The Orlando Magic are a good team... when they hit their threes.
The Magic beat the Toronto Raptors 121-114 to move the Raps to 3-2 on the season. Orlando entered the game as the league's 22nd-best three-point shooting team, shooting 31.4 percent from three, and left with 18/34, a 52.9 percent clip. Despite Scottie Barnes’ best efforts, putting up a career-high 41 points, the Magic’s stellar shooting night, along with no one else on the Raptors providing any stability offensively, led to the squad’s second loss of the season.
Outside of Barnes, rookie forward Allen Graves was the only other player who consistently stood out. Sure, Jakob Poeltl finished with season highs in points and rebounds, and Immanuel Quickley’s final stat line didn’t look bad. But neither passed the eye test quite like Graves did.
Graves had an electric first half and was a key piece in Toronto being able to stay in this game despite everything going Orlando’s way, including 24 first-half free-throw attempts. Graves logged 8 minutes of pure impact in the first half, but try and guess how much of the court he saw after the break? If you guessed more than one minute, you’d be wrong, and that's honestly where my biggest beef with head coach Darko Rajakovic comes from in this game.
Graves finished with seven points and four rebounds (three of which were offensive) on 100 percent shooting from the field.
Graves deserved more in the Raptors' loss
I get it. From a head coach's perspective, sometimes you have to roll with the players you're more comfortable with and have more data on. But through the first five games of Graves' NBA career, as well as the preseason, Rajakovic hasn't hesitated to give him significant minutes, so why make that decision tonight? He played just nine minutes, his second-lowest total of the season, on a night when he arguably made his biggest impact yet.
To some, Graves having two fouls at the half may have been a reason to sit him. But coming into the second half with two fouls isn’t crazy, nor should it matter for a reserve player who is playing as the third-string big and forward in your rotation.
It would also be one thing if Graves wasn’t scoring well, being efficient, or playing a super turnover-prone version of basketball, but he wasn’t. In his first half minutes, he banged a corner three and had an and-one off a putback attempt, to go with zero turnovers.
I don’t by any means think the decision to sit Graves for the majority of the second half and all of the fourth quarter is a reason to come for the head of Rajakovic. I’m just puzzled.
This was a game the Raptors were lucky to be in, considering how off-brand the Magic’s three-point shooting looked and how the consistent foul calls in the first half ruined any chance of Toronto finding an offensive rhythm. And yet Graves looked like a bright spot that was keeping this squad in it in the first half, as well as showing really solid chemistry with Barnes in the frontcourt. So you’d think he would’ve been heavily featured in the second half. That’s all I’m trying to say.
At one point in my notes, I had even written down that Graves and Barnes may have to be the starting frontcourt next game against the Lakers. That’s how good I felt they looked. Whether he deserves to start isn’t a topic for today. What matters is that outside of Barnes’ unreal night, Graves was a clear spark. Graves didn’t have to be the MVP, but he was bringing value, and not getting to see that in the second half was super disappointing.
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