The Raptors didn’t start their season off well. They only won one of their first five games, including losses to the Bucks and Mavericks. Now, they are preparing for their first playoff series with a core of Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett, and Immanuel Quickley.
Barrett identified a game in late October as the momentum changer that helped get them to this point. Coincidentally, it was a game against their first-round opponent, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“Early on we were like one and four … and we played Cleveland,” Barrett said after practice on April 15. “We were playing Cleveland, and we were losing, and Jamison [Battle] came in, hit a couple threes, and then we won that Cleveland game. I think that was a big win for us, gave us momentum, and then we kind of took off from there.”
After beating the Cavs in late October, the Raptors went on a 12-3 run in November and soared into the Eastern Conference playoff picture. December brought a bunch of losses, and the playoff race became really close towards the end of the regular season, but the Raptors never fell out of the top six for long.
With the playoffs approaching, it’s uncertain whether Battle can replicate his impact from that momentum-changing game even just once in the postseason.
Battle could be a surprise factor off the bench
Jamison Battle’s role with the Raptors shrank significantly in his second season, and he’s not an established part of the Raptors’ rotation going into the playoffs. The last time he played more than six minutes in consecutive games was in March in blowout losses to the Suns and Clippers and in a big win over the Jazz.
His ability to hit threes hasn’t changed, though, and he may get a shot at some minutes against the Cavs, depending on how games go with the main rotation. If he can come in and hit some big shots again, he could swing the trajectory of a game.
If Quickley isn’t able to play in every game or is limited due to the hamstring issue and plantar fasciitis he is dealing with, Battle’s chances of seeing some minutes increase. The Raptors will need to knock down threes to keep up with the Raptors. If Quickley is out, that responsibility will largely fall on Brandon Ingram, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Sandro Mamukelashvili, but if either of the latter two has a bad shooting game, Darko Rajaković may turn to Battle to offer some shooting off the bench.
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