Raptors @ Heat, Dec. 12 Takeaways: Life without Barnes remains ugly
It was all Miami after a quality first 18 minutes
After putting up a good fight for a quarter and a half, Toronto just couldn’t sustain the effort as Miami stormed back and cruised to victory 114-104.
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 21 points, 16 rebounds, and five assists, while Tyler Herro was also impressive with 23 points on 13 shots to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Jimmy Butler decided to troll fans and media alike by dying his hair orange (presumably a reference to the Phoenix Suns who he’s been rumoured to prefer getting traded to).
The Raptors dropped to 1-12 on the road with the loss and 7-19 overall. Only Washington (3-19) has a worse record in the East while New Orleans (5-20) and Utah (5-18) are worse in the West.
Life without both Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley is going to be very difficult. The team is now 2-10 in the absence of Barnes this season, 2-12 if you include the two games he left with injury.
Here are takeaways from the game:
Don’t expect Barrett to be efficient without Barnes
Yes, R.J. Barrett finished the game with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists for a triple-double. He also shot 5-for-18 from the field and had six turnovers while also missing defensive assignments after what was actually a good first quarter.
Over the course of this season, we have seen a ceiling when he’s asked to be a primary ball handler. Barrett has played 12 games without Barnes this season, shooting just 43.3% on twos and 33.3% on threes. There is a ceiling for him in this role, and we’ve seen him at his best when playing off Barnes.
Is it something he can do for short spurts in a game? Sure. Is it an optimal role? Far from it. I’m not going to say that Barrett can’t ever become someone who can be efficient in this type of role because he’s still only 24-years-old and, at least in theory, has room to grow. It’s just that we’ve definitely seen the limitations in his game loud and clear at this juncture, especially when considering the lack of offensive firepower around him to support him right now.
Mogbo gets start for Barnes
In a nice little wrinkle pre-game, Jonathan Mogbo was announced as the player who would be replacing Barnes in the starting lineup.
Davion Mitchell’s limitations as a starter have been exposed, and I liked that Darko Rajakovic gave the opportunity to a rookie who’s earned his keep.
Mogbo finished the game with four points, 10 rebounds, and four assists, providing some nice moments defensively and leading the break on several occasions off rebounds.
Again, when you look down the line there’s such a dearth of offensive options to bolster the starting unit in that way and maybe take some of the pressure off Barrett and Gradey Dick, and Mogbo is the best of those limited options for Barnes’s role.
Dick gets hot early before cooling off
It was an offensive eruption from Dick early in this one, scoring 12 first-quarter points on 5-of-7 shooting. He finished 3-for-12 over the remaining three quarters including 2-of-9 from deep.
What a first quarter it was, though. Dick had a nice up fake and make from the mid-range, went coast-to-coast for a dunk, knocked down a three, and absolutely took Bam Adebayo to school off the bounce before finishing with an up-and-under floater from the free-throw line. Don’t believe me? Take a look:
The reality is Dick has to get off as many 3-point looks as he can for this team to be anywhere near relevant in the math conversation of today’s game. If clean looks can be created for Ochai Agbaji, then he’s probably the only other player who will play enough minutes against competitive teams to get up five or more threes in a game.
Kelly Olynyk is certainly capable of a hot night from deep, but he missed all six shots he took in this one including three from beyond the arc.
Jamison Battle can shoot the three with proficiency, but other than against teams like the Pelicans it’s hard to imagine him receiving too much of an opportunity. He saw 15 minutes of action against the Heat.
Respect Poeltl’s professionalism
Jakob Poeltl was a last minute scratch from the starting lineup due to back spasms. Bruno Fernando started in place of him and no one would have thought otherwise if the Austrian took the night off.
Instead, Poeltl checked himself into the game having only missed the first two minutes. He finished with 16 points and four rebounds in 27 minutes, and you have to respect the fact that he went out there and battled for his team.
Look at the situation, it’s dire. Barnes is out, Quickley is out, you’re up against a Heat team that was going to be seeking revenge on its home floor after losing in Toronto. Resting would have been the easy and understandable route but he didn’t do it.
Once Poeltl’s back is feeling good again — hopefully by Monday against the Bulls — I would like to see him get the volume of touches he got during that scoring binge with Barnes out. As mentioned before, the Raptors don’t have much in the way of 3-point shooting right now and he is their most efficient route to a bucket.
Feed the big man and massage his back.
Notes
The Raptors officially confirmed that Barnes will be re-evaluated in a week. With the lack of games this week due to the NBA Cup (Raptors in a stretch of two games in nine days), precaution makes the most sense.
There is still no timeline on when Quickley might return from the partial tear in the UCL of his left elbow.
Of all the rumoured Butler destinations, I think Golden State makes the most sense. Dallas doesn’t have a realistic path to acquiring him, things would be very complicated with Phoenix as they’re a second-apron team, and Houston would be stuck without a point guard if it gave up the most logical option salary-wise in Fred VanVleet. The Warriors pursued Lauri Markkanen and Paul George in the summer and have enough young pieces as well as salary to appease what Miami might be looking for.
I watched the latest episode of Open Gym featuring the Chris Bosh ft. Euros era the other day. It was fun reliving those times as well as watching Jose Calderon, T.J. Ford, Andrea Bargnani and Jose Garbajosa get interviewed. I have to imagine that Chris Bosh either wasn’t available or declined an interview as it would have been nice to hear him reflect.