Postgame Pod: Walter Treys, Barnes Dishes Pace Raptors to Win

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1:00We have the tech to get food delivered in 15 minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets. The Game Time app gives fans the advantage, get amazing tickets in just a few taps. Fees are included, so what you see is what you pay. And the Game Time guarantee means authentic tickets at the best price every time. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to concerts, sports, comedy, and more with Game Time. Download the Game Time app and create an account for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Welcome to the Raptors Post GamePod. My name's Emmith Manth. Thanks for tuning in as the Toronto Raptors win. 19106 over the New Orleans Pelicans. The Raptors moved to 41 and 32 and back into the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference, the Atlanta Hawks. They did lose today to the Boston Celtics, so they go down to sixth. And yeah, the Raptors go right back into that fifth spot where they ought to be for the rest of the season if things go according to plan.

2:01And meanwhile, the Miami Heat, they also fell today. They fell 149, 128 to the Cleveland Cavaliers. So some good news there is for the Toronto Raptors as both Osquas lose and they win. So that's gonna help in the scanning's mightily, but as we know, things are extremely tight in the Eastern Conference between 5th and 10th. There's still a game and a half separating the fifth spot in the 10th spot. That is serious and the Raptors, they got the Orlando Magic on Sunday and in that matchup, whoever does win, we'll have the tiebreaker between those two teams. So a big matchup for the Raptors on this coming Sunday, but today they did beat the New Orleans Pelicans. No Dejante Murray and this one, no trade Murphy either. Dejante, the more consequential subtraction from the lineup because of everything that went down a couple of weeks ago against Jamal Shed and the Raptors,

3:02all of this celebrating and hooting and hollering and pointing and yelling and the Raptors, they didn't get retaliation, no revenge. It's too bad. Would have liked to see something. Some kind of fireworks, you know, just show us that you, I don't know if they had planned, they must have had something planned after all the conversation around their lack of reaction to, you know, Dejante standing over Jamal Shed like the way that he did. Anyways, no, Dejante did not play, manual quickly did not play. He is still suffering with some plantar fasciitis and just wanna mention this before we continue here that pregame, Darko was asked about IQ and he is expected to be back soon, but he did say something to the effect of, but really, I mean, he needs two, three, four weeks off for this to fully heal, but he's coming back probably soon. So make of that what you will, not what you wanna hear for your starting point guard, but that's where things are. And with the Raptors tonight against the Pelicans,

4:05they did go with a different kind of starting lineup and I kind of liked it. It was Brandon Angrum, Scotty Barnes, Yakka Prittle, RJ Barrett, all the same there, but then here's Jacobi Walther, one of, if not the hottest three point shooter on the team, so Jamal Shed, he was relegated to the bench, relegates to a ugly word, he was moved to the bench, Jacobi Walther, inserted into the starting lineup and Jacobi was awesome tonight and that spacing that he provides, you can tell that teams are responding to the fact that he is just a knockdown shooter. Since the All-Star break, he's been incredible, he's 27 of his last 46. And when Jacobi's knocking down shots like this, when anyone's knocking down shots like this, the defense will respond. And for a little while, you're wondering as an opponent, okay, is this a hot streak? Is this gonna be a three game thing, four game thing, five game thing, but then he keeps on making him and making him and then there's new elements to the shots that he's making and Jacobi, he's continuing to make those, so maybe this is just who he is.

5:06And there are some fun things that Raptors have been doing with him, which we'll get to in just a second, but let's just start with the offense as a whole, because the team collectively did shoot the ball really well and they got downhill at will against this Pelicans team, a team that just does not protect the rim very well. So the Raptors, they take what? It's, they have 40, 45% of their shots are inside 14 feet against the Pelicans, that's a lot. That's a lot of rim penetration from the Raptors and accuracy wise, around the rim, they shot 68%. So they're getting downhill a lot and they're finishing pretty well around the basket. That's a bad recipe for the Pelicans and with them not having to jonte Murray or trade Murphy, you can see some of the holes that they have even more so. I mean, the point of attack defense of the jonte Murray, that was the difference maker in the last matchup against the Raptors. And I imagine he would have been

6:09mighty handy in this particular game against Scotty Barnes, who was the starting point guard for the Raptors and yeah, they probably could have used some of his aggression, some of his ball stopping at the point of attack. They didn't have him and the Raptors were able to do whatever they wanted for the most part. They didn't even shoot, like they probably could have shot a lot better actually on the Raptors side, but I mean, you look at the numbers and it's still very good. They shoot 51.6% from the field, 35% from three, 72% from the free throw line, 36 assists on 48 made field goals. They forced 14 turnovers in a lead to 18 points for the Raptors. So that recipe was there as well. And yeah, the Raptors, I mean, they just were able to get to the rim through not even running complicated actions. They were just able to get there again and again, again, through their first or second action. So even the pelicans, they're not making them go deep into shot clocks.

7:11The Raptors did a great job of playing with pace. And when the Raptors are playing with pace and they're able to get in transition, they're gonna be really good. And let's move on to our second point, which is the point, God, Scotty Barnes. Who was awesome tonight? Scotty tonight, what are the numbers? 23 points on 10-o-14 shooting, 12 assists, two steals, three blocks, very nice numbers for Scotty Barnes there. And one of my favorite sequences for him is at the beginning of the game, he gets this big, big cram on the pelicans player and Alvin Williams, he's using this cheese and crackers saying after a big play, I kinda dig it. So he yells out cheese and crackers and by time he finishes, now Scotty is blocking the ball on the defensive end and off-ball block he can test from behind. This great stuff from Scotty, that led to a bucket as well. But then when it comes to his passing, this is the interesting thing about Scotty Barnes

8:12being able to be a full-time point guard, at least for a game, is that the Raptors end up playing a lot faster. You just think about the long strides and how quickly he's able to get down the court, his head is always up. So we have that vision capacity in that port guard mentality where you gotta have your head up constantly. And Scotty, he was picking them apart on the pelican side. It didn't matter what they were trying to throw at him. There were just too many advantages for the Raptors with their starting lineup. And again, this is all in contrast to the previous matchup with the Raptors, didn't have a lot of advantages for whatever reason that's they didn't play very well that day. But today, the Raptors, they were all to throw their body around a little bit and that also leads to what Scotty Barnes does the best, which is he's able to get down hill. He's able to use his size, his height, and his wingspan to see over traffic and to find open men. And he did that throughout the night. And he kept the Raptors playing fast. His long-range passes, he must have thrown like six of them.

9:16And a lot of them converted into buckets, whether it was Mamu, whether it was Jacobi or RJ Barrett. Those guys were getting down the floor. And I'm sure Scotty pregame, he was probably telling them like, get the hell down there, okay? Because of the fact that I'm gonna find you. And Scotty was showing off his passing chops throughout the night and it led to great things for the Raptors. It just makes you think how they can utilize Scotty in this passing talent of his, more so. And what's funny about this running line of tonight is that because IQ wasn't there, and this isn't anything against IQ, it's just a nature of having a very, I guess top heavy roster is that there's only one ball out there for all five of them. And I'm talking about the starting line up with usually IQ in there. And so you're everyone's trying to balance getting each other touches. And of course you're trying to mismatch hunt, you're trying to seek out advantages and do what's best for your team. Obviously every team has a weakness in some capacity,

10:16and maybe not the OKC Thunder and some other ones. But most of them have some kind of weakness that you can attack and the Raptors through their size at the small forward position and well, the four positions in general. Yaka Pertel, of course, his rolling ability and his pop of Pertel's in a menu quickly, his shooting gravity. You put these all together and there's something that the Raptors can always attack. But when it's Jacobi Walther in there, it's almost like it allows the other three guys in Barrett Barnes and Ingram to settle into offensive threats, essentially, where they're more willing to be the guys that are going to take the shots, essentially. And against this Pelicans team, Herb Jones is the decent defender, but Jeremiah Fears is a rookie. He did not have a great night. And he was the victim of several Barnes or Ingram or Barrett attacks, because this is just what he's able to do. And aside from that, we are talking about a Pelicans team

11:17that yes, they had a good game against the Raptors previously, but they do not want to compete for 24 seconds of a shot clock. They don't want to defend like that. That's not what their makeup is. They got a lot of guys. I don't got to go through it. I mean, they lost this game anyways. But they got a lot of guys that just don't have whether it be the focus, the concentration, or the will to do it for four different kinds of actions in a possession. And that's kind of how they're built. That's how they currently are. And so if the Raptors run their offense, which they did, and they truly put passing at the forefront, they're going to find good stuff. And they didn't do a good job at that last time. Tonight, they did a much better job at that. And if they were able and willing to seek out opportunities and to touch the paint and move off ball, show off their chemistry as a unit on the offensive end, they were able to get a lot of good looks

12:18in the half court. And then of course, the transition aspect, when they're able to force turnovers, they're getting out on the break. And when they're out there, good things happen for the Raptors. And also where they're at three point shooting too, is that it helps them get some cleaner looks out there. That builds confidence, that builds a mojo. And that all leads back to Scotty Barnes and his insistence for the Raptors to run tonight. That stood out to me. And that is where Scotty is at his absolute best. I want to shout out Mamu Kaelish Vili. So this is his third straight game of 10 plus points. And threes are falling again, his burst. I swear, there's something where they're winding him up and they're releasing him and he's just going. His hustle and his attack in transition has been awesome to watch. And it's catching teams off of guard because they're not ready for Mamu to be pretty much just like this one man fast breaking a sense with his willingness to get out there

13:19and create mismatches and it helps the Raptors in terms of stretching out their offense. And when you have a passer like Scotty who is absolutely willing to make that hit ahead pass, Mamu is going to find himself some easy buckets. Tonight he has 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting, three of five from three, nine rebounds as well, which is a trend I also really do like a couple of games though, he had seven, you see a four in here. I like the rebounding from Mamu, especially on the offensive end. Players like him, if you're not hitting a shot, if you're not involved in the action, there's no reason why you can't corner, corner crash. And I don't not sure if the Raptors do a good enough job or at least consistently enough of corner crashing and he, if he's in the dunker spot or if he's in the corner, of course, as a spacer, then he should be trying to find ways to take advantage of the defense when it's not looking

14:20and get in the paint and get the Raptors a couple of offensive rebounds. It means more possessions is a really good thing for any team and the Raptors especially, if they're gonna have issues with their half-court offense, which probably will persist, then let's get some offensive rebounds. Mamu did a great job of that. And it's just good to see that he's finding his groove again. There was a little stretch there where he kind of lost it, ups and downs on an NBA season, the track record for what we've seen and the sample size of Mamu throughout this season. He's already one of the best contracts in the NBA. There's no question about that. I felt like he was gonna find his groove again. And thankfully, he absolutely is at a pretty good time as the Raptors got to win a lot more games to make sure that they are in the fifth spot in the Eastern Conference. Want to move to Jacobi Walter. So I said the numbers before over his last 10 games, 27 of 46 from three in the last 10 games. A season high, 10, three-point attempts for Jacobi.

15:23Had a nice little baseline jump or two off of a baseline out of bounds, which I really enjoyed, a confidence that he showed in bolting up for that. Other times, I'm sure earlier in the season, and this is leading to something, he probably would have just passed it out. And it's all right, let's get into our offense. But right now, Jacobi with the way he's feeling, he's got the green light. And I think that probably has to stay because of the three-point shooting. And what he's able to do for the Raptors. Now that, I'm gonna get ahead of myself. I don't know, maybe I am. If he is this kind of shooter now, okay? Now you can really tinker with how you space him. Now he can be the guy that IQ is usually who is one pass away when Brennan Ingram or Scotty Barnes or RJ Barrett or whoever make him one pass away, so he's the outlet. And now you're making the defense, just think a little bit more. And this is a problem with the Raptors right now, is that they're too predictable. I mean, they're passing, they're cutting up course, it's all good, but teams are gonna stuff that out. And they're eventually gonna force a ball

16:24to a particular player in a particular area. That's just what good defenses do. Teams watch film, they're gonna prepare for it and looking ahead to a playoff series. If stuff like that is where your offensive versatility and skill versatility really stands out. If Jacobi is indeed gonna be this kind of shooter or at least close to it, and the Raptors are giving him the green light to take 10-3s or so a game. And if he keeps on shooting this way, I mean, then why the hell not? Then you can have a lot of fun with where you put him, where you put IQ. This is gonna be like some transitional lunatic because I'm not suggesting that the starting lunatic is gonna change by any means. But if you have both of them on the court and maybe you have Scotty and he's maybe IQ and Jacobi are on the corners. Or maybe you have Scotty Barnes and he's got an empty side. He's gonna be running some pole stops or he's gonna be running some isolation. Whatever the case is, you get a good mismatch. Now you have those two guys facing in different areas and the defense is like, oh, what do we do here?

17:25Because Scotty Barnes is driving towards the paint. You got these 40 plus 3-point shooters here on the opposite wings and corners. How are we gonna cover this? And this is where the raptors have issues making teams uncomfortable with their offense. Yes, being able to go through actions constantly, it can be tiring for a team, especially a team like the Pelicans. But good teams, they don't get tired. They're not gonna get weary of the raptors running their actions. And they're just gonna ensure that the ball goes certain places. That's just what defense is due. Good ones at least. Jacobi Walter shooting this way, it does change the equation for the raptors just a little bit. And if they're gonna give him the green light, like I said, then that offers more options for the raptors and how they deploy him and also a manual quickly. And now it helps RJ bear it in terms of driving lanes. It helps Yacca Pertle when he's running DHOs. There was a play earlier on in the game

18:26where Yacca passes over to Jacobi on the weak side wing. He's coming off of a pin down from Scotty. And it's just an easy three. And it's little elements like that where the raptors just don't have a lot of guys that can hit those shots. Coming into the season, we thought we'd probably have a few more. But the raptors, this haven't had enough guys this season that can do it like that. And it reminds me of a team like the Charlotte Hornets where yes, they are a dynamic offense. They got so many five tool offensive players, but also they just have three points shooting. They have guys that can make those simple kind of plays. Think about how easy that offense is. You have your big station at the top of the key. You run a pin down and the player coming off the pin down is able to hit a catch and shoot three, just like that. Or it's gonna be a three off of some minimal movement or something like that. The raptors have like one, two, three guys.

19:27Maybe that can do that. Well, actually no. James and Battle, Walter, IQ. Maybe RJ Barrett a little bit. If you've been listening to this podcast, you know that I've been enjoying watching that part of RJ's game a flourish a little bit and evolve over the season. But that's kind of kind of it. I guess Mom moved to a little bit too, but how many guys are actually gonna like, you know, get a hard closeout where you can just, you know, negative step and start driving towards the basket. It's not that many. Jacobi is entering that realm of space where teams are gonna start really respecting what he's able to do from beyond the arc. And that element, you start layering on new elements of his game as time goes on. That's more of a future thing than right now. For now, I just want him to keep on hitting threes. Keep on banging him. And the relaxation that I have when I see Jacobi and transition, Scotty, you know, drives the paint. He kicks it out to Jacobi in the corner. And the anticipation, because I've really feel like it's gonna go in. And I just don't feel that enough

20:27with these Toronto Raptors. So good stuff from Jacobi continuing to shoot the ball really well. Great stuff from Mom Move Course, point guard Scotty. Love that to the offense. As a whole was pretty good. How the Raptors guarded Zion Williamson was awesome. It was a lot of Scotty and a lot of, Yakka portal has a help side defender. Or sometimes it was Yak on ball like Zion's. That's a tough dude. Every time I watch Zion, I keep on thinking I'm like, how was this man made? How is his body work? I just, I don't really get it because the freight train element, I mean, it's LeBron James Esk. But there's more power there, but also the same amount of speed in some ways. Like maybe Zion is a little bit more twitchy as a jumper perhaps. And LeBron has more like downhill running speed. But the way that Zion does and the way that he gets through these crevices and the defense and how he explodes through it, it's something else to watch. And there were a couple of times and actually I mean, jeez, RJ,

21:29Barry, I key, hurt his shoulder in the second quarter because of Zion. Because of what Zion is able to do when you just get a little tangled up with them and who gets hurt, it's you. It's not Zion because he's a freight train. So he had a couple of guys bouncing off of him throughout the night tonight. That's just something that happens to not just Raptors players, it's for a lot of players. And it sucks to have to deal with it. There are bruises on the body after dealing with Zion Wilson. I assure you, no doubt about it. I really wish we saw more of CMB and Zion. Another note regarding injuries, CMB did leave today and it wasn't the thumb. He had an amazing block in the first quarter with his left hand and he didn't come out of it, wincing, it was so nice to see. But then later on in the game, at some point, he didn't play in the second half. He did have back spasms, so he did not return, which is sucks for him and for the Raptors.

22:29We'll see if he plays on Sunday against the magic. But that's a fun matchup going forward. I want to see more of that, CMB versus Zion. That's like a ding, ding kind of boxing match, which I look forward to seeing how they get competitive and all that kind of fun stuff. But dealing with the Pogo stick that is Zion Williamson caused issues for the Raptors, like many teams, 22 points for Zion on 9-13 shooting. Cedeague Bay had a great game too. Having a great season as well, career year for him, 19 points on six of 12 shooting, three of six from the three-point line, two assists as well for Cedeague, elsewhere Jordan Poole off the bench, 12 points and a minus 15, that's about right. And Derek Queen, the rookie 13 points, five of 11 shooting, he got taught a lesson by CMB early in the game because Derek's like, oh, I'll just dribble down the cord here. You know, it won't be a problem

23:30because who's gonna guard me out here? And then CMB is like, I will. And long story short, he turned him over and it led to the Raptors getting a bucket. So a powerful lesson for the rookie there with CMBs that you don't try him, especially in open court when you're at that kind of size. So in closing, kind of a shorter podcast, but there really isn't much other things to say here, like the Raptors, they played well, they ran their offense, the Pelicans, kind of a turnstile, didn't have a lot of rim protection either. Deandre Jordan is still doing his thing out there, which is still fun that Deandre is like this kind of leadership in this leadership role, very similar to Garrett Temple, actually, with the Raptors and in different ways, they're relishing it. Previously, Deandre's talked about having to check his ego and accepting this kind of role. And while it took him some time, he has in fact done that and he's in a pretty good spot about it. So very cool for him, eight points, seven rebounds

24:32for Deandre Jordan. And that's gonna just about do it. The Raptors win, 119-106 against the New Orleans team Pelicans, Brandon Ingram, 13 points and five of 13 shooting, Yacca Pertle had 18 points on 9 of 11 shooting and 11 rebounds. So a double, double for Yacca Pertle. Jacobi Walthera, 18 points, RJ Barrett, 18 points, Mamu had 18 as well. CMB before checking out, unfortunately, he had nine points in 12 minutes. And Jameson Battle, he had zero points in four minutes. I only mentioned him because that was the rotation right there. It was those nine guys and then AJ Lawson, well, I guess you got a couple of minutes actually in the second quarter, but John the mobile, Grady Dick, Markel Foltz and Elijah Martin, they got a couple of minutes right at the end of the game there. But the rotation tonight was your starters, CMB, Jamal Shed, Mamu and Jameson Battle and AJ Lawson got like three minutes in the second quarter

25:33as well. So the Raptors win, they look on to, you'll end up magic on Sunday, the very big game for your Toronto Raptors. Also want to mention that the expansion draft in the WMBA is set to go April 3rd at 3.30 pm. You can catch that, I believe on ESPM, but that should be somewhere in Canada as well. So with this one, the Portland Fire and the your Toronto tempo will go back and forth for 12 rounds essentially and pick players. And how it works is that essentially each WMBA team can protect five players. And they have until March 29th to do that. And the rest of the players are a pretty much fair game for this expansion draft. So it's kind of exciting. It's going to be pretty cool to watch and see how all that goes down. But that's like the next big update for the Toronto tempo and something that's going to be pretty crucial

26:34on how they build a roster and what and how competitive they can be this upcoming season for them. Last thing, the Blue Jays win. I'm sure you already saw that. Maybe you're watching that game instead of this one. I don't blame you because I mean, damn, though the Blue Jays are back, pregame ceremony was incredible, Anderson Menes, the walkoff single and the bottom of the ninth. I'm not going to talk about what happened at the top of the ninth. That's for sure. That's for a different day. But the Blue Jays win. Three, two in their home opener to begin the season. All right, too much rambling. I'm getting out of here. Enjoy yourselves. We'll talk to you on Sunday. Yeah, the bird looks out of your leg anyway. Yeah. And Doug, there's nowhere I wouldn't go to help someone customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual. Even if it means sitting front row at a comedy show. Hey, everyone, check out this guy and his bird. What is this, your first date? Oh, no, we help people customize and save on car insurance with Liberty Mutual together. We're married. Me too, a human, him to a bird. Yeah, the bird looks out of your leg anyways.

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