Transcription
The Raptors grind their way to a win. A win to tie the series versus the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was a defensive, dirty type of game. Let's go to the film room.
The only thing that's originally filmed is that, and I, I've studied older films and tried to figure out how I got that impression. I always get really cutting the. Unique thing about filming our.
Oh man, it's crazy because I came to you guys after the Raptors won in game three and said that that was one of the best Raptors games that I've seen in my life. And I come to you after this one and say that this was one of the best Raptors games I've seen in my life. A 93-89 victory, a game in which the final score. Um, and the, the end score in the first quarter was 17-4. It was ugly. It was grinded out. They had to play really, really hard-nosed defense. The shots weren't falling. You know, the, the Cavaliers shot 37% from the field and 25% from three. Toronto shot 13% from three and 32% from the field and they won the game. That was the first time in NBA history since 1970, the merger of the NBA and ABA, that a team won with that poor of a field goal percentage in a playoff game. Contextualize that for yourself. How did the Raptors do that? Well, I broke down, I, I've listed out eight plays in the final two and a half, three minutes, maybe even five minutes of the fourth quarter that defined this game and that allowed the Raptors to pull out a, a historic win.
All right, so Brandon Ingram struggled in this game offensively. He did some good things on on defense and as a rebounder, but uh, the Cavs were doing it with these mid-post opportunities. Uh, Brandon just really missed some shots here, but because of the secondary help, watch as everybody knows Brandon Ingram is going to go to this turnaround. Jared Allen comes to help and that immediately creates an offensive rebounding opportunity for a guy like Koloko to crash the glass. The help-side rotation opens up Koloko who absolutely capitalizes with this thunderous dunk. Want to highlight this defensive possession. The next trip down. RJ Barrett one-on-one against Donovan Mitchell does a great job of thwarting this drive. Koloko with the contest. And I also want to acknowledge here Brandon Ingram with the rebound. I, I talked about it in the other film room. Some of the lackadaisical effort from BI. Him getting to this rebound also led to him getting fouled. Also led to him knocking down a free throw that chipped away at the lead. A little bit later, RJ Barrett getting that paint touch, forcing the help defense. Again, this creates an offensive rebounding opportunity for Koloko, who just understands spacing in these moments. Koloko crashes the offensive glass. Defense is now all the way pinched in. It creates a wide-open three-point shot for Brandon Ingram. Clutch, clutch shot.
A minute left in the game now. Once again, RJ Barrett on Sam Merrill. This is something that they like. Barrett just barrels his way to the basket through contact and finishes. Raptors now down one. And this right here, folks, is one of the smartest basketball plays you will see in all of the postseason. There's 47 and a half seconds left in the game, 22 seconds left on the shot clock, and the Cleveland Cavaliers have not advanced the ball yet. They need to advance this ball in six seconds in order to not have a shot clock violation. So, they are slow rolling this thing. And as you notice right now, right here, there is 17 seconds left on the shot clock. So they have one second to get across. It's also worth noting Jamal Shed right here is going to shoot this gap understanding the time in the moment. You see actually he's looking at the shot clock on the other side of the court. He recognizes this moment with some incredible defensive timing forces the shot clock violation. An incredible job by the way to try and keep this ball in bounds. And it was a shot clock violation. He immediately knew it. He knew what he was doing. He pointed to the, to the uh, shot clock. The referees had to kind of converse, but it was already there. A shot clock violation. Shed celebrating afterwards. That is genuinely one of the best plays that you'll see defensively in all of this play out front. The IQ, the understanding of the game. Uh, it was incredible stuff from Jamal Shed there.
So now Raptors with an extra possession and they get Scotty Barnes the ball. Uh, they've used these guard screening actions to open up things for their wings and that is exactly what uh, they do in this situation. RJ Barrett, they're trying to get Donovan Mitchell involved in this action. Dean Wade just slips and it creates an open runway for Scotty Barnes to get downhill. Now Jared Allen trying to contest, draws the foul. Scotty goes on to knock down two free throws. Two clutch free throws here and he was 11 of 14 from the free throw line all game. He went on to knock down a couple more later as well. Sticking with the defense, Scotty Barnes was incredible on Donovan Mitchell in this game. We, we'll talk about that a little bit later. Uh, Mitchell, he's, he's on his hip. He's going to show him length, but also Koloko here stepping up as the, the helper. And also Brandon Ingram worth noting that he has his eyes on Evan Mobley here defensively. Raptors very connected on the defensive side. They force Mitchell into a tough shot. They force Mobley into a tough uh, you know, tip-in and Brandon Ingram with the clutch rebound. Don't worry about whether that was out on BI or not because the Cavaliers already used up their challenge. So after two clutch free throws, two more clutch free throws from Scotty Barnes, they needed another defensive stop, a massive one. Uh, here Scotty Barnes full-court press on James Harden. Now, Donovan Mitchell, Koloko has to perfectly guard this without fouling. The Raptors opted not to foul. Up three, instead trusting their defense. Koloko with a great contest. And that is what she wrote, folks. The Raptors win the game because of those kinds of plays, those incredible efforts. And honestly, it came from everybody. It came from everybody. It was the Koloko offensive rebounds and defensive plays. It was the Scotty Barnes drive to the basket drawing free throws. It was RJ Barrett barreling his way to the basket two times in order to one create an offensive rebound and two finish at the basket in the dying seconds of the game. Also, Brandon Ingram knocking down that clutch three-point shot. The Raptors only knocked down four threes in this game and that was one of them. So, it is, it's monumental that BI knocked down that three. It felt like uh, you know, I actually in the media section tonight. I put my hands up to the heavens because it truly felt like it was a miracle that he hit that shot. That's how bad of an offensive game this was, not only for Brandon Ingram, but for basically everybody on the court. And so, winning plays and winning moments. BI knocks down that clutch shot. He grabs two massive rebounds in the fourth quarter. At the same time, Jamal Shed forces that turnover, the shot clock violation. I didn't highlight it here, but it's also worth noting in a scramble possession, Jamal Shed had two stops on James Harden as well in that fourth quarter. Everybody on that team impacted the game in a massive, massive way. It was incredible to watch.
And this was a weird game, y'all. It was a very, very strange game. A 1:00 PM start. And it's funny because I went to practice uh on Saturday. A couple of the media folks were asking about 1:00 PM starts and I'm like, man, this can't be that big of a deal. You know, these players have played 1:00 PM games before. It can't be that big of a deal that they are playing at 1:00 PM on Sunday. They are professional athletes. It necess, it doesn't even matter. Doesn't matter that it's a 1:00 PM game. I was wrong. I was wrong. This was the most 1:00 PM game of all time. This was the ugliest basketball game from an offensive perspective that I have probably seen. I had a couple of people in the media uh like just like NBA folks text me afterwards. They're like, "How is it in person? Is it as bad as it is in person as it is on TV?" And I, I kept telling them, I'm like, "No, it's actually a lot of fun in person because it was, it was actually laughable the shots that were being missed here." And this was on both sides. Like uh, the, the shot-making, some of the easy looks that Donovan Mitchell missed in this game, some of the easy looks that uh, you know, Max Strus missed in this game. He was 0 for five in this one. Um, it just, it was from both sides. I mean, Jalen Suggs was 0 for nine in this game, 0 for eight from three, and most of those were really good looks. Jamal Shed was 0 for five from three. Uh, Precious Achiuwa only took three shots. Uh, RJ Barrett eight of 22. Brandon Ingram six of 23. Like offense was just tough to come by in this game, man. So I was wrong. The 1:00 PM start matters. It matters gravely. And it, it, you know, I know people are going to bring up, oh, you know, James Harden, he was probably out last night. Whatever. Donovan Mitchell, he was probably out last night. Bro, it was both teams that that were impacted by the 1:00 PM start. Uh, at the same time, I think a lot of credit has to be made to the Raptors defense and the adjustments that they've made all series. Uh, a credit to Darko Rajaković and his coaching staff for how they've figured out ways to nullify a lot of the things that the, the Cavaliers have tried to do.
If we do a little bit of a rewind, game one was pick-and-roll craft from James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. They were destroying them in pick-and-rolls. Jared Allen and Evan Mobley were dominating on the inside. It was a, it was a situation where they were finding it so impossible to stop them. And RJ Barrett was getting attacked. Jakob Poeltl was getting attacked. None of those guys did a good enough job of guarding in conventional defensive schemes. So, the Raptors in game two decided, okay, we're going to try to take away the ball from uh, from Mitchell and Harden, and we're going to blitz a little bit. We're going to force these guys into isolation possessions. Uh, we're going to force them to get away from the ball. Um, and we're going to force them to beat us with jump shots. Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. Those two guys beat them with jump shots. They took and made some incredible shots in isolation. The Cavaliers at that point in the series were number one in the NBA in the playoffs in isolation scoring and it was because of game two. It's, it was because of how prolific Mitchell and Harden were at carving up the Raptors in isolation. So game three, the strategy, and I think this part kind of bled into the end of game two as well, but the Raptors started showing a lot and help. And so it was, hey, we're going to double and trap Mitchell and Harden, and we're going to force the ball into Mobley and Allen's hands. And those guys have to make decisions. Those guys have to make shots. Those guys have to do it all for this team. We are not going to let James Harden or Donovan Mitchell get comfortable in this game. We're going to top lock them. Uh, we are going to make it so that we are playing deny defense on James Harden so he can't get the ball to initiate actions. We're going to do it so that James Harden can't get above the break. All of these things worked really, really well because James uh, because Jared Allen and Evan Mobley uh, didn't have the greatest games and so the Raptors were able to dominate in game three. They carried over that exact same game plan tonight. They did the exact same thing tonight. Uh, if only they did it to a Cavaliers team that struggled immensely offensively. And I, I know the shot-making from James Harden will be in question here. You know, six of 24, him not making his shots, it's valid. Yeah. Like if he knocked down more shots, maybe the game plan changes. Maybe the way the Raptors defensive scheme works gets flipped. But the Raptors forced Evan Mobley and Jared Allen to beat them. And those guys combined to go five of 15 in this game. Your two centers, the two front court players for the Cleveland Cavaliers, those guys combined to make $75 million for the Cavs when they went five of 15. They just weren't able to impose themselves physically at all. Uh, and their, their inability to make quick decisions and quick reads to create openings for other guys really limited the Cavs offense. And so the Raptors have sort of flipped the script here, you know, tying this series in a way that now it feels like the Raptors have a chance to win this series because of how well they have uh, game-planned for what the Cavs are trying to do. I think it's awesome. It's again, it's a credit to Darko Rajaković. It's a credit to the coaching staff for understanding what the Cavs weaknesses are. Uh, and also really, really highlighting those weaknesses and turning them into the focal point of the series. How are the Cavs big men going to respond in game five? I think that is the biggest question moving forward is how Jared Allen, how Evan Mobley are going to impact the game because they over the last couple of games have not been able to impact the game whatsoever. The reasoning for that though, you know, the reasoning for Darko Rajaković being able to have this kind of like mishmash, you know, really aggressive defensive style where they are basically starting their defensive scheme in rotation. And I talked about that in game three where they'll send two to the ball for Mitchell and Harden. Now, it's a three-on-four situation with Mobley or Allen or Dean Wade or whoever, and they have to make plays. And the reason they're comfortable doing that is because the Raptors have two defenders who are genuinely some of the best defenders I've ever seen in the NBA in Scotty Barnes and Koloko. Those two just know how to react and recover and play instinctually defensively. Those two uh, let's see what they combined for in terms of stocks and rebounds and blocks, excuse me. Uh, three stocks combined and three blocks, sorry, three steals and three blocks combined for Scotty Barnes and Koloko. I want to break down some of their defensive plays uh and just exactly what they're doing to bother James Harden and Donovan Mitchell because I think it's really important to show you guys just how Darko is deploying his two best defenders, uh, entrusting in them to just put fires out constantly. And it's a big part of this series. It's flipped the script in this series and it's made it so that the Raptors now have the momentum going into game five. Uh, let's talk about Koloko and Scotty, the defensive monsters.
So Scotty Barnes is playing deny defense on Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. Here it's on Donovan Mitchell and just forcing, making it a lot harder for him to catch the ball. They're also top-blocking this situation. Right. So top-blocking means they are trying to make it so that in screening actions, Donovan Mitchell can't pop out to this area of the floor. Uh, he's so deadly above the break because of his pull-up shooting, because of his shot creation, because of the amount of space that he has here. So instead, they're forcing Mitchell to go into the paint and try to work off of the ball. So that right there is one of the number one game plans for him. And as you see here, right, right here, he's being top-locked. Like that moment right there where he is not being allowed to pop out to above the break. That is top-blocking. Uh, and that exactly is what allows uh, Scotty to just be incredible defensively. This recovery and this block. And I just want to highlight like the, the load that Scotty Barnes carries for this team defensively. Not only in pick-and-roll situations does he have to tag Jared Allen here as the roller, but he has to also get back to James Harden on the weak side. So boom, he tags Jared Allen, uh, stunts Donovan Mitchell and has to recover out to James Harden and contest this. All right, so deny defense here from Scotty Barnes again on Donovan Mitchell, just not letting him get the ball. Like you're not allowed to come up and catch this ball. We're not going to let you do that because you force too many issues for us. So we're just going to deny this ball from you. You can cut back door. We trust our help defense. And if Donovan Mitchell were to cut back door, guess who's here? It's Koloko. Like they trust their defense to be put in rotation that way. And so Schroeder tries to attack. And now the second piece of the puzzle here because it's denied defense. And by the way, watch this. Like Donovan Mitchell hasn't moved. Scotty Barnes doesn't even have his eyes on the rest of the possession. He is only squarely guarding Donovan Mitchell. Uh, the other part is Koloko at the basket protecting the paint. Mobley, good contest and Koloko. Raptors get the defensive stop. Koloko defensively again, just trying to get the ball out of James Harden and Donovan Mitchell's hands. Here they trap, uh, or excuse me, they actually didn't trap. So just trying to get the ball out of James Harden's hands. Clutch situ, just trying to get the ball out of James Harden's hands again. Three-on-four situation and you have Scotty Barnes here and you have Koloko here. Those two playmakers on defense have to make a play. It's a three-on-four situation. Jaylen Tyson has James Harden in the weak side. He also has Jared Allen as the lob threat. He has options to make plays, but he's also making them against two of the best defenders on the Raptors. Boom. Block. Raptors get a stop. Again, more deny defense. So, as you see here, Scotty Barnes making it really hard for James Harden to catch this ball. Good ball pressure by James uh, Jamal Shed on Dean Wade. And it makes it so that the, the, the Raptors are making it so that these other guys have to beat them. Now Dean Wade trying to attack. Can't find anything. Again, good denial and ball pressure by both Jamal Shed and RJ Barrett. He has to force up this shot. Man, you live with that every single day. And look, even when the Cavs are able to get their guy in the action if they want to get James Harden on the ball, just the recovery and timing of the Raptors help-side defenders is incredible because you have Koloko here as the help defender. You have Scotty who's also recovering. Like these two guys are going to make a play in this situation. Koloko steps up and Scotty also able to recover. Also, the rebounding from Koloko is massive. Again, elite ball pressure by Scotty Barnes on James Harden, forcing him into a tough shot while not fouling. Good job of uh, Koloko showing in this situation and also getting the rebound. So, this right here is top-blocking. So, you see again the pin-down coming uh, and he is denying him access to this screen. He is denying James Harden access to the screen. So now Scotty forcing James Harden out of this action, forcing him to try and get the ball in a different way. But this is what's incredible about Scotty Barnes. Even if there is a pick-and-roll situation and now Jared Allen is trying to attack the basket, Scotty can switch on to Jared Allen and guard him and contest the shot in a leap. Again, effort here by Scotty Barnes. James Harden gets the switch on Jakob Poeltl. And this is what I mean by the, the doubles, right? You are forcing these guys to get the ball out of their hands. He has to pass it to Evan Mobley here. This is the right pass to make, but also you're forcing your other guys to beat you. And boom, Scotty with the deflection. Scotty with the contest. Raptors get another stop. So now the Cavs are trying to use Donovan Mitchell as a screener. Uh, that doesn't change much for them. Raptors are switching everything here. Scotty picks up Jaylen Tyson again. It is Koloko here with the weak-side help. Um, and exactly a block even if it's an offensive rebound. The Raptors live with this. Like this is part of their defensive scheme. They are okay with the fact that they are going to get offensive rebounds. Of course, they want to crash the glass and make sure that they uh, you know, close out possessions, but this is part of their defensive scheme. Raptors eventually get the defensive stop and the rebound. And then just ball pressure by Jamal Shed and Jalen Suggs in the corner here forces Harden into a really tough pass. Koloko with the steal and that is why those two guys are incredible defensively.
I, I mean, in a game where everything was predicated on defense, the advantage leaned Raptors. Uh, and, and I, I actually tweeted about this early in the game. I was like, man, this game is so ugly and so gross. And I, I say ugly and gross in good ways. You know, I don't, I'm not using those words in in bad or demeaning ways. It just was a grimy, grinded-out type of game. And I, I tweeted midway through, I'm like, I'm not sure who this necessarily benefits. Whether if the Cavs start knocking down their shots, they can completely destroy the Raptors here or because of how, how grimy and grinded out it was, how much of a boxing match, how much of a rock fight it was, does this give the advantage to the Raptors because of how great they are defensively? And tonight it was advantage Raptors. Uh, I think, you know, outside of the shooting and the, the offensive woes, this was a game that the Raptors completely dominated defensively. And again, it comes back to their defensive scheme. It comes back to how much they trust in Scotty Barnes and Koloko to clean things up for them. But this was a massive win. This was a testament to, again, like game three was, it's a testament to what the Raptors are building. Darko Rajaković has mentioned it a bunch over the last week and and how invaluable this experience is for all of these young guys to learn so much about themselves in playoff situations. I think it's incredible that like Jamal Shed is making one of the most clutch defensive plays of the season because the Raptors have closed games with Jamal all season in the regular, regular season and he's had great plays. He's had clutch moments and for him to like have that translate in the playoffs, I think it's a big sign for him as a player. Again, he wasn't great offensively, but you got what you needed from him in the moments where you, it was required. At the same time, you can say that for four or five guys on this roster. RJ Barrett, again, not an efficient night, eight of 22, but you don't win that game without those two clutch moments that he had in the fourth quarter. Scotty Barnes was incredible in this game. He won the chain tonight. 23 points, nine rebounds, six assists, and four stocks. Like, his ability to impact the game in multiple ways. I think Scotty Barnes has been the best player in this series. And that is once again, it just reaffirms what the Raptors are building, gives them a lot of data and information to work with heading into a very important offseason. And I know there's going to be conversations about Brandon Ingram. BI did not have a good game. You know, offensively, he did not have a good game. 23 points on 23 shots. Uh, it felt like he was just trying to empty the clip to get back into rhythm. Uh, he has not been able to get back into rhythm. Some of these shots, bro, are ones that he made in his sleep in the regular season. Side-step, mid-range jump shots, just out or wide-open catch-and-shoot threes, just nowhere close to the basket. Like, this is, this is something he is clearly working through. And so, I feel for him as much as as much as it's like he needs to play better and he needs to use that leverage. He had zero assists tonight. He needs to use that leverage to create opportunities for his teammates. I do feel for the fact that this guy is kind of going through something right now offensively in a very important moment of the season. That's just tough. At the same time, as the shots not falling and the playmaking isn't where you want it to be from BI, I do think he had good defensive moments in this game. He had two really important blocks in important junctures, whether it was that Evan Mobley block uh at the end of the second quarter. He had another block later in the game uh in a in a crucial moment as well. Again, in a game that was shaped by defense, Brandon Ingram giving you rebounding and and defensive opportunities, I think is really massive. Uh, I asked him on Saturday in practice like, "Hey, when the shot isn't falling, like what's your mentality? How do you stay active in a game?" And he said, "I just need to make sure it doesn't bleed into my defense, bleed into my rebounding." And I have to credit him there because even though the shot didn't fall, I, I don't think it bled into his defense and his rebounding. I thought his effort on that end was was good. So despite not having a good offensive game, Brandon Ingram was was massive in this game. He was very important for the Raptors winning. He knocked down that clutch three. He, he made his shot when he needed to. And of course, he had some very, very important moments as well. He needs to be better. You know, if the Raptors actually want to win this series, if they actually want to close out the Cavaliers and upset them, he needs to actually have good offensive games. Um, but man, this Raptors team is is full of surprises. And they have, you know, I, I said Cavaliers in in six. It might end up being Cavaliers in six, who knows? But the Raptors now have a very good chance of winning this series. And like I said before, part of that is defensive adjustments, but it's also like finding ways to win, finding unique ways to win that we just did not anticipate. I don't think anybody anticipated Koloko being able to give you 15 points in a playoff game and doing so consistently. Like if you look at Koloko's uh first four games in the series, 14-4 and four in game one, 17-7 and one in game two, 22-8 and two in game three, 15-10 and three in game four. He has scored. He scored. He has scored consistently. And that's just not something I, I could have anticipated. And I, I think that is a, a unique development for the Raptors that is allowing them to carve out an advantage that probably nobody predicted. Their physicality has really reshaped this series and it has now forced the Cavaliers to be the ones who have to adjust and to to find something. If Evan Mobley and Jared Allen continue to play like this, I, I think the Raptors will probably um, either force seven or win to win this series. It, the impetus is on them now to counter and to give the Raptors something to work with because the Raptors have flipped the script. The Raptors are now the ones dictating everything in this game. Uh, we will see how it goes. It's going to be fascinating. I can't wait. These next three games I, wow. I, I kind of Freudian slip there. I, I predicted seven. Uh, but these next couple of games will be incredible. I'm very excited. Uh, I can't wait. I think there's just so much there. And by the way, the crowd has been awesome. Game three was loud. Game four was very loud. I'm sure you guys heard it on the broadcast, but the energy is palpable. And these guys completely are are living off of it. The defensive intensity again, like that final minute, the Jamal Shed turnover or forcing the turnover, uh, the Koloko contest on Donovan Mitchell, all of that, the energy was just bubbling in the arena. It was like it was going to explode. Uh, it was incredible to watch. And I will also say just a side note for fan interaction and whatnot, Koloko is becoming a very, very popular Raptor. Every single time he does something, checks in the game, checks out of the game, whatever, there's a pretty loud ovation or like an applause. And I can't blame them. Like he is playing incredible basketball. He should be getting a, a massive round of applause. But it's happened pretty quickly. And I think it's because Raptors fans, uh, you know, being smart and all, have caught on that this is, this is a guy. This is not just some guy. This is a guy, uh, that they probably will be watching very, for a very long time. It's awesome. Very good.
By the way, I didn't mention him at all. I think it's worth mentioning Jakob Poeltl had a pretty good game in a game where offense was nowhere to be found. Jakob Poeltl putting in 10 points and six rebounds for you is pretty big. Uh, he went four of seven from the field. He had a couple of nice finishes off of pick-and-rolls. You kind of take that. He's had better games here in game three and game four, but it's, it's completely flipped. Like Koloko in this game played 27 minutes. Jakob Poeltl played 20. I think we know now even despite Jakob Poeltl starting, who's the guy who's going to be closing out games? Who's the guy who's going to be playing playing more minutes in this game? It's just what this series has has has dictated. Like maybe there will be a series where Jakob Poeltl is more important because of size and whatever, but it, it hasn't mattered in this series. This is, this is the other part with Koloko. All of the questions that you might have had about him, whether it's his offensive utility or his size or anything like that, it hasn't mattered. He has completely bulldozed his way through any of that skepticism, which is what is incredible about this. I, I find myself baffled when I'm watching him. I'm like, man, how did he crash that offensive? How did he get that rebound over two seven-footers over Jared Allen and Evan Mobley? Those guys can't put a body on him. It's incredible to watch, man. I just, I, I can't believe it, man. The Raptors have two incredible defenders in Scotty Barnes and Koloko and they are are making a team that has some defensive misfits play an incredibly def, incredible defensive series. What a series. I can't wait to see what happens next. Uh, folks, as always, make sure to like, comment, subscribe to Raptors Republic. We appreciate you guys as always. Thank you very much. Keep listening to Pullup Trey. They do live shows right after each game. So, if you guys are interested in like live reactionary stuff, Pull-Up Trey does that. Uh, they will do that after every game this series. So, tap with those guys. Uh, I mean, maybe we only got three left. Maybe the Raptors head to the conference semi-finals. Who knows, man? At this point, who knows? Anything is possible. As always, we appreciate you guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. We'll see you guys later. Peace out.