Morning Coffee - Mar. 11, 2025
Lawson snaps, the players are grinding, and there's little to be done to tank except to blatantly tank; great times
AJ Lawson gives tanking Raptors something to be proud of - Raptors Republic
Lawson collects free throws like Pokémon as he hurls his body at the rim, often holding the ball behind him and flicking it towards the net as he plummets earthbound after the foul. He is Toronto’s only shooter connecting from deep, even as everyone else just keeps flinging the ball up there. He scores 16 points in the first half, one away from his soon-to-be-smashed career high. The most plugged-in could see this coming.
There are reasonable questions that could be asked of this game. If the Toronto Raptors insist on playing their best players to get them some run, while still letting the youngsters live or die in crunch time, then shouldn’t the best players be playing … well? Or at least, trying? If Scottie Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and RJ Barrett are going to combine to shoot 8-of-27 in the first half, are they really accomplishing anything that couldn’t be accomplished in practice? (They finish 17-of-49.)
What skills are they legitimately developing in such a context?
It’s not just missed shots. They almost didn’t hit the paint as a trio in the first half, more or less settling for contested jumpers. Toronto has 28 offensive rebounds, en route to a franchise-high in rebounds. If anyone on the Raptors outside of Lawson had shifted out of first gear, the game would have been over long, long before the final buzzer.
Barnes had a team-worst plus-minus in the first half, and it showed. The offence was noticeably peppier, more energetic, when Jamison Battle replaced him. To be fair, this is only a criticism because of Barnes’ immense talent. He is simply too good for halves like these. And also to his credit, he is much more determined to reach the rim in the second half, driving with energy. He thunders a dunk home early, and misses a few others in the paint, but does well to get there. The pace of the offence is improved with him on the court in the second half.
But that’s not the story of the game, neither the ups nor the downs of the stars. It’s hard to blame players in not performing at their best when their bosses aren’t interested in winning. Barnes and Quickley and Barrett are going to get run, and the Raptors are unconcerned with winning or losing, so it’s not a surprise that the best players are taking it easy. The story is Lawson. He hits another 3-pointer midway through the third quarter. He had just missed a layup he created by absolutely flinging himself at the rim, but was not able to decelerate his arm fast enough to do anything other than clunk the ball off the backboard. He’s moving fast, too fast, but sometimes that’s a good thing when the rest of the offence is a raccoon that broke into a green bin. The triple gives him a career high in points and 3-pointers.
He hits another moments later. Then another. At this point, he is 6-of-8 from deep, while his teammates are 7-of-26. Quickley and Barnes are off the floor as he explodes, so he’s doing this sharing the main-guy duties with Barrett.
The Raptors pull away. A 14-point lead materializes. Lawson battles to grab a loose rebound as soon as the fourth quarter begins. He isn’t taking it easy. He isn’t reveling in his 3-point barrage. He’s doing the dirty work, too. As he should be. He boxes out, face-guarding opponents who don’t even both to crash because of him.
He draws free throws in an attempt from the corner as the Wizards are over-anxious to stop him. He gets a touch jittery and misses a few, but Jamal Shead storms down the lane for a putback dunk that looks makes him look a scooch like Allen Iverson if you squint. Shead has his glory stolen by the shot clock in the last outing. He’s out for blood, here. And sparked by the fury and the passion of his diminutive teammate, Lawson hits another triple moment later. He romps down the lane with two minutes left and sticks his right arm up at the rim, throws the ball in the cylinder as his body twists the other direction. He has 32 points and 12 rebounds.
If the tea leaves are to be believed, it’s going to be a sloppy mess for the rest of the Raptors’ season. Like the floor of a high school house party. There have been explosions already as the Raptors have leaned into the youth movement coming out of the All-Star break. Ja’Kobe Walter hit a game winner. Shead lost his to the ephemeral nature of linear time. Now Lawson has his moment.
These moments of raw magic won’t always be there over Toronto’s final games of the 2024-25 season. So enjoy them while you can.
Quick Reaction: Wizards 104, Raptors 119 - Raptors Republic
A. Lawson - A+
33 MIN, 32 PTS, 12 REB, 1 STL, 9-21 FG, 7-14 3FG, 7-11 FT, 0 BLK, 1 TO, 15 +/-
Good start after struggling in the last two starts. Great energy on the defensive end and his three point shooting was unreal as he completly took over in the third quarter. This was his best showing in his young NBA career. His showings against Orlando and tonight should be enough to earn him a spot on next years roster.
High-flying Raptors loving life above the rim - Sportsnet
The theme here, is that winning is fun. And winning locker rooms are fun, for the banter alone. When teams win, they hang around and talk trash at each other. When they lose, they empty out quickly.
For a team that’s supposed to be thinking about the draft lottery, the Raptors are winning a lot. They are now 14-12 since Jan. 12, which is the seventh-best record in the East over that stretch. They were 8-31 prior. Their locker room is a fun place.
Given where the Raptors are in the standings, it might be problematic. The latest win improved the Raptors' record to 22-43, which leaves them a half-game ‘ahead’ of the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets in the reverse standings as it relates to positioning for the draft. If the season ended today, Toronto would have the fifth-most ping-pong balls on lottery night, but that can change quickly: The Sixers – 2-8 in their last 10 – are in Toronto on Wednesday.
And while those bigger-picture concerns are valid, they remain outside the purview of the players on the floor.
The Raptors have done their part to manipulate the process: pulling their regulars one by one in the fourth quarter against Orlando last Tuesday, or – as they did against the Wizards on Monday – sitting out Jakob Poeltl for ‘rest’ even though the centre had played just 48 minutes in the space of a week. Veteran reserve Chris Boucher – one of the Raptors' most productive players all season – hasn’t played in six games, though he did miss one for a wisdom-tooth extraction.
But in the end, players play, and they like to win because it’s vastly better than the alternative.
Take Lawson. He already was having a dream night before his dunk. He had started the last two games at home – his first two NBA starts of his career, and for his hometown team, no less – but they hadn’t gone as planned. He was pressing a bit and shot just 4-of-24 from the floor and 2-of-16 from three. Coming off the bench Monday, the six-foot-seven slasher grabbed one of the Raptors' franchise-record 28 offensive rebounds (there were a lot available given Toronto shot just 43-of-109 from the floor), scored on the putback and never stopped. He hit two quick threes in the first quarter on his way to going seven-of-14 from deep.
“I’ve been dreaming about this for who knows how long, probably since I first touched a basketball,” said Lawson who grew up playing with Barrett, first with the Brampton Warriors club team, then in middle school and then for one year of high school before Barrett left to finish high school in Florida. “I’m a Toronto kid, grew up in Brampton. To have a performance like this means everything.”
And doing it with Barrett on the floor with him? “That’s a full-circle moment, right there.”
Fittingly it was Barrett who assisted on Lawson’s final three that gave him 30 for the night. It was his last hoop before his late dunk.
“They (the Raptors bench) were all laughing at me because on one of his threes (Jared) Rhoden was wide open in the corner, but A.J. was wide open in the other corner and A.J. had 27, so I was like (shrugs, and mimics passing to Lawson),” said Barrett. “He made the shot and he got 30. I'm happy for him. A.J. is a guy who plays really hard, is really active, both ends of the floor, so it's good to see a guy like that have a good game here.”
Losing seasons may be the best time to lock in as a Toronto Raptors fan - Raptors HQ
Championship teams are an obvious one — winning is fun. Winning Championships is the most fun, as the Raptors proved in 2019. Fans are in the building no matter what the price is in order to witness history. If they can’t get into the building, they are right outside on the street. The city comes alive around a team and everyone is on the same page.
So how could a tanking team then also provide the most authentic fan moments? As inflation rises, so does the price of game tickets. Last spring, Raptors President Masai Ujiri called it “the way business works” — yet it doesn’t always sit right with fans how much it costs to sit even in the cheapest seats. This creates a crowd filled with what the average Toronto folk will call “suits” — aka the people who can afford the tickets. The “suits” aren’t gonna scream “ref you suck!” or participate in the wave or elbow each other during the t-shirt toss.
When the team plays the Washington Wizards — a team with 13 total wins on the season so far — it’s hard to justify an increased price point for tickets. Naturally, tickets get cheaper, which means more fans can come to the game, and they can sit in better seats. No matter the Raptors record, Scotiabank Arena is usually full (and loud) these days — especially so during this mini Wizards series.
Authentic fans, a lot of kids and a packed crowd means NOISE. When the Raptors and Wizards were in a late-game tussle for the win on Saturday, the arena felt alive and the noise was deafening. When Jamal Shead FLEW into a putback dunk on Monday night, the fans were loving it. It’s, dare I say, fun?
That atmosphere is good for culture building as well, something we talked about after Saturday’s one-point loss to the Wizards. The players feed off of the energy of the crowd — it’s a live relationship and conversation between player and the group of fans surrounding them.
Getting these real, die-hard fans in seats while this team is rebuilding is essential. The goal of course is for this group to become a playoff bound basketball team, with players like Barnes, Barrett and Quickley of course — but also with the Sheads, Walters, Ingrams, and so on of the team. It’s great for fans to be building that essential relationship with these players now, so that when it’s a playoff team, the players are even more so motivated to play better for this city, these fans. So that they want to stay here in free agency to play for these fans.
If you don’t want me at my losing by one point to the Wizards, then you can’t have me at my Kawhi buzzer-beater series winning shot — or whatever the exact saying is.
Wizards at Raptors Final Score: Coulibaly falls and Washington loses to the Raptors, 119-104 - Bullets Forever
The Washington Wizards fell to the Toronto Raptors, 119-104, in the second game of a back-to-back between the teams. Both teams were still missing many players due to injury as detailed in Sunday’s recap. The injury news got worse for the Wizards when Bilal Coulibaly took a nasty fall in the first quarter. He was able to fall on his back rather than his head, but still left the game with a hamstring injury. Not sure what to make of that, but glad that he didn’t get seriously injured.
Washington’s shooting failed them on Monday. They shot just 35.8% from the field and 29.1% from three. Alex Sarr struggled to 5-of-19 from the field and Bub Carrington went 2-of-11 to lead the way in terms of misses. On the flip side, Sarr put up 16 points and 11 rebounds to become the first Wizards rookie with back-to-back double-doubles since John Wall.
The Raptors didn’t fare much better, shooting 39.4% from the field. The shot making was so poor that both teams set their season-high in rebounds. The difference on the glass was that Toronto dominated the offensive glass. They grabbed a season-high 28 offensive rebounds, which translates to a 45.6% offensive rebounding percentage. Allowing the opponent to rebound almost half of their misses is a recipe for disaster.
The Wizards held a lead early in the third quarter, but Toronto found their groove with transition buckets and second-chance points. They won the quarter 34-19 to put the Wizards away for the most part. A.J. Lawson scored a career-high 32 points. Lawson has played 9 games this year and averages 3.5 points per game. His previous career-high was 17 points.
Washington competed in the fourth quarter and tried to fight back with several runs. Still, they fell short and notched 50th loss of their season. They are now 13-50 and 40 games back of first place in the East. Their next game is at Detroit tomorrow night at 7 pm.
Barrett bears down, Lawson goes off and Raptors smash rebound record in rematch with Wizards - Toronto Star
It has been a season-long point of emphasis for the Raptors and RJ Barrett, one that will endure right through a stroll to the off-season with the draft lottery to look forward to.
The team knows what he can do offensively, and he’s shown just how effective he can be as a scorer and a facilitator. There’s not a ton of work to be done on that in the final 17 games.
What he’s got to keep working on, and what the coaching staff will be paying close attention to, is how focused Barrett is on improving his defensive play.
That’s in practice, it’s in games, it’s every time he’s on the court for any length of time.
“I see a lot of desire to develop that part of his game,” coach Darko Rajakovic said of Barrett before the Raptors rolled to a 119-104 victory over the Washington Wizards at Scotiabank Arena on Monday night. “He’s very intentional about his work. Every workout, pre-game, he’s dedicating a couple of minutes, which adds up. It looks like it’s a small thing, but it adds up in his development plan. He just wants to do well.”
Barrett has said all season that improving defensively is the next step in the evolution of his game. It’s effort and attention to detail and focus; he’s still very much a work in progress, but the work is undeniable.
He was locked up a lot with Wizards rookie Bub Carrington and did a good job harassing the quicker guard. The two clashed a couple of times when Barrett got right into the rookie, and they had a quick conversation at the halftime buzzer before teammates got them away from each other.
Barrett finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds while getting in about 27 minutes to work on his game-speed defence.
“I think that he has really, really good hands, and that’s something that we’re focusing on with him, to develop those deflections and steals and to be very aggressive on that part,” Rajakovic said of Barrett. “At the same time, I think he’s using his physicality in a (way that is) making offensive players very uncomfortable. So, I’m really happy with his developed.”
Takeaways for Toronto as Raptors Topple Wizards With Lottery Odds on the Line - Sports Illustrated
They’re going to regret this.
Toronto knows it too. The organization has done just about everything possible to lose games lately—Jakob Poeltl was held out for the second time in three games, and the bench is getting more run than ever.
And yet, the schedule has made tanking incredibly difficult.
Just look at Monday's game against Washington. The Raptors shot 39% from the floor, 33% from three, and missed 12 free throws. Against almost any other team, that’s a recipe for a loss.
But not against the Wizards.
That’s not to say Toronto didn’t try.
After an RJ Barrett driving layup stretched the Raptors’ lead to 11 in the third quarter, the bench took over. Barrett checked out, and suddenly the lineup featured four undrafted players, including Garrett Temple, with Jamal Shead at the helm. But a pair of Shead buckets in the paint kept Toronto from slipping too far until Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley returned.
The problem? Washington had the same idea.
The Wizards gave Khris Middleton and Marcus Smart the night off and leaned heavily on their bench in the second half, seemingly uninterested in winning.
Toronto pulled the plug in the fourth, yanking Barnes and Quickley as they’ve done repeatedly in recent games. But it still wasn’t enough. Orlando Robinson knocked down an above-the-break three off a feed from Barrett, and moments later, A.J. Lawson buried a corner three. The Raptors never looked back.
Washington dug even deeper into its bench, fully committed to the loss, and there was nothing Toronto could do.
The victory moved the Raptors to 22 wins, tying them with the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets. The three teams are now jockeying for the league’s fifth-worst record—and a 42.1% chance at a top-four pick in this summer’s draft.
From childhood teammates to Raptors, Lawson and Barrett living dream - Toronto Sun
RJ Barrett and A.J. Lawson go way back, which made Monday night extra special for the two Toronto Raptors teammates.
Lawson, from Brampton, erupted for a career-high 32 points and 12 rebounds, hitting seven three-pointers in a win over the Washington Wizards, while Barrett, from Mississauga, had 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Barrett actually assisted on four of Lawson’s three-pointers, including the one that got him to 30 points.
The duo had played together on the Brampton Warriors club team and in middle school as youths, and then for a time at St. Marcellinus Secondary in Mississauga before Barrett finished up in Florida before heading to Duke.
Lawson is a popular teammate with many Raptors, but there’s obviously something extra because of his history with Barrett.
Barrett remembered watching Raptors games with Lawson and even playing in a tournament at Scotiabank Arena when they were 14. He never could have imagined doing it again in the NBA.
“Never, definitely not. It’s an honour, very happy to be here and especially to be here with him, it’s crazy,” Barrett said.
“So now to just be here, but on the Raptors, it’s just like, ‘Look at how far we’ve come.’ It’s pretty cool.”
Lawson felt the same way. “It’s like a full-circle moment. We’ve been playing together (childhood),” Lawson said. “What a blessing it is. The odds of that happening is rare. So, you know, just live in the moment. Be grateful for the moment. Just keep working hard. We’re both hard workers him, and it’s gonna be many more moments to come.”
In a lost season for the Raptors, tanking etiquette can be hard to define — and defend - Toronto Star
Look, nobody’s trying to be a moralist here. We live in an upside-down world where folks who do the right thing are often cast as suckers and integrity can seem like a relic of the previous century.
But whether or not you hold sacred the notion that a professional sports team ought to try and maximize its chances to win games, the thing that’s most jarring about the Raptors’ recent mockery of fourth-quarter competitiveness is the blatant nature of the enterprise. There are easily a million ways to slyly reduce your team’s chances of winning a game while maintaining plausible deniability of a laydown and also getting your young guys plenty of run. What the Raptors have been doing isn’t one of them.
You’d need to be a diehard fan to name the five Raptors who played the most fourth-quarter minutes Saturday. That’d be, in order of playing time: A.J. Lawson, Colin Castleton, Jared Rhoden, Orlando Robinson and Jamison Battle. If your reaction to most of that list was “Who?” don’t feel badly. That group is stacked with players intimately familiar with life on two-way and 10-day contracts. Odds are most won’t be around long. All of which can give you the idea that what the Raptors are up to is less about nurturing talent than it is about boosting lottery odds.
Maybe it only makes sense that in the spirit of a season that saw the Raptors retire the number of a player who demonstrably quit on the franchise to force a trade, the Raptors are pooh-poohing any semblance of competitive standards in the name of getting what they want. Nothing like keeping alive the legacy of Half Man, Half a Season.
That the Raptors have won three of their past four games speaks to a schedule that’s seen them pitted against sub-.500 strugglers Orlando, Utah and Washington. Consider it a credit or a curse: the Raptors’ benchwarmers have come to play.
For all that, my colleague Doug Smith called the Raptors’ late-game player deployment against the Magic last week “troubling” and “shameful.” Add in “begging for a call from the commissioner,” and that sounds about right to me.
You can find fans who don’t agree. Some are praising the Raptors’ devil-may-care ruthlessness. To those folks, maximizing lottery odds with a side dish of player development sounds ideal.
The Quagmires: Players Who Can Destroy an NBA Team and Its Future - 🏀 5x5 | Royce Webb
Ingram might be the NBA poster child for Quagmires.
While Ingram made the All-Star Game in 2020, he’s never been the kind of player who lifts his team in a sustainable way. He’s had seven seasons in which he’s started half his team’s games.1 And in those seasons, Ingram’s teams have won between 40% and 60% of their games, like clockwork.
Three statistical markers confirm his Quagmire status:
Ingram’s career true shooting is 56%, with little variation year-to-year.
When it comes to increasing his teammates’ points per shot, Ingram ranks 121st over the past two seasons.
And in the all-in-one stats, Ingram is middle of the pack. His xRAPM is -0.6 (60th percentile). His career BPM is 0.1.
Upon being traded to the Raptors last month, Ingram signed a $160 million extension — and a contract that size is exactly what is likely to keep him in Toronto for at least four more seasons.
Toronto fans, I’m sad to say, can look forward to a heavy diet of one-on-one basketball and midrange jumpers.
Bulls, 76ers, Nets or Raptors? Someone must win NBA Eastern Conference 10th seed - The Athletic
I’m glad you turned the conversation to the draft, Jared, as that is the thing keeping these teams from going all in on the Play-In. The Raptors were likely heading toward a rebuilding year even before Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley suffered significant injuries early in the season, when their schedule was at its toughest. They’ve been much better as they’ve gotten healthier, but the Ingram trade puts additional pressure on the Raptors to get a good pick this year. They have enough talent to fight for an actual playoff spot — top six maybe — next year, so making this year’s early losses worth it feels essential.
And that’s why we’re getting incidents such as the one in Orlando last week or Saturday’s bizarre scene against Washington, when the Raptors benched all their starters in the fourth quarter of close games. Nobody will say it, but the organization knows it must pull some levers to lose some games down the stretch. That the Orlando Magic couldn’t pull out the win the Raptors were essentially gifting them only made the Raptors’ late-season situation stranger. Given the state of things for the Dallas Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns are the third-best team left on the Raptors’ schedule.