The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards 112-102 and started the new campaign 2-0. A win is a win, but this one wasn’t as flawless as the season opener, so in my postgame article, I’m going to share something I’m celebrating, something that needs fixing, and something I’m concerned about from this game.
What to celebrate: Big games from RJ and Jak
Wow, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl had great showings tonight; no intro, let's just get into what they did.
Starting with Big Jak. He finished with a solid six points, nine rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block, while shooting an efficient 2-of-3 from the floor.
From the opening tip, Poeltl looked like this was a matchup he was going to take real pride in, with Washington having a loaded frontcourt. He did his job protecting the rim, offering help where he could and hitting the glass. It would be disingenuous to act like this was all Jak, because especially in the first half, Scottie Barnes had Anthony Davis on lockdown. Nonetheless, Jak did his job defensively and moved his feet well when switched onto perimeter players.
One play that really stood out was when he had to pick up Bilal Coulibaly on the perimeter and got the stop. Coulibaly called an iso the second Jak switched on, and he did a great job staying in front and leveraging his height to force the stop for the Raptors.
Offensively, he was the perfect fifth starter. Jak operated as a playmaker from the top of the arc, hitting cutters, handling DHOs well, and finishing plays at the rim. Also, despite being a non-shooting big, Jak’s ability to still space the floor and know where to be is perfect for this team. His role isn’t hard, and he didn’t overcomplicate it offensively. Health-wise, Jak also looked good getting up and down the court, and did a good job keeping up with a much younger Alex Sarr.
Now to Mr. Barrett.
As much as I’ll keep stressing that Barrett needs to become a more reliable outside shooter, he did everything else a role player needed to do Friday. He finished with 23 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and one block, shooting an efficient 9-of-15 from the floor and 1-of-5 from three.
What really stood out with Barrett was his hustle on the glass and in transition, along with his effort defensively. In the opening four minutes of this game, Barrett was a key part in forcing three Wizards turnovers. RJ was exceptional at closing out possessions and extending them with his activity on the glass both ways and was an easy man to hit in transition every time the Raptors' fast break started.
Barrett also was very good as a help defender and seemed to understand rotations a lot better in this one compared to the past. Very promising stuff.
Also, in a game where Scottie Barnes and Kawhi Leonard weren’t getting respect from the refs, he did a great job forcing them to blow the whistle when he got downhill.
What needs fixing: STOP FOULING!
What will likely be a massive topic of conversation at practice after this game is defending without fouling. Yes, Trae Young is a master at drawing fouls, and what makes the Raptors special defensively a lot of the time is their aggressiveness. However, your opponent shooting 35 free throws isn’t a recipe for sustainable success in the NBA.
Having Leonard, Collin Murray-Boyles, and Immanuel Quickley go into the half with three fouls each, and Barnes, Jamal Shead, and Ja’Kobe Walter with two, can’t happen. Did it get better as the game progressed? Yes. But you can’t win consistently like this, and better teams than the Wizards will dominate you when given the kind of advantage that consistently being in the bonus creates.
This group is too talented defensively to have none of the nine players who logged 10-plus minutes finish the game with fewer than 2 fouls. Given their versatility and length, they can match up with anyone without even being aggressive if they can just guard for 24 seconds and stay disciplined.
What concerns me: 7/34 from three
I feel like this may be a theme all season, but the Raptors' perimeter scoring attack is brutal. Toronto shot 7-of-34 from three-point range, and while they still found a way to win, the Wizards also didn’t have a great shooting night from deep themselves. Washington shot 12-of-37, and poor shooting nights aren't going to be able to bail Toronto out all season.
To start the game, I liked the way the Raptors were being aggressive shooting the three-ball because it felt like at some point they'd start to fall. They didn’t. Going into a game with the Minnesota Timberwolves shooting like this is going to make for some ugly losses. Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball took 30 of the Wolves' 50 threes Wednesday and shot 46 percent on those attempts as a duo.
Three-point shooting was always going to be a concern with this group. That’s nothing new. No one is saying they have to match teams like Minnesota when it comes to spacing the floor—it just can’t be as bad as it was against the Wizards. Thankfully, this is only game 2 of 82, so there’s plenty of time to figure it out, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little concerned about this group's three-point shooting.
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