Raptors takeaways: Shoot more three-pointers or pay the price

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Some takeaways from a game between Toronto and Miami that started extremely ugly, but turned into a decent tilt, with the Raptors ultimately falling short.

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WILL THE REAL RAPTORS PLEASE STAND UP

It’s hard to get a handle on these Raptors. The constant injuries haven’t helped in that regard, but with Scottie Barnes back, the team looks a lot better. That shouldn’t be surprising, but recent improvements have even preceded the return of Barnes, who had played in four of the last 10 Raptors games before Friday.

The Raptors who started the season couldn’t play a lick of defence. They ranked 29th in defensive efficiency through nine games, giving up nearly 120 points per 100 possessions. But in the 10 games after that they had rocketed up to seventh, giving up nearly 10 fewer points per 100 possessions.

Barnes, Davion Mitchell and Jakob Poeltl have spearheaded the defensive turnaround, with each player playing excellent. They’ve also received boosts from rookies Jamison Battle and Jonathan Mogbo, as well as Ochai Agbaji.

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Bruce Brown should help once he gets some minutes under his belt and Immanuel Quickley can be extremely disruptive with his massive wingspan, but Quickley and fellow likely starter Gradey Dick will have to prove they can be pluses defensively the way most of their teammates have been recently.

Barnes was strong again defensively against Miami, but overall, the team probably took a step back, giving up too many good three-point looks.

Toronto has also looked like two different teams in a different way — three-point attempts. Over the first nine games Toronto was last in three-point makes per game, 26th in attempts and 23rd in accuracy. Even though three-pointers are more important than ever in today’s NBA, Toronto simply wasn’t playing a modern style to take advantage.

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Things continued that way, but more recently, specifically over the last four games (again, not including Friday’s game in Miami), there’s been a different approach. Toronto’s been 18th in attempts in that span and 19th in accuracy (though just 21st in makes). The math game was evening out.

Of course the Pelicans game skews the stats quite a bit (the Raptors got up 52 three-pointers, the third-most in a game in franchise history and most since January, 2022. The Raptors looked a lot more like their old selves (and not in a good way) against the Heat, launching only 29 three-pointers and hitting 11. The Raptors remain the team with the fewest three-pointers hit per game.

BARRETT FINDING HIS WAY?

The struggles away from home by RJ Barrett have been covered thoroughly, but for a brief refresher, he was averaging close to 30 points a game at home on superstar-level shooting and about 19 away on rough marksmanship before the last two games. He started the trip with two bad outings, but finally excelled in an away game with a dominant effort at New Orleans (22 points, 11 assists, good shooting everywhere but the free throw line). Perhaps the most promising thing from the Miami game, other than Barnes being great, was Barrett again thriving. He shot 10-for-18, including making 2-of-4 three-point attempts, hit his free throws and probably deserved more attempts from the line. The season-high six turnovers weren’t great, but Miami is a really strong defensive group, led by Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. This was encouraging overall.

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THE RIGHT GROUP?

Is the temporary starting five Darko Rajakovic is going with while Immanuel Quickley and Gradey Dick are out the best option? Ja’Kobe Walter playing the role of Dick makes perfect sense, he’s a shooter who can come off screens smartly the way Dick can, so approximates some of what Dick provides (and allows the Raptors to run some of the plays they would for Dick), but the jury is out on Ochai Agbaji over Davion Mitchell. That’s how it’s been the last two games after Mitchell had mostly been starting and he’s turned in maybe his two worst games as a Raptor since. While it’s unlocked more play-making opportunities for Barnes and Barrett having Mitchell come off the bench, that’s not going to be an option once Quickley returns. They’ll have to figure out how to get enough play-making chances for Barnes, Barrett and Quickley. Plus, Mitchell had a really nice rapport going with Jakob Poeltl. Agbaji was great against the Pelicans and was on fire again against Miami and can guard bigger players than Mitchell can, so there’s a case for keeping him in. Just as there’s solid reasoning for going with Mitchell.

@WolstatSun

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