo, who finished with 15 points and three steals in 21 minutes, while shooting 7-of-8 from the floor. “It shows a lot, it shows we’re a family, so I love it.”
The forced turnovers came in all forms: scrambling deflections, steals from behind as the Raptors hustled back on transition, charges drawn or simply the “gimme that” variety, such as when Ja’Kobe Walter simply ripped the ball out of the hands of promising Bulls forward Matas Buzelis at halfcourt and went the other way for an uncontested dunk.
The Raptors’ offence was notable too, although they did shoot 51.8 per cent from the floor, including 40.6 per cent from three, numbers that were bolstered by how often they were able to attack in transition off Bulls misses (Chicago shot just 30.9 per cent from the floor and 26.9 per cent from three) along with an endless stream of turnovers. Toronto’s 25 assists were an impressive number for a 40-minute game as well.
But Alijah Martin, who the Raptors drafted with the 39th pick, introduced himself with a spectacular second-quarter dunk where he turned the corner in the halfcourt and rose up and smashed it home in traffic, wowing the crowd and his teammates alike.
“His bounce is through the roof,” said A.J. Lawson of the six-foot-two powerhouse who helped Florida to the national championship in April. “I wasn’t shocked, because I’ve kind of seen it on video before, but just to see it in person like that, he really gets off the ground.”
Elsewhere, Martin scored 16 points on 12 shots, knocked down a pair of threes, was a terror defensively, dished out five assists and grabbed a pair of steals.
Lawson led both teams in scoring with 22 points and knocked down 4-of-8 threes, a swing skill for the Brampton, Ont. native who is on an unguaranteed contract.
“Just consistency, getting a lot of reps up throughout the whole summer,” Lawson said. “Got to shout out (Raptors assistant coach Mery Andrade) for that. She’s been working on my shot with me the whole summer.”
It’s the kind of development work the summer is for, and the hope is that it will carry over to the regular season, individually and collectively.
But the Raptors have shown — in one Summer League game at least — that the defensive energy and team cohesiveness that their younger players displayed at the end of last season might carry over, too.
