Quick Reaction: Raptors 104, Heat 114

Another understated but generally positive outing from Agbaji. It’s becoming quite routine but I urge people to never take it for granted. Just remember how low his stock had fallen after coming to Toronto last season, so this turnaround deserves as many flowers as the fanbase can grow. I would’ve liked to see him knock down at least one of his looks from beyond the arc, but the shots were open and he took them, sometimes they just don’t fall. Meanwhile, as much as Agbaji has mastered not standing out, he did have a “look at me” moment in the third as he corralled a loose ball and ran it down the lane for a flashy poster dunk. Unfortunately for fellow Raptor Jakob Poeltl, the person Agbaji ended up posterizing was him. Talk about friendly fire.

Starting in place of franchise cornerstone and childhood friend Scottie Barnes undoubtedly adds pressure. Doing it in just his second career start while playing 90 minutes away from his hometown was additional pressure. But none of that was enough to make Jonathan Mogbo crumble on Thursday night. The rookie, while remaining limited on offence, was SPECIAL on defence. Mogbo was everywhere. He made life especially comfortable for Jimmy Butler. At one point he single-handedly blew up a baseline out-of-bounds as he poked loose an overhead pass to Butler and then forced the six-time All-Star into a contested jumper that resulted in an airball/shot clock violation. Butler finished with 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting and much of that was because of Mogbo. The Heat even spent a lot of the second half doing everything they could to get a rookie Mogbo switched off their veteran five-time All-NBAer to try and make life somewhat easier for Butler.

It wasn’t technically garbage time because Bruno Fernando was in for the FIRST two minutes before Jakob Poeltl checked in and not the final two, but I basically consider the stint as meaningful as garbage time considering it’s all we saw. But hey, Fernando was put in a tough spot being pushed into the starting lineup so late and he made the most of his 120 seconds. Executed a nice PNR with RJ Barrett and converted at the rim, and for that he earns a grade higher than INC.

The Raptors led by as many as 16 points in the first half and a lot of that, at least early, was thanks to the sophomore. He bailed the Raptors out of multiple stagnant possessions on Thursday, as early as their first play on offence when he nailed a pump-fake middy off the bounce. And that wasn’t even his most impressive mid-range make as Dick later drilled a stellar up-and-under, off-balance jumper from the free throw line against five-time All-Defence member Bam Adebayo. As Raptors Republic’s Samson Folk put it during the game, “Bam you can’t hang with Gradey … he’s got too much sauce, you’re drowning in it.”

He ultimately ran out of gas — committing three turnovers after a near-flawless start as the Raptors let their lead crumble away just before halftime — but I still give RJ Barrett credit for his early effort on both ends. He was doing a lot of good work as the primary initiator, finding teammates through his usual PNR and drive-and-kick work, even if the ball slipped out of his hands a bit too much. On defence, while Barrett wasn’t exactly locking guys down, the effort was noticeably improved from the last game. He dug in on a couple of drives as a help defender and even showed off active hands on the ball to force a couple turnovers. By no means was it a perfect game, it wasn’t even particularly a good game despite a second-career triple-double, but with how much keeps getting placed on his shoulders, I’ll happily label tonight as a learning opportunity and leave it there.

Hard to find much to gripe on when it came to the big Austrian’s performance considering most didn’t expect him to play at all after he was bumped out of the starting five just minutes before tip-off. Jakob Poeltl showed a lot of heart, checking in just two minutes after the game had started, ignoring what the team described as back spasms. And Poeltl seemed like his usual self. Active on the glass, set space-clearing screens and made the most of his offensive opportunities. Aside from getting dunked on by Ochai Agbaji (yes, you read that right), it was a solid outing for the big man given the context of his condition.

The Raptors really need Davion Mitchell to view Scottie Barnes’s seemingly extended absence as an opportunity. And in some ways, on Thursday, he did. There were flashes where he made good things happen like throwing a cross-court, one-handed pass for an open three or bullying his way to the rim on the fast break. But his impact in transition, while meaningful, didn’t do much for the Raptors struggles in the halfcourt. Mitchell doesn’t have to solve all their problems, but I’d like to see him help figure things out a bit more, especially while the team is missing some core pieces.

Tonight was another case of Walter passing the eye test even if the box score wasn’t exactly pretty. I get it, sub-40 per cent from the field isn’t great but context matters. His looks aren’t exactly created equal to someone like Ochai Agbaji, for example. In the meantime, Walter’s defence was pretty admirable for the most part as well. He’s got a knack for walling off driving lanes even if he is a step behind. One play in particular, midway through the second, he bumped Duncan Robinson off his feet in the paint and forced an off-balance pass that Jamal Shead intercepted.

Aside from Heat players repeatedly thinking Kelly Olynyk was still on their team and handing him the ball, it was a pretty quiet night for Captain Canada. He made decent reads as a passer but couldn’t get much going beyond that in his spot minutes.

Hard to make much of his spot minutes but he was efficient and played within the offence. I will say, it was nice to see Jamison Battle diversify his offence as well, for what it’s worth, not just living outside the 3-point line. He had a nice jump hook in the paint for one of his first baskets, recognizing a simple mismatch in the post.

The job of a bench point guard is to provide instant energy and limit mistakes, so, in that regard, Jamal Shead had himself a positive night even if his minutes were limited. It was a bit of a rocky start as he skied a pass into the stands but he immediately made up for it. Shead picked off a pass the very next possessions and capped the play with a transition layup. He later hit a catch-and-shoot triple to force a Heat timeout. And speaking of 3-point shooting, it’s quietly been Shead’s biggest area of improvement. He’s still a sub-30 per cent shooter from beyond the arc this season, but over his last 10 games, he’s up to 44 per cent, albeit on less than three attempts per. The work is starting to pay off.

Earlier in the week Rajakovic was asked about how his team could improve on the road, now 1-12, and his answer was simple: “swag.” He then added, “I’ll tell the guys to pack it in the bags to Miami.” Did Pearson Airport’s incompetence strike yet again and those bags were lost in transit? Because the team was pretty swag-less after the first 15 minutes of play. And some of that falls on the head coach. I would’ve liked to have seen a more inspired effort coming out of halftime. Also, Rajakovic and his staff need to figure something out to fix their glaring issues in the half-court, ideally a solution beyond “Here Scottie, you got this.”