For those who might not be completely up to speed on what the ‘Emirates NBA Cup’ is, it’s essentially the NBA’s effort to inject meaningful competition into the portion of the regular season where there often has been a lull.
It comes as the excitement from the start of the regular season wears off and while mainstream sports fans are still enthralled by the NFL, the World Series or whatever.
We can debate the marketing merits of acknowledging that a) your regular season isn’t all that meaningful and b) the way to make it more meaningful is to play players even more money — this in a league where the average salary is $12.66 million. Players on the winning Cup team get a cheque for $530,933, while even losing out in the quarterfinals comes with a $53,093 payout, which isn’t bad for playing a game you had to play anyway (all Cup games except the final in Las Vegas on Dec.16 are counted as part of the regular-season schedule.) All that said, there’s seemingly no argument that Cup play is here to stay.
In the two previous Cup campaigns, the Toronto Raptors were essentially eliminated from contention after they were blown out in their first game of group play. Their cumulative Cup record was 2-6 before Friday.
But thanks to their comeback win over an injury-riddled Cleveland Cavaliers team last Friday, the Raptors are in a strong position this year in Group A, which includes the Cavs, Hawks, Pacers and Wizards. It might be the weakest of the six randomly drawn groups in the league, with the Pacers and Wizards a combined 2-14 on the season heading into Friday night.
Given the Hawks were also 1-0 in Group A, the winner Friday night at State Farm Arena would be 2-0 and with two games left against Indiana and Washington, putting them in strong position to win the group outright or, at minimum, have the best point differential and total points scored among the teams that finished second in the three Eastern Conference groups, good for a wild-card berth to the quarterfinals.
The Hawks and Toronto never have met in a playoff game, so Friday night was arguably the most meaningful game the two franchises have played in the Raptors’ 31-year history.
And the two teams played like it, elevating the level of defence to a degree that made the game play more like a playoff contest that a regular-season clash in November, which is an argument for the Cup being a thing, I guess.
The Raptors were able to dial up their defence that much more, holding the Hawks to 5-of-25 shooting in the fourth quarter as they turned a 13-point third-quarter deficit into what ended up being a comfortable 109-97 win.
It was Toronto’s fourth straight win and improves the team’s record to 5-4. The Raptors head to Philadelphia on the second night of a back-to-back Saturday, but they’ve started their five-game road trip off impressively.
They are now 2-0 on the season against the Hawks, which could be important if tiebreakers come into play for playoff seeding — the Hawks play the Raptors twice more this season, but both games are in Toronto — and they have the pole position to emerge from Group A.
And now, five things:
Barrett brings it
RJ Barrett has been one of Raptors’ bright spots through nine games, playing with a level of calmness and efficiency that makes him an excellent complement to Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram, rather than an awkward fit. His second-half performance against the Hawks might be the best example yet of his new-found patience and willingness to let the game come to him.
The Canadian was 0-of-6 from the floor for two points in the first half — and just couldn’t buy a bucket. But he didn’t force or press as the misses mounted, and he kept moving the ball with pace. Barrett has generally been a willing passer, but now he makes the decision to dish the ball a couple beats quicker, which means he’s passing with less pressure, and there are fewer turnovers.
Even though he was 0-of-6, he had three assists and only one of the Raptors’ nine first-half turnovers. In the second half the shots began to fall — an early three in transition from Immanuel Quickley, a tough runner late in the shot clock, and a two-handed dunk when Jakob Poeltl found him out of a double team. He stuck with the process that has worked so well for him this season and ended up 19 points, five rebounds and four assists on 7-of-15 shooting.
He’s had much bigger nights offensively over his time with the Raptors, but in some ways the discipline he displayed in trying circumstances against the Hawks was as significant as any of them.
Quickley showing signs
There has been no one on the Raptors who has taken more heat publicly — and I mean mostly on social media — than Quickley. In some ways, it makes sense: the Raptors signed him to a five-year contract worth $162.5 million mostly on the premise he’d be an above average NBA point guard, maybe better. And after an injury-shortened 33-game season last season and an unimpressive start to this one, the people were impatient.
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He likely won’t be framing the box score from Friday night, but 18 points, six assists and three steals on 5-of-11 shooting against a Hawks team brimming with lengthy, physical defenders on the perimeter and some big bodies in the paint behind them made Quickley’s showing all the more significant.
He still has a tendency to get his dribble hung up too often and his finishing options when he does hit the paint are a notch or two below the better guards in the league, But as his experience playing point guard grows — this is really his first extended run as a full-time quarterback in the NBA — some of those glitches should smooth out. In the meantime, he’s now shooting 40.6 per cent from deep (13-of-32) over his last six games after going 2-of-18 in his first three starts.
As his shot comes around, chances are the rest of his game will fit more seamlessly.
Shead shining
Jamal Shead has been a real bright spot this season for the Raptors, enough so that he’s gained some mention this week from highly respected national NBA voices like John Hollinger of The Athletic and Zach Lowe from The Ringer, no small feat for a backup point guard on a team that hasn’t made the playoffs for three years.
Coming into the game, Shead was averaging 6.9 points and 5.4 assists while shooting 44.7 per cent from the floor and 47.4 from three. His 43 total assists were second among bench players this season.
The Raptors’ best moments in the first half came with Shead on the floor, even though he didn’t score. In the space of a couple of first-quarter minutes, he found Brandon Ingram for a bucket in the lane, set up Ingram for an open three that he didn’t cash, made a steal and took it the length of the floor leading to a lay-up for Sandro Mamukelashvili, and forced his man into a travelling violation. It’s one example of how a back-up point guard can be scoreless in 13 minutes of floor time and still have a positive impact — +7 in this case.
Big decisions
Hawks general manager Onsi Saleh has had a one-of-a-kind path his position as the team’s op basketball decision maker, coming from small-town Alberta. We spoke about it this week.
But Saleh has to wrestle with the same challenging issues as other league GMs. In the Hawks’ case, it’s what to do with four-time all-star Trae Young, who missed his fourth game Friday with a sprained knee.
On one hand, Young is as productive a point guard as there is in the NBA, with career averages of 25.2 points and 9.8 assists. On the other, Young’s lack of size and interest leaves him vulnerable defensively, which is one reason the Hawks have been a sub-.500 team since their surprise run to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2020-21.
This is all relevant because Young is nearing the end of the five-year, $215-million contract that began in 2022-23. He is eligible for an extension, but the Hawks haven’t given him one yet. And even though Young has a player option for the final year of his deal next season, teams that don’t want to extend a player — or at least extend them for the amount they’re looking for — usually begin investigating the trade market.
The Raptors went through this with Pascal Siakam. The month or so that Young is expected to be out will give Saleh a good idea of exactly what his star point guard is worth to his team.
This year, the Hawks are significantly better defensively without Young — they were 25th in defensive rating before he got hurt and were eighth since. But then again, the Hawks looked lost offensively for long stretches against the Raptors, their 5-of-24 brickfest in the fourth quarter an example.
Two is better than one
You could argue Friday’s game was the first time this season the Raptors have had two fully functioning centres, with Poeltl looking more and more himself after being hampered by a stiff back at the end of training camp and early this season. Poeltl and Mamukelashvili are completely different players, but both play their role well.
Against the Hawks, Poeltl was the steady interior presence as he grabbed 10 rebounds and finished with 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting — and made all four of his free throws — while Mamukelashvili continued his excellent early-season play as a human change-up: he comes off the bench sprinting in transition — sometimes leading it — spotting up for threes and trying his best on the glass. He finished with 12 points and six rebounds.
Getting 24 points and 16 rebounds on 9-of-16 shooting from your centre position while being able to mix and match according to lineup needs is a luxury the Raptors haven’t had for some time.
