Raptors vs. Heat (x2) Takeaways: Barrett immense in earning home-and-home split

Barnes flirts with second straight triple-double, Poeltl back in grooove

Hey all! With Toronto going up against Miami in a home-and-home series (even if it wasn’t back-to-back nights), I preferred doing one set of takeaways for both.

It’s often difficult to win both ends because the loser of the first game always comes back ready with adjustments and that’s how it played out with the Raptors snagging the second game after losing in Miami. They very nearly managed to cough up a 14-point lead with seven minutes remaining at home, but the Heat missed a couple big shots down the stretch including a Tyler Herro attempt that would have tied the game with 28 seconds remaining.

Toronto is now 5-4 at home with six more games to come on this homestand. The next game is a winnable one against a struggling Pacers squad but the Thunder, Mavericks, Knicks, and Rockets are four of the five opponents (Nets) after that.

Here are takeaways from the weekend series:

The art of busting a zone

Under Erik Spoelstra, Miami has consistently led the league in employing a zone defence. Beyond the general physicality that the Heat bring to the table, watching how the Raptors counter their zone defence is always one of the most intriguing aspects of the matchup.

With this particular iteration of the Raptors, there’s even more incentive for Spoelstra to turn to the zone because Toronto ranks dead-last in 3-point attempts and players with the spacing prowess of Quickley and Olynyk aren’t there, either. Entering Friday night’s game, the Heat employed zone on 13% of defensive possessions which is nearly double that of Cleveland in second at 6.9%, per Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy.

The zone worked very well in Miami and was at the heart of the Heat dominating the third quarter 38-23. The Raptors had scored 40 in the second quarter and the zone completely altered the makeup of the game. Miami going on a bit of 3-point barrage also changed things, putting up a 17-3 run in just over three minutes in the quarter.

It was a different story on Sunday as both Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Mogbo showed their ability to be effective at the nail (just above the free-throw line) against the zone. Both can make great reads from that spot of the floor and it comes down to teammates making smart cuts and setting screens to get each other open. Here are a few examples below:

Notice how quickly the ball moves on that first play and challenges the Heat defenders to keep up. That’s what opens up Barnes’s passing angle leading to Chris Boucher’s dunk. In the second play, Mogbo reads the help perfectly to shift back to the left side of the floor and find Agbaji for a corner triple. You can see good communication from Davion Mitchell to direct the ball towards Agbaji.

Mogbo finished with a Draymond Green-esque 9-7-6 triple-single in just 13 minutes. It’s rare that a rookie is calming to watch but he does just that. Spoelstra once said that one of Marc Gasol’s best qualities is he never lets the offence get sea sick and you feel that kind of vibe with Mogbo, too. It’ll be all the more true when he can bring more of an individual offensive package to the table.

The X-Factor long-term in this will be their ability to knock down a free-throw line jumper, something that Barnes has the propensity to do but Mogbo will need to develop over time.

Agbaji trying to expand beyond the corner

Very quietly, it looks like Ochai Agbaji is expanding his range ever so slightly. He’s looked extremely confident from the corners where he’s at 54% on 54 attempts.

Watching his 3-point shooting of late, while he’s still prioritizing the corner three, he is starting to take more threes and more importantly make more threes from the 3-point elbow. Jack Armstrong used to sell the idea of “creep, crawl, walk, run” a lot during the Raptors’ late 2000s to early 2010s rebuilding and this would be a great approach to see play out for Agbaji’s 3-point shooting. He’s now made 10 non-corner threes and is up to 36% on those this year.

Let’s see how consistent he can be with these threes before graduating to straight-on threes that are a full 24 feet from the basket (corner threes are 22 feet).

Poeltl’s scoring re-emerges

Shaqob Poeltl took a backseat when Barnes returned, averaging just 9.3 points in Barnes’ first four games back after averaging 30 in the three games prior. As the offence’s functionality shifted, Barnes and Poeltl just haven’t operated effectively enough together.

Opponents don’t mind switching actions to minimize either’s path to the basket because neither is a proven threat outside the paint and that clogs up the floor. Of course, some of it is just finding a rhythm together after Barnes’ time out.

With that in mind, it was great to see Poeltl reassert himself in these two games against the Heat, recognizing his size advantage and collecting eight offensive rebounds across the two games and regularly securing deep paint possession for easy finishes. Poeltl averaged 20.5 points over the two games, shooting a combined 16-of-23.

Barnes went a combined 5-for-13 from three in these two games, helping ease that spacing factor while Barrett’s efficient drives also left the Heat defence with pick your poison conundrums. Poeltl and Barrett’s chemistry has grown tremendously, this pass below a great example of the understanding they’ve developed.

Walter’s hot starts

After Gradey Dick’s injury, Darko Rajakovic has turned to rookie Ja’Kobe Walter in a starting role and he has not looked out of place. In three games in the role, Walter has averaged 10.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists in 23.6 minutes. The 3-point shot hasn’t been there thus far at 25% on 16 attempts but he’s shot 10-for-16 on twos.

Yes, there are typical rookie mistakes like falling for pump fakes and cheap reach-in fouls but you expect that. He has, however, defended on-ball really well for the most part and is pretty smart positionally. On the offensive end, he is constantly looking to make himself worth paying attention to with constant movement and isn’t afraid to be assertive when he senses an opportunity.

Oh, and when your name is a combination of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, you want to have a mid-range game to show for it.

Barnes has found his flow, and Barrett’s better for it

Over his last five games, Barnes is averaging 22.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 8.0 assists. Outside of a 7-for-23 stinker against New Orleans where Toronto won in a laugher, Barnes has shot 55.6% on twos and 33.3% on threes.

Barrett, meanwhile, has shot over 50% from the field in three consecutive games for the first time this season. Last season, the 24-year-old was so hot he had one stretch where he did it for eight consecutive games. In the last three games, Barrett has shot 65.8% on twos and 42.1% on threes. It’s a small sample size as is his entirety as a Raptor but this is the player fans fell in love with.

Whether it’s the Osmow’s or general comforts of home, Barrett is now averaging 30.4 points on 54.2% shooting in seven home games compared to 19.4 points on 39.7% shooting in 11 road games. No one will be happier about having six more games in a row at home.

The Mississauga native’s skill set is so valuable to the Raptors right now. His ability to get to the basket at will is something that is sorely lacking on this roster. The way he’s able to come off screens and go left all the way to the basket time and time again is special. It peaked on Sunday night, going 15-for-20 from the field including 3-of-4 from 3-point range for 37 points. All of his 2-point makes came inside the paint. He even made all four of his free-throw attempts!

My favourite bucket of the night was when he went right at and through Jimmy Butler with under two minutes remaining to push the lead back up to six.

Notes

• The fourth quarter offensive execution really was poor. It’s hard to watch stretches like these and not think there’s a bigger plan. The game was the Raptors’ to lose and they very much looked like they were doing what they could to lose it.

• Davion Mitchell had another great defensive game and extended his plus-minus dominance with a plus-20 in this game. Yes, his offensive ineptitude is part of why the Raptors’ offence struggled down the stretch, but he was critical to the team’s best defensive stretches and did also have a couple nice drives earlier. He earned the post-game chain award from Rajakovic. As long as Quickley is out, it needs to be kept in mind just how overextended both Mitchell and Jamal Shead are in their current roles.

• Darko Rajakovic provided an injury update before the game, saying Gradey Dick is day-to-day with his left calf contusion and hopes to practice at some point this week. Bruce Brown and Kelly Olynyk are in a reconditioning program with no clear timeline to return.