Rested Raptors give complete effort in much-needed win vs. Heat

While there was a fairly common view that the NBA’s lesser conference would devolve into the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers on top, with perhaps some noise made by the Orlando Magic, the reality through approximately 25 games is that the East is much deeper than most expected. The Cavaliers, in eighth place, are struggling. The Pistons, leading the East, are thriving. The Knicks, alone in second place, are where most expected them to be, and the Bucks (who the Raptors will play on Wednesday night) appear to be in a freefall with Giannis Antetokounmpo sidelined due to a calf injury and potentially halfway out the door.

That the Heat and Raptors were meeting on Dec. 15th as the sixth and fifth-place teams, respectively, in the East after finishing 10th and 11th last season, bolsters the idea that what the East might be lacking in superteams, they make up for in teams that are, you know, pretty decent. But good starts only matter if they can be sustained, and both the Heat and Raptors came out of the welcomed five-day break afforded by the NBA Cup — after both clubs lost in the quarterfinals — badly needing to regain their early-season momentum.

Miami had lost four of five (and four straight) since peaking at 13-6, while the Raptors had lost six of seven (and four straight) since peaking at 14-5. 

It turns out it was the Raptors, who gave as full and complete an effort as they have in weeks, particularly on the defensive end in what ended up a much-needed 106-96 win where they held the Heat’s new look offence — third-highest scoring in the league — to 26 points below their season average and a 21-point improvement over the 117 points per game the Raptors had been giving up over their 1-6 swoon. 

It was a game with multiple bright spots. The bench shone for a change, with Gradey Dick (10 points and two steals in 15 minutes) having an impact, Colin Murray-Boyles showing out on the defensive end in his 15 minutes and Sandro Mamukelashvili chipping in 11 points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes. Meanwhile, Jamal Shead is less bench player than a sixth starter at this stage. He had eight points and 10 assists in 24 minutes and was a game-high plus-27. 

He was outstanding all night — as his plus-minus would suggest — but was especially crucial down the stretch. Shead sandwiched a pair of assists around a triple as the Raptors built their lead to double figures for the first time with 7:31 to play. And when Toronto saw the 11-point lead it had built with 3:35 to play, shrink to four with 1:28 left while Shead was on the bench, he came back to calm things. The Raptors’ offence had shrivelled, yielding two end-of-shot-clock prayers and a turnover when Shead subbed back in. He immediately hit a floater out of a pick-and-roll and settled things down.

After that, Scottie Barnes scored on a putback, which followed a monster offensive rebound, and then assisted on a lay-up by Jakob Poeltl. Barnes had already come up with another giant offensive rebound and score, as well as two huge blocks to help the Raptors keep pace with Miami, which led by three to start the fourth. The fifth-year forward finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and three blocks. Prior to that, it was Brandon Ingram who helped the Raptors keep the game within reach with 28 points, five rebounds and five assists. 

The Raptors improved to 16-11 with the win and jumped to third place in a tightly compacted East standings, while the Heat — who the Raptors visit again on Dec. 23rd — slipped to 14-12 and ninth.

Ingram rolling: Was Ingram tired? It was a persistent and sensible line of questioning when the Raptors’ leading scorer was struggling earlier this month. Given he’d missed so much basketball last season, perhaps the heavy minutes and the steady stream of games — leading the Raptors in both categories this season — was a fact. We’ll never know, and it’s a moot point now, given that the Raptors got five days off thanks to the NBA Cup.

Did he need them? Hard to know, given that he put up 30.5 points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists on 57.9 per cent shooting (including 58.3 per cent on threes) in losses to the Boston Celtics and Knicks before the pause, which were Toronto’s sixth and seventh games in a stretch of seven. Go figure. More relevantly, rust certainly wasn’t a problem for Ingram as he came out of the gates firing on Monday, putting up 18 of his 28 points in the first half and 12 in the first quarter. Production the Raptors needed as there was some sluggishness elsewhere, as they trailed 52-46 at the break.

To my eyes, his fresh legs were most obvious defensively as he was active and sliding more than he was during the most recent grind of the Raptors schedule. How Ingram becomes fully integrated with the Raptors’ offence is still a work in progress. He remains a slightly odd fit in that he remains a determined isolation scorer on a team where the ball is supposed to zip. But the Raptors can’t always pass and cut their way to easy buckets, which places a lot of value on Ingram’s ability to create his own looks. When he’s cooking the way he has the past three games — 29.7 points on 54.4 per cent shooting and 63.3 per cent from deep — it’s hard to argue with what Ingram brings or how he brings it.

Norman Powell trade looking worse: It’s been five seasons since the Raptors traded Powell, who is now starring with the Miami Heat. It was a deal that didn’t make a lot of sense at the time and has made less every year since. Here’s a fun exercise (not so fun for Raptors fans): imagine a current trade proposal that involved Powell being traded for Gary Trent Jr., plus some salary filler. That was the return the Raptors got way back when, plus Rodney Hood, who was never a factor in Toronto. Ridiculous, right? 

Trent Jr. has done a decent-enough job for the Milwaukee Bucks, spacing the floor for Antetokounmpo after signing there as a free agent in the summer of 2024. The former Raptor has averaged 10.9 points while shooting 40.3 per cent from three with the Bucks, which is pretty good production for a 27-year-old who was on a veteran minimum deal last year and signed a two-year deal (with a player option for next season) for $7.5 million this past summer. Over the past five seasons, he’s averaged 14.6 points a game and shot 38.9 per cent from three. Again, not bad. But he’s firmly a role player and maybe a fringe one at that. Even ignoring the salary differences, it’s a trade that would never happen today.

Powell is in the midst of another breakout season, even if it happens to be his 11th year in the league. Heading into Monday night, he was averaging a career-best 24.6 points a game on a career-high 43.6 per cent three-point shooting and is in the mix to make his first all-star team this season.  In his last five seasons, Powell has averaged 18.1 points a game, and his 42 per cent mark from deep is third best in the NBA among players with at least 200 games played and at least five attempts per game. All of which to say is the Raptors decision to trade Powell for Trent Jr. during the 2020-21 season remains one of the front office’s true stumbles. Powell finished with 20 points on 5-of-15 shooting for Miami against Toronto, an off night for him, but those have been few and far between in his post-Raptors career.

Heat offence, formerly sizzling: Miami’s decision to play five-out offensively and almost completely abandon any pick-and-roll action, relying on fast straight-line drives, kickouts, swing passes and more drive-and-kick looks to generate open shots has been one of the nerdy subplots of the early NBA season. It’s a significant departure from Miami’s grindy (and low-scoring) attack of the past few seasons, and strays away from the pick-and-roll orthodoxy that had ruled the NBA forever, seemingly. After getting swept by the Cavaliers in the first round last season, head coach Eric Spoelstra dove into an offensive makeover. It’s gotten a lot of attention. 

“What I do really like and respect about coach Spoelstra, he’s not afraid to try new things, and he’s always trying to maximize the roster that he has,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajokovic. ” … And that style is very unique. You know, I believe they’re averaging like, 20 or 21 pick-and-rolls only a game. And on the other side, you have (Los Angeles Lakers guard) Luka Doncic, who’s averaging 40 pick and rolls just by himself … It’s gonna be first time for us to see that style of play, especially like running on the makes, and we got to be on when it comes to our defensive readiness to guard one on one.”

Raptors were ready: Perhaps the best thing the Raptors had going for them on Monday was that they were playing the up-tempo Heat — in addition to being third in points scored per game, the Heat came into the matchup first in overall pace, first in transition scoring and last in pick-and-roll frequency — with fresh legs. The Raptors’ inability to guard the ball against the Celtics or Knicks in their most recent games — miscues that led to overhelping on the ball-handler and wide-open threes as they struggled to get back to close out — suddenly disappeared.

Toronto had given up 36 threes on their homecourt over their previous two games with the Celtics and Knicks shooting a combined 44 per cent from deep. It’s hard to win games against those numbers. But freed from having to worry about fighting through screens or switching, and fresh from their break, the Raptors guarded the ball straight up and more often than not were able to avoid blow-bys and the open looks that they generate. Or they recovered. Spectacular blocks by Murray-Boyles (on Bam Adebayo) and Barnes fell into that category. Toronto held Miami to just 9-of-31 shooting from deep in part because its on-ball defence meant not having to help as routinely. 

Better to give than receive: With a season-high-tying 10 assists, Shead extended his lead among bench players. He has 137 dimes on the season in 26 games, 13 ahead of Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. But Shead also leads in another category that almost certainly no one tracks: field goal attempts per assists. Shead is the only player in the NBA with more than 120 assists on fewer than 160 shots of his own. For the season, Shead has 145 assists (which includes the eight assists he had against the Knicks last Tuesday in his one start this season) and 151 shot attempts. No one else is even remotely close to his nearly 1:1 ratio. Against the Heat, he was true to form, putting up just nine shots (making three) opposite his 10 helpers, which came with just one turnover. Another ratio (his 4.68 assist-to-turnover mark is second in the NBA among players with at least 100 assists on the season) where Shead shines.