Buzzer beaters, horn horror, stars playing, stars resting, everything on table rest of the way.
One of the wildest, wackiest two-week stretches in recent Toronto Raptors history is over, but you can bet plenty of oddness is still to come in the final month of this season.
To recap: Two Sundays ago the Raptors, without starting point guard Immanuel Quickley, completely outclassed a Phoenix Suns team that has Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and the NBA’s highest payroll. An unexpected night, to be sure, but that one had nothing on some of what was to follow.
Losses to Boston and Indiana were expected and uneventful, but on Feb. 28, we might have seen the stunner of the season. Up by 16 points in Chicago in the fourth quarter, the Raptors fumbled and bumbled away the lead, but still should have left the United Centre with a victory.
Instead, Quickley, back in the lineup, fouled Coby White on a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer of a three-point game. The shot fell, White hit a free throw and the Bulls forced overtime, eventually running away with it in the extra period. We’ll give that one a 9/10 on the weirdness scale.
The Raptors began a two-game set in Orlando two games later and promptly blew another fourth-quarter lead. With overtime looming again following a 24 second shot clock violation by the Raptors, Toronto eked out a win when Magic star Franz Wagner blew a layup after the Raptors got mixed up on a switch defensively. Scottie Barnes was able to recover just quickly enough to get into Wagner’s peripheral vision.
But if you thought that was the height of the zaniness, Toronto was just getting started.
In the rematch with the Magic Toronto rested most of its top players down the stretch, yet won the game on a wild three-point make by rookie Ja’Kobe Walter with 0.5 seconds remaining. It was an extremely difficult attempt, one that rarely falls, but Walter got it to go.
On Friday, with Utah in town, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic rested Jakob Poeltl and RJ Barrett, but played Barnes and Quickley. Minus Poeltl, the team was manhandled by Jazz giant Walker Kessler, who had 25 rebounds and eight blocked shots, and only led by six points late in the fourth. Unlike in prior games, when Rajakovic let his young players get the experience of trying to pull out a close game, letting his stars rest, Barnes and Quickley returned to smack away the Jazz. That was a bit confusing (more on that later).
But the grand finale came Saturday in the first of two home games against NBA-worst Washington. The Raptors rested Quickley, but a minutes limit on Poeltl, fell behind by 13 in the second half, and by three with 46.3 seconds remaining. A Jamal Shead layup and Washington miss inexplicably gave Toronto a chance at another win. After the officials missed Shead stepping on the sideline, which should have resulted in a turnover with 2.3 seconds to go, the Raptors called a timeout to set up another play, and to get a new inbounder. With Shead freed up to do something else, he got the ball and hit a layup at the buzzer, bringing the crowd, and his teammates to their feet in a raucous celebration. A group of five where the rookie Shead was the most experienced (it also featured A.J. Lawson and Jared Rhoden, who have been in the G League most of the season, Orlando Robinson, who hasn’t been a Raptor long, and Colin Castleton, who just arrived on a 10-day contract during the week) had pulled it off — seemingly.
But upon review it was found that the ball was still on Shead’s fingertips as time expired, giving Washington the victory.
The Raptors, after the big celebration, didn’t seem too broken up over the loss (Utah hadn’t on Friday either), and Washington didn’t seem overly thrilled about the turn of events themselves.
Welcome to life in the tanktastic portion of the NBA standings. There will be more like this over the final 18 games. Sometimes Rajakovic will go with youngsters late, sometimes he’ll return his veterans. There will be plenty of nights one, two or three key Raptors get rested entirely. It’s still unclear whether we’ll see the team’s best scorer, Brandon Ingram, at all this season (he took part in the pre-game warmup, getting up shots and his injured ankle seemed a lot better on Saturday).
The only certainty is that Barnes will keep playing as long as he’s healthy. As long as there’s a chance he can make an All-NBA team he will be in there. Barnes can only miss three more games the rest of the way to be eligible for a supermax designation on his extension signed last summer. That would take the deal from being worth around $225 million U.S. to around $270 million. Toronto’s poor record and Barnes’ inconsistent offensive season, especially shooting the ball, will likely mean his making the third team is a long shot, despite his dominant defensive season and growth as a play-maker. Still, with so many former All-NBA players unlikely to hit the 65-game requirement it remains a possibility.
Toronto is resting Poeltl for Monday’s Wizards rematch and its top three shooting guards — Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji and Walter — are all injured, along with Ingram and forward Jonathan Mogbo.
@WolstatSun