Toronto dropped to 5-38 without its starting centre the last two seasons.
It took a while, but Toronto’s size disadvantage against the Miami Heat caught up with the team on Friday. It likely won’t be the last time either this season.
Without Jakob Poeltl, Toronto opted to start Orlando Robinson, the only other player on the roster taller than 6-foot-9 (with 6-foot-10 rookie Ulrich Chomche lost for the season). Robinson was signed by Toronto to a two-way contract earlier this month after earlier inking a pair of 10-day deals.
Robinson played well, but wasn’t called on in overtime, when Toronto was outscored 13-4 and struggled to score inside and to defend.
Toronto dropped to 1-10 without Poeltl this season after going a wretched 4-28 without him last season. Head coach Darko Rajakovic said Poeltl, who missed his sixth straight game, is in the reconditioning phase of his rehabilitation. Toronto plays again at home on Sunday and Tuesday and then in Indianapolis on Wednesday, but while Poeltl wants to play when he can, expect the team to be extremely cautious with him. Poeltl understands. He said before the season even began that he knew this is a franchise that is in the building stage. Losing games, though tough, is the best shot at adding a huge shot in the arm for next season and beyond via the draft.
Rajakovic’s other options in the middle are going with undersized rookie Jonathan Mogbo, as he has at times, or giving Scottie Barnes the assignment against centres. While Rajakovic said he feels “very, very comfortable” with doing that with Barnes, mentioning he’s guarded Joel Embiid, Karl-Anthony Towns and others, it’s probably not ideal.
“I think he’s doing a really good job and that’s the advantage of having Scottie: He’s capable of guarding one through five and doing multiple things there on the court,” Rajakovic said.
Barnes hurt his ankle against Miami and though he returned to the game and played his normal minutes (plus more, since the game went to overtime), it will be interesting to see if they take a cautious approach with their franchise player and rest him either Sunday, Tuesday or Wednesday.
As for the centre spot: “It cannot be one player. We got to use different players there,” Rajakovic said.
A WARE TALENT?
Making it even tougher for Toronto was the fact that Miami has been going with a duel big man look lately, with rookie Kel-el Ware teaming with former all-star Bam Adebayo. After playing pretty sparingly over the first few months of the season, Ware has been elevated to a key player by head coach Erik Spoelstra, averaging 24.7 minutes per game in January and nearly 30 in eight games in February, all starts. He’d averaged 11.5 points and 9.8 rebounds, plus a combined two blocks and steals per game.
Toronto was intrigued by the 7-foot, 230 pound former Indiana star ahead of last summer’s draft, but he went 15th, four spots ahead of Ja’Kobe Walter (who, to be fair, Toronto was thrilled to land at that point of the draft). Ware would have been a great add too though, especially given Toronto’s lack of prospects at centre.
Adebayo had a big game, while Ware was reasonably quiet, but did show some impressive flashes.
BARRETT WAS INSPIRED BY WIGGINS
The best game within the game Friday might have been the battle between RJ Barrett and fellow Canadian Andrew Wiggins. Barrett scored 13 of Toronto’s final 16 points in the game and led the team in scoring, while Wiggins took over in the fourth quarter and overtime for Miami, though Barrett blocked his potential game-winner in the fourth quarter.
Barrett said it was a fun matchup and added Wiggins has been a major inspiration for him.
“I remember just being a kid, and my dad taking me to watch him practice and play when he was in Canada. And one time he was at Huntington Prep, and he came back and played the game here in Canada, and I went to watch that,” Barrett said. “He was the guy that me and my friends, we all watched him growing up, man, like, ‘that dude right there, he was able to go number one (in the NBA draft),’” Barrett said.
“So everybody always looked up to him. He’s a big part of the reason as to why my friends and I were believing that we can make it to the League.”
Barrett ended up being the third pick of his draft and passed the 7,000 career points mark on Friday, which leads all players in his class.
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