Morning Coffee - Dec. 24, 2024
8 straight losses | Agbagi a breakout under 25 player | All we want for xmas is health
Holiday Notice: Morning Coffee will be on hiatus until January 5th while I’m taking some time with the family. Happy holiday’s and new year’s; I appreciate you all!
Raptors drop eighth straight game in loss to OG Anunoby and New York Knicks - Raptors Republic
Thanks to a great performance behind former Toronto Raptor OG Anunoby, the New York Knicks took down Canada’s team 139-125 Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
The Knicks, who are the league’s second-best team by offensive rating took it to a bottom 10 defensive team in the Raptors, as Toronto allowed the most points they have thus far this season.
The loss marked the Raps’ eighth in a row, their longest of the season and currently the longest streak in the NBA. Toronto now sits 7-23 on the year and has dropped to 1-13 on the road.
A 24-6 run in the middle of the second quarter, thanks to some great 3-point shooting, ballooned the Knicks’ lead, and they wouldn’t look back. New York would lead by 18 points at the half and outscored the Raptors 81-54 in the second and third frames combined.
After Fred VanVleet wasn’t very effective against his former on Sunday, Anunoby was great against the Raps on the second night of a back-to-back. Starting the game 11-for-11 from the field, the 27-year-old finished with 31 points, seven rebounds, four assists, and one steal while only missing two shots all night (13-for-15). The former Raptors wasn’t just scoring on easy open layups either, as he was hitting step backs, drilling looks from deep, and finishing through contact at the rim. Anunoby also finished as a game-high +25 on the night.
Karl-Anthony Towns was the other standout for the Knicks, as he followed up his dagger-three performance from a couple of weeks ago against the Raps with another great performance. The 29-year-old took full advantage of the Jakob Poeltl-less Raptors, going for 31 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists, one steal and shot 11-for-15 from the field.
As for the Raptors, RJ Barrett made his return from an illness against his former team. It started slow for the Mississauga, Ontario native, but he would eventually find his groove, finishing with 23 points, six rebounds, and six assists. Barrett got downhill per usual while drawing a ton of contact, going to the charity stripe 11 times and draining eight shots.
The team’s leader in points last night was Scottie Barnes, who bounced back from one of his worst games of the year the previous night. After only mustering six points on 2-for-15 shooting from the field and 0-for-8 shooting from distance against the Houston Rockets, Barnes put in a much better performance at Madison Square Garden. The 23-year-old put up 24 points to go along with eight assists and three rebounds.
Quick Reaction: Raptors 125, Knicks 139 - Raptors Republic
R. Barrett: A-
33 MIN, 23 PTS, 6 REB, 6 AST, 0 STL, 7-13 FG, 1-4 3FG, 8-11 FT, 0 BLK, 3 TO, -1 +/-
Barrett was consistently getting to the rim and finishing through contact, his hard nosed drives were one of the only reliable sources of offense that Toronto had tonight.
Raptors vs. Rockets, Knicks Dec. 22, 23 Takeaways: Keeping the glass half-full - Raptors in 7
The Ja’Kobe Show
Ja’Kobe Walter was on fire from downtown against the Rockets, scoring the first 14 Raptors points of the game including four triples — the last of which made Matt Devlin hysterical.
The 20-year-old finished the game with a career-high 27 points including six triples in just 28 minutes. It was really cool to see him pop off like this, and probably not something one could see coming considering his inefficiency through both college and 16 NBA games thus far.
There is no doubting Walter plays with a fire in his belly and is a true competitor. Even though the 3-point shot was falling, it was good to see him still look for ways to attack the basket. He plays with a natural flow, happy to ride his hot hand when he had a good look but consistently looking for gaps and driving lanes to attack as well.
He did have 10 free-throw attempts against the Knicks which is cool to see on the surface but bear in mind that six of those attempts came in the final four minutes of garbage time.
Losses pile up for Raptors one year after Knicks trade with win-win promise - Toronto Star
Anunoby made his first 11 shots and finished with 31 points for the Knicks, who are third in the Eastern Conference; the Raptors, who have now lost eight consecutive games, are 7-23 and with the true cellar-dwellers in the NBA.
It’s been that way for a calendar year. The Knicks are 48-27 since the trade, the Raptors 20-61.
There are logical explanations for what’s happened in the 51 weeks since that deal, particularly on the negative side in Toronto: injuries and personal tragedies, a Raptors franchise that simply gave up on the final quarter of last season while chasing enhanced draft lottery odds, and Barrett and Quickley have barely played together in a Toronto uniform (only two games in this entire season).
But the difference in the teams is stark and has been growing from the day the trade was consummated.
Monday night, the Knicks simply picked apart Toronto’s defence at will. They were more physical in the paint, more effective from three-point range and played with more force all over the court.
Scottie Barnes had 24 points and Barrett 23 for the Raptors, but Toronto was never in the game after the first quarter.
The Knicks rung up a 40-point second quarter by shooting 56 per cent from the floor, and forcing six Raptors turnovers, to take control.
The Raptors, still missing Quickley and Jakob Poeltl from the starting lineup because of injuries, lost Jamal Shead to a knee bruise just before tipoff and searched unsuccessfully for an effective group.
Mogbo, forced to play out of position as a starting centre with Poeltl out, was overmatched by Karl-Anthony Towns and replaced by Ja’Kobe Walter to start the third quarter.
And with Shead unavailable, Davion Mitchell couldn’t provide any consistent offensive support.
Raptors lose eighth straight, as OG Anunoby and the Knicks light them up - Toronto Sun
Toronto led by two points a couple of times, but never by more. After taking that advantage early in the second quarter following an even first, the Raptors surrendered a monster Knicks run, with New York going red hot from three-point range, shooting 10-for-20 in the second. Toronto got up only 10 threes in the frame — making three of them — as a season-long issue of being pummelled in three-point differential continued.
By the time the half mercifully closed, Toronto was down 70-52.
Barnes had 14 points through two, Barrett 11. Walter, coming off a career-best game, had six, but Gradey Dick missed all six of his shots in the first half. Anunoby made all six at the other end of the floor, while Towns had 16. Brunson started 0-for-6 from the field and 3-for-6 from the free throw line.
It didn’t get any better for the Raptors in the third, with Anunoby scoring in ways he rarely did during his long run in Toronto. New York went up by as many as 31 points and was ahead by 29 after three.
Barrett, who had been the highest Knicks draft pick since Patrick Ewing when he went third overall in 2019, played only his second career game as a visitor at Madison Square Garden (he scored 20 points in the other one). There was no guarantee Barrett would be able to even suit up, as he’d been a last-minute scratch a night earlier when the Raptors hosted Houston. But he was cleared.
The news wasn’t as good on rookie point guard Jamal Shead, who was coming off his best performance and first double-double. Shead was ruled out due to a right knee contusion. The team was also once again without starting point guard Immanuel Quickley, top centre Jakob Poeltl and Bruce Brown.
Maybe if they’d all played, and perhaps if Barnes didn’t once again look like he was nowhere close to 100% Toronto would have made it more competitive. But against a team with the NBA’s second-best offence and fifth-best net rating (points scored vs. points allowed per 100 possessions), maybe it wouldn’t have.
What should be on Raptors' Christmas wish list? - Sportsnet
It’s not winning and losing that matters so much this season as the process, but all the same, the Raptors could use some success in all these close games they’re playing.
Heading into Monday the Raptors had 16 games end up in a ‘clutch’ situations, where they were ahead or behind by five points or less in the final five minutes of a game. That in itself is a triumph for a team that has won only seven times this season.
Among the lottery or bust crowd, for example, the Washington Wizards have only had eight ‘close’ games this; same as the Utah Jazz. The Portland Trail Blazers have had 12. Even the over-achieving Brooklyn Nets have had only had 14. But the Raptors are 4-12 in those close games, giving them the worst ‘clutch’ winning percentage and the most ‘clutch’ losses.
Heading into the Christmas season, maybe let’s give the man some reliable combinations of his best players being available, a little better judgement on his use of coaches’ challenges, and some better late-game execution overall. The Raptors are just about league average defensively in close games, allowing 112.9 points per 100 possessions, which is actually better than their defence overall (114.9, which is 23rd). But offensively they are a hot mess, mustering just 102.2 points per 100 possessions, meaning Toronto turns every opponent into the league-leading Oklahoma Thunder’s defence in the final minutes of close games. There’s no specific short-coming, it’s just a bit of everything: The Raptors turn it over more and shoot it worse in the clutch than in the other 43 minutes of the game.
NBA Power Rankings: Grizzlies rise; Wolves tumble; plus the perfect gift for all 30 teams - The Athletic
This week: 26
Last week: 25
In the last week: L vs. BRK, L vs. HOU, L at NY
Offensive rating: 110.4 (22nd)
Defensive rating: 115.5 (23rd)
Gift: A glimpse of their real lineup
The five-man lineup of Immanuel Quickley, Gradey Dick, RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl played only four minutes together last season. But at least it happened at all last season. That five-man lineup has yet to take the floor together in 2024-25. And at this point, it’s not like the Raptors want to thrive with this group all of a sudden.
Breakout seasons for NBA players under age 25: Nine most improved - ESPN
Ochai Agbaji
Age: 24 | SG, Toronto Raptors
Few players in the NBA have experienced more statistical ups and downs in the calendar year of 2024 than Agbaji. The 2022 No. 14 pick out of Kansas was a member of the Utah Jazz until a deadline trade sent him to Toronto in February. He finished as one of the lowest-performing players of the 2023-24 season, with an ugly 45.3 true shooting percentage (TS%) and a minus-5.2 estimated RAPTOR.
But with an offseason to adjust to his new team and coach Darko Rajakovic's system, Agbaji has been a radically more efficient version of himself, with an improved 63.1 TS%, 30th best in the league, while boosting his estimated RAPTOR at both ends of the court. In particular, Agbaji has one of the league's most improved 3-point percentages, going from 29.4% a season ago to a scorching 44.4% this season.
Key stat: Last season, 98% of NBA players had a better TS% than Agbaji. This season, he has turned the tables -- his mark is better than those of 86% of all active NBA players.
Similar metrics at the same age: Cam Johnson, 2019-20; Jake Layman, 2018-19; Aaron Nesmith, 2023-24