5 things: Jakob Poeltl comes up clutch as Raptors hold off Pelicans’ comeback

Here are five takeaways from the Toronto Raptors‘ 115-110 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday.

1. The Raptors held on for a thrilling finish despite a furious comeback push by Brandon Ingram. A last-second absence for personal reasons by Fred VanVleet left the Raptors short on a night when the team was supposed to finally be fully healthy, necessitating adjustments on the fly. Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes assumed most of the playmaking responsibilities, which is to be expected, but the Raptors had to attack in more creative ways rather than rely on VanVleet’s pick and rolls.

Siakam was sharp throughout, burning his matchups in single coverage despite being shaded by a rising defensive talent in Herb Jones, and forced the Pelicans into showing double teams, where Siakam was also able to find the right pass out, including on the final shot where he set up Gary Trent Jr. for the dagger.

Barnes took a quarter to ease into the play but settled in nicely with a good balance between patient post-ups, quick decision playmaking, and a pair of threes for his 18 points.

Despite poor three-point shooting (9-for-31), the Raptors responded to coach Nick Nurse’s calls for more willingness to fire, with Anunoby, Barnes and Siakam combining for 17 attempts.

2. Jakob Poeltl has shown in both stints with the Raptors he is prolific on putbacks, which is a key skill for a team that misses so many shots. Poeltl had more offensive rebounds (7) than the entire Pelicans squad (6), even though they also had size in the front court. Poeltl masterfully controlled possession with 18 rebounds and was a hyper-efficient 9-for-11 from the field for 21 points, which were entirely on layups. Poeltl combines occasionally on rolls to the rim or flashing open to break double teams, but his main source of scoring were his putbacks, including three in the fourth quarter. Without Poeltl’s timely finishes, the Raptors lacked the firepower to match Ingram’s uncanny shotmaking down the stretch.

Poeltl was also excellent on defence, including a clutch block at the rim to deny a dunk, and a heavily contested rebound and winning the ensuing tip in the fourth. Poeltl’s presence allowed the Raptors to play more conservatively on defence, where Nurse didn’t elect to hard-double the opposing stars as he typically would with the assurance that Poeltl was ready in the back to provide timely help. The Raptors don’t win any of the three games since he arrived at the deadline without Poeltl.

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3. O.G. Anunoby was noticeably rusty in his return to the lineup after missing three weeks with a sprained left wrist. As always, he was entrusted with the toughest defensive assignment, which was to cover Ingram, who was heavily featured in the Pelicans’ offence, with 27 shots. Anunoby battled foul trouble and wasn’t able to block Ingram’s shots, but he did make them extremely tough looks, which is all you can do against the best scorers.

Offensively, Anunoby was featured early in an effort to settle him in, but otherwise mostly stuck to his catch-and-shoot role. Despite making only 1-of-8 from deep, all but one of the looks were great chances that were open and within the offence. Anunoby came up with one of the plays of the game with one of his signature steal-and-dunk sequences to push the Raptors up by 10 with three minutes to go. When he settles in and finds his shooting stroke, Anunoby will be back to averaging close to 20 points largely through shots within the offence.

4. The starting lineup remains a mystery with VanVleet’s late absence. Precious Achiuwa was demoted to backup centre, which was always the obvious move but the other four continued to start. VanVleet’s absence leaves a gap in playmaking and shooting, as his three triples and 14 drives per game are a scarce commodity for an offence that is already thin on guard skills.

If I had to guess, Trent Jr. is the odd one out as he has already proven to be productive with the second unit, where he averaged 18 points on efficient shooting across eight bench appearances earlier in the season. He is the only starter who doesn’t make plays for others, although there was more of a noticeable effort Thursday night by Trent Jr. to find the extra pass. His outside shot is extremely valuable, but his scoring is arguably more useful for the second unit, where he can be featured in a way that rarely happens with the starting group.

The tougher question is which five finish games, and in that case, Trent Jr. should be firmly in the mix because he has made some of the biggest shots of the season as he showed again in this win.

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5. Jeff Dowtin got his chance to run backup point guard, and he was efficient with the role. His stat line is hardly impressive, at five points and three assists, but the task isn’t to be spectacular and to carry the reserves. Dowtin’s job was to play pesky on-ball defence, bring the ball up, get the Raptors into their sets and get out of the way. Dowtin knocked down a three and found two chances to quickly drive to the basket against CJ McCollum for a layup and a tip-in. Dowtin also set up two scores through pick-and-roll and a clever fake to set up Chris Boucher for a dunk.

Dalano Banton had his shot early in the season and more recently on the road trip, but he remains the most inconsistent player on the team and not steady enough to run the show and hold leads. Malachi Flynn had a hot stretch shooting the ball, but he is too undersized and not accurate enough as a bench gunner and is an obvious target on defence. Dowtin isn’t spectacular in the slightest, but he strikes the balance of being the most solid of the three options. Plus, with the other two failing, it’s Dowtin’s turn to try to hold down the job.

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