Immanuel Quickley will miss another game with right foot plantar fasciitis. Losing Quickley is a big blow for a Raptors team trying to battle through a crueling playoff race with little separation between the six teams vying for the final four playoff spots. Quickley is the Raptors’ leader in assists per game and one of the few reliable volume 3-point shooters on the roster.
Quickley is shooting 37.4% on 6.9 attempts per game for the season. The only players on the team who shoot a better percentage are Jamison Battle, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Brandon Ingram. Ingram is the only one in that group who even comes close to meeting Quickley’s volume from three.
The Raptors already struggle with spacing in the starting lineup. Jakob Poeltl doesn’t take threes, Scottie Barnes is shooting below 30% for the season, and RJ Barrett hasn’t been the most consistent 3-point threat either, sinking 34.4% of his five attempts per game. As a team, the Raptors rank 22nd in 3-point percentage with 34.9%.
Losing Quickley and replacing him with Jamal Shead, who has struggled from three for most of the season, just amplifies that issue.
Shead doesn’t have the same gravity as Quickley on offense
Jamal Shead does plenty of things well. He is a good passer and a tough defender, and he can attack the paint. He is not a reliable 3-point threat, though. For the season, he is converting 31.4% of his 3.3 attempts per game. With those percentages, opponents are largely comfortable leaving him open behind the arc and daring him to shoot threes rather than creating room in the paint for Barnes, Ingram, or Barrett. They cannot do that at the same level when Quickley is on the floor.
On the bright side, Shead seems to be mostly out of his shooting slump. Before the game against the Utah Jazz, Shead had only made four 3-pointers all month and hadn’t hit a shot from long range in four straight games. He went 1-4 against the Jazz and sank two of his five attempts against the Clippers.
3-point shooting was a problem the last time the Raptors faced the Pelicans
The Raptors are supposed to beat the Pelicans. That’s why their 122-111 loss earlier this month was so disappointing and fuelled two great wins against the Suns and Pistons.
One major problem in that loss was shooting efficiency. The Pelicans shot 51% from the field and 48% from three, making 14 of their 29 shots from long range. Meanwhile, the Raptors shot 41% from the field and 32% from three (14-44).
Ingram, Barnes, and Barrett combined to shoot 4-19. Quickley was the only starter who shot efficiently at 3-7, and Shead went 2-4 off the bench.