Ingram, Barnes muscle Raptors to win over shorthanded Bucks

Sometimes it just helps to have good players who are playing well.

The Raptors enjoyed that feeling with a 111-105 win over the Milwaukee Bucks that was driven in large part by a pair of outstanding performances from their two acknowledged stars: Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley.

A victory that improved the Raptors to 17-11 as they head home to host the Boston Celtics on Saturday before heading back out on the road for games against Brooklyn, Miami and Washington over Christmas.

The win — their second straight — maintained the Raptors' status as the third-place team in the Eastern Conference and puts them in position to deliver themselves a nice Christmas present if they can take care of business against their Eastern Conference competition over the next week. A 20-12 record would look nice in everyone’s stocking. Certainly, Barnes and Ingram did their part.

Barnes was his usual do-everything self. He’s one of the NBA’s true forces of nature when his shot is falling, and he’s using his length and athleticism to jar loose offensive rebounds, block shots, tip balls and generally be a menace. He finished with 24 points (10-of-14), 11 rebounds (five offensive) and two blocks.

Meanwhile, Ingram continued his Steph Curry impression as he rolled up 29 points, including 4-of-6 from three, along with eight rebounds and two steals. Ingram is now averaging 29.5 points a game over his past four starts while shooting 53.3 per cent from the floor and 64 per cent from deep.

The Raptors jumped out to an 11-point lead in the early going, quickly giving some hope that the Bucks would fold up their tents. This is the same group that got drilled by 45 against Brooklyn on Monday, after all. Instead, the Bucks kept the pressure up and the Raptors helped them along with 11 first-half turnovers. That and the fact that Toronto didn’t take a free throw in the first 24 minutes didn’t bode well.

Still, the Raptors led by four at the break, only to fall behind early in the third. But it was at this stage that Barnes and Ingram really asserted themselves, driving to the rim on possession after possession to force the referees to make some calls. The Raptors shot 21 free throws on the night, but 13 of them were from Barnes and Ingram in the second half. It was big boy stuff, and the Raptors needed it.  

Jak’s back: Back problems are weird. You never know exactly when they’re to be better or worse. Often, you don’t know exactly why. And that’s for us mortals, tasked with loading the dishwasher. For a seven-footer tasked with defending the paint in the NBA, it’s likely only more so.

So there was a good reason eyebrows were raised when Jakob Poeltl was downgraded from questionable to doubtful over the course of Thursday. Seriously, what happened? The Raptors played one game in eight days, and his back was still wonky? That’s not encouraging.

A year ago, Poeltl was a great story for the Raptors. His 14.5 points and 9.6 rebounds were each career bests, and he joined Anthony Davis and Jaren Jackson Jr. as the only centres to have at least 1.2 steals and 1.2 blocks per game. In that context, the Raptors signing Poeltl to a three-year extension for $84 million, which doesn’t kick in until the 2027-28 season, made some sense. Only $5 million of the final year — 2029-30 — is guaranteed, although that amount increases by $5 million each year he plays 1,400 minutes and by $7.4 million each year he plays 1,400 minutes and the Raptors make the playoffs. Even in that case, having an above-average starting centre under contract for $24.6 million — the average annual value of the last two years of Poeltl’s deal messed with his three-year extension — over five years isn’t so bad. But where it is bad is if Poeltl doesn’t play or play well. Then the $84 million he can potentially earn in his age 32, 33 and 34 seasons looks like a salary cap-killing anvil.

You can understand why the Raptors are looking for another big on the trade market. So far this season, Poeltl has missed eight games and the Raptors have missed him, going 4-4 when he’s out compared with their 13-7 mark when he plays. But just as concerning, there have been plenty of nights when he has played that he didn’t look himself. His production is down, year-over-year. It’s an issue that needs monitoring not only this season but as the Raptors look to the future. 

Big night for Mamukelashvili: I wrote about the Raptors' backup centre earlier this week in the context of him finally finding an NBA home in Toronto after four years of bouncing around the league a little bit and struggling to secure a consistent role. His career started in Milwaukee. He was on a two-way deal for a couple of seasons and was waived at the end of Year 2 when the Spurs picked him up. You know it had to feel good for Mamukelashvili to get the start (for Poeltl) and the win, while contributing 18 points and seven rebounds to the cause.

Mamukelashvili had started 22 times in his career before this year, but in his mind they weren’t "real" starts as they generally came late in the season for teams that were more interested in lottery position than wins. When starting for the first time this season for the Raptors, he felt it was his first "real" start, given Toronto's want and need to squeeze out every win they can. With the win over the Bucks, the Raptors improved to 2-1 with Mamukelashvili starting.

Giannis is locked in. His agent? Maybe not: There’s a very real question about how good the Milwaukee Bucks are even when Giannis Antetokounmpo plays. There was some belief that in the wobbly East, the two-time MVP who remains at the top of his game at age 31, could lift Milwaukee to relevance in the conference almost by his sheer will. That hasn’t been born out this season as Milwaukee is just 9-8 with him in the lineup as he’s missed 11 games and counting, first with a groin strain and more recently with a calf strain.

Without him, the Bucks have floundered, going just 2-9. Raising questions about whether or not Milwaukee should turn the page on the Antetokounmpo era, or if Antetokounmpo wants the page turned. The future Hall of Famer addressed the media before Thursday's game and said he was "locked in" on getting healthy and helping his team, and that he’s had no conversations about his future with the Bucks front office, but did allow that: "If my agent is talking to the Bucks about it, he's his own person. He can have any conversation he wants."

Ochai comes to life: It hasn’t been a great season for the Raptors athletic fourth-year wing. He’s had to struggle for playing time among the Raptors deep platoon of similarly sized, similarly valuable players. He’s also had some injuries and hasn’t been able to find water from a boat, three-pointer-wise as he came into Thursday’s game shooting just 13 per cent from deep, not the follow-up to his career-best 39.9 per cent last season anyone was looking for. But with RJ Barrett (right-knee sprain) still out, Agbaji has got steadier minutes, including four consecutive starts, and has started to show signs of the level he reached last season.

Agbaji was a spark for the Raptors early, as he had 10 points on five shots in the first half, including two threes — his fourth and fifth makes of the season — along with a steal.  He wasn’t able to add to that total in the second half as Ja'Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead ate up a good chunk of those minutes.

The Raptors could use an Agbaji surge not only for what he can provide on the floor, but also for the value he might provide in trade. With an expiring deal worth $6.4 million, there is nary a trade scenario that gets floated that doesn’t include Agbaji. If his play continues to pick up, it could help the Raptors in multiple ways. 

Point guards not shooting straight: It’s not often a team is going to win a game when its starting point guard and backup combine to shoot just 6-of-20 from the floor and commit five turnovers. The numbers were even worse for Immanuel Quickly and Shead coming into the final minutes, but each of them managed to hit some crucial shots when needed.

Quickley’s pull-up jumper late in the shot clock with 1:22 to play, followed by a Shead triple and a lay-up the play after, sealed the game for the Raptors. The point guard duo did combine for 20 assists, evenly divided, but some more consistent offence from either or both would help. Quickley is shooting just 23 per cent from the field in his last two starts. He seems to miss Poeltl’s presence as a screen-and-roll partner. Shead's offence is more in the "nice to have" category, as his defence and playmaking — he extended his lead in assists among bench players — are his calling card. But an improvement on his 30.7 per cent shooting from the floor and 25 per cent from three over the past 10 games would be welcomed by all concerned.