Raptors Takeaways: Toronto back above .500 after sweeping lowly Charlotte

The last time the Toronto Raptors were in a warm-weather city for two games with an off day in between was early December. They were in Orlando and got their lunch handed to them by a Magic team that was 6-20 at the time.

We’ve learned a lot since then, including that the Magic were actually a good team just waiting for some momentum.

The Raptors provided it, and Orlando has been 28-24 since. The Raptors have gone 26-27 since those dark days in central Florida.

But you had to like the chances to make their trip to Charlotte a little more enjoyable. They won comfortably on Sunday and were looking to wrap up their two-game series against the badly undermanned Hornets on Tuesday, where a win would move the Raptors above .500 for the first time since they kicked off that two-game stretch against Orlando on Dec. 9.

Mission accomplished as the Raptors improved to 40-39 with a 120-100 win to sweep the season series against the Hornets.  

Toronto started slowly — the Raptors were 1-of-9 from the floor to start and trailed 29-25 after one quarter — but used a 19-9 run in the second quarter to take control going into the half and a 14-3 run at the end of the third quarter to go up 20 and put the game in the bag.

Here are some takeaways

Pascal Siakam has had a great season, probably the best of his career. He will finish with career highs in points (24.3) and assists (6.0), the second-best rebound numbers he’s ever had (7.8) and he’s leading the NBA in minutes for the second straight year (37.5).

Still, it’s not enough to earn him recognition as a top-five player, which the just-turned 29-year-old was gunning for after making all-NBA for the second time in three years last season, and it’s going to be nip-and-tuck if he gets even an all-NBA third team nod this year.

His shooting percentages are down across the board and if we’re measuring defensive activity by steals, blocks, and deflections he’s been a little down in those categories too. But the load he carries offensively plays a role in that.

What may hurt Siakam — beyond Toronto’s record — is his relative ability to impose his will on good teams. Against Charlotte, Siakam has looked like an MVP this season. Through the first three meetings with the Hornets this season, Siakam was averaging 33.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 5.7 assists on 69.8 per cent shooting.

Against the Milwaukee Bucks for example — who could be the Raptors' first-round playoff opponent if they emerge from the play-in tournament — Siakam is averaging 15.7 points on 37.8 per cent shooting.

It’s a more encouraging picture against Boston, the likely No. 2 seed in the East and who the Raptors would play if they can emerge from the play-in tournament with the No. 7 seed.

Siakam is averaging 29 points, 8.5 rebounds and 8.5 assists on 53.5 per cent shooting in two meetings versus Boston this season. The Raptors close their regular-season schedule with two games against the Celtics on Wednesday and Friday in Boston before hosting Milwaukee on Sunday.

Siakam said a fond farewell to Charlotte with 22 points, 14 rebounds and four assists on Tuesday, leading Toronto in scoring against the Hornets for the fourth straight game.

There haven’t been a lot of games where the Raptors bench can be given the credit for a win, but they were the clear heroes against the Hornets' B-team. 

Through three quarters, the Raptors bench outscored Charlotte 34-12.

Will Barton had his best game as a Raptor as he made his return to the lineup after missing three games with a sprained ankle. He was shooting just 20 per cent from three in his first 12 games with Toronto but caught fire in the second quarter against Charlotte with four triples in five attempts to help turn the game.

He followed up with two more threes in the third quarter and finished with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

Needless to say, that’s exactly what the Raptors were hoping for when they signed the veteran after he was bought out by Washington. Still unclear is what lies ahead for Jeff Dowtin Jr., the point guard on a two-way contract who has generally been a positive presence in his minutes, especially recently.

Toronto would need to convert him to a standard contract by Thursday in order for him to be eligible for the post-season, but that requires the Raptors to waive someone to create a roster spot. There are some candidates for that — Thad Young and Joe Wieskamp come to mind — but the Raptors are loath to do it, and you have to respect the principle of the whole thing.

We’ll find out this week but right now it’s appearing that the status quo will the most likely outcome.

The Eastern Conference could look a little different next season, and the draft lottery could be a big reason why.

Will Detroit be as easy an out a year from now with Cade Cunningham back and healthy and another elite young player to add to a large stable of young talent?

We’ve already seen the Magic take steps and they will have their own lottery pick and quite possibly Chicago’s to build with. They should be better as their already impressive collection of young talent gets another year to mature.

But the Hornets — as bad as they look now — could be an interesting team to watch. For the second night in three days against the Raptors, they were sitting out a pretty good collection of players due to injury as they were missing all five of their starters plus three of their top four reserves.

The Hornets were 43-39 in 2021-22. They have talent and should they get lucky and draft Victor Wembanyama, he would be a seamless fit alongside their collection of young bigs and an established backcourt in Terry Rozier and LaMelo Ball.

It’s presumed that at some point Miles Bridges could return after missing all of the current season after pleading guilty to domestic violence charges stemming from an incident last summer.

It’s hard to turn around a team after as moribund a season as the Hornets have had, but there are reports that Michael Jordan could reduce his ownership stake, paving the way for new energy at the top.

Charlotte is a good city to live and work, there is talent on the roster and more coming. All I’m saying is it’s unlikely they’ll be a late-season scrimmage opponent for Toronto this time a year from now.

Scottie Barnes is so talented, it’s hard to cut him slack. He’s shown over and over again he’s ready, willing, and able to come up big in big moments of big games. But sometimes, he comes up small in small moments. He’s young, but the inconsistency can be hard to grasp sometimes, and his defensive lapses are hard to miss.

As an example, midway through the first quarter Barnes was guarding Hornets point guard Theo Maledon. Barnes picked him up over half, and well, it only got worse from there.

Barnes moved Maledon left, getting low in a proper defensive stance. But then he stopped moving his feet, and tried to compensate by grabbing Maledon around his waist and was very fortunate not to be called for a foul. He then had to swivel his hips and run as Maledon got his shoulders past him.

But now the Hornets guard had him exactly where he wanted him as he cut back to the middle from the sideline, putting Barnes in his right pocket. Once he got to the paint, he cooked Barnes one more time by throwing his body into the Raptors wing on his way to the bucket, drawing a touch foul and converting the lay-up.

It was a bit of a weak call, but again, Barnes should have been called for the grab further up the floor. It was a lot of mistakes in a three- or four-second sequence, let’s put it that way.

In the context of the game the play meant nothing, but in the grand scheme? How many times have we seen sequences exactly like this, where Barnes looks lost defending the ball, mostly due to a basic lack of fundamentals?

He’s so long he doesn’t need to be chest-to-chest defensively. He can maintain a gap and still offer pressure because of his length. There’s more to it, but it would be a start.

Barnes has had an excellent second half to his second season, but individual defence is still a work in progress. It was not a particularly productive couple of days in Charlotte for Barnes. He had a quiet 12 points on Sunday and was 0-of-7 from the floor Tuesday and scoreless for the first time in his NBA career.

Maybe the Raptors' visit to Boston for two against the Celtics will get his attention.

Good for Svi Mykhailiuk, who looked really good for Charlotte in both games against Toronto. He had a real believer in Nick Nurse with Toronto last season.

The Raptors head coach was convinced that with a true show of confidence from the organization and some runway to play through his mistakes that Mykhailiuk could be a really useful rotation player.

Nurse loved his combination of size, athleticism, shooting and feel for playmaking and was very sincere in not wanting him to be one of those players who couldn't gain any traction despite their potential fit.

But the league is hard and moves fast. Nurse was true to his word and gave Mykhailiuk a steady dose of playing time to start the season. Through his first 32 games in Toronto he averaged nearly 19 minutes a game, including five starts, but shot just 32.4 per cent from three and the Raptors simply needed him to be better.

He appeared in just 24 games after that, playing only 5.2 minutes and was very unsurprisingly waived after the season. He signed with the Knicks to start 2022-23 but made no impact in New York and was a throw-in in a larger trade that landed him in Charlotte at the deadline.

The Hornets have packed it in for the season, but Mykhailiuk is playing for his NBA career and looking good doing it. In his last 13 games before Tuesday, he was averaging 21 minutes a game and shooting 48 per cent from deep.

There was more of that in this game against Toronto as he showed some life off the dribble and found his teammates for some nice passes and shot 3-of-8 from deep on his way to 17 points and seven assists.

Last season, Mykhailiuk turned down any requests to talk about his family situation back in the Ukraine after Russia’s invasion began over a year ago, but it’s not hard to imagine how difficult it has been to deal with, and professional uncertainty can’t help.

You can only hope this run in Charlotte can translate into a more meaningful NBA role next season.