2 Heroes and 3 Zeroes from Raptors' exhausted loss to Timberwolves
The Toronto Raptors were dealt a difficult hand of cards.
They played the Philadelphia 76ers in the City of Brotherly Love, a game that stretched well past the normal 140 realtime minutes that a game normally takes because of an incredible amount of fouling (99 total fouls in the game). The Raptors pulled out the win, but it was an already-tired team that immediately boarded a plane and flew to Minnesota to face a Western Conference Finals team.
What's more, the Timberwolves had their entire rotation available, while the Raptors were playing without Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk. Simply avoiding a bloodbath was a moral victory for this team, if those mean anything to you.
The Raptors achieved that much, hanging tough with Minnesota throughout the contest. Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle each scored 24 points, and Rudy Gobert had 15 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks, but despite falling behind by as many as 22 points in the second half, the Raptors battled back and were within seven points late before the Wolves shut the door.
Who played well for Toronto, and who failed to deliver what was needed for an improbable victory? Let's look at 2 Heroes and 3 Zeroes from Saturday's game.
Davion Mitchell was a Zero
We start with the literal zero that Davion Mitchell put up in the scoring column, shooting 0-for-5 from the field. The confidence he had shooting the basketball on Friday night was gone, and in its place was a tentative player scared out of the paint by Rudy Gobert and unwilling to shoot from deep against the length of Minnesota.
Somewhat to his credit, Mitchell did pivot to playmaking and racked up eight assists in high 29 minutes, but most of those were simple passes to teammates who shot or drove; he wasn't generating high-percentage looks for teammates. He was a -12 on the night, compared to Jamal Shead's -1 in his 19 minutes. Mitchell wasn't terrible, but the Raptors could have really used some scoring aggression.