Raptors takeaways: Tough coaching by Rajakovic, Barnes/Barrett connection and more

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The Raptors played a strong game on Sunday and earned a win over the Miami Heat. Against a strong opponent they had to dig deep and win as a team and that’s exactly what happened. Six Raptors had at least three assists and while RJ Barrett and Scottie Barnes played starting roles, as Barrett said afterward, “Jak was Jak” about another ho hum great effort from centre Jakob Poeltl. Poeltl outplayed Miami all-star Bam Adebayo and other Raptors stepped up too.

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Some takeaways from a solid return home:

CARRYING THE LOAD

While it’s true all 10 Raptors who played contributed, Barrett and Barnes did the bulk of the heavy lifting late in the game.

“Scottie and I, we try to pick our spots and try to make the best decisions. We were taking turns,” Barrett said of the fourth quarter.

“Fourth quarter brings a different sort of intensity. So understanding that I think it’s a big thing. Definitely the start of the game, end of the game, beginning of the third, those are moments where you really have to play with force,” he said.

It pleased Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic who said afterward: “I thought that, not just down the stretch, we had couple two-for-one situations as well, that we handled pretty well down the stretch. I mean, (Miami) is a really good team, and this team, doesn’t matter if you have 10 or 15 point lead, they just stick around,” he said. “They made a couple of tough shots … But down the stretch, I thought that we were intentional, that (Barrett and Barnes) did a good job of getting the ball where we wanted to get and to close the game.

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“I want those guys to be really aggressive. I want them to be aggressive to score, aggressive to create, and once you’re doing that, then to make right decisions,” Rajakovic said. “You cannot be passive and make right decisions. That’s just not going to work, because defence is not going to be aggressive and committing to you, but when we go in that aggressive mode and touching the paint, both of them they’re big guys with great court vision, and I thought they did a really, really good job today.”

NOT SO TOUGH LOVE

When Rajakovic was asked on the road trip about starting guard Ochai Agbaji’s rough game in Detroit (0 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 assist 0 free throws) he didn’t sugar coat his feelings.

“He needs to be better, simple as that,” Rajakovic told reporters. He needs to bring more effort. When you spend 23 minutes on the court and you end up getting one rebound, that’s not good enough.”

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While some thought Rajakovic was “calling out” Agbaji he said later in the trip he was actually “calling him up.”

When asked to elaborate pre-game Sunday, Rajakovic did just that.

“First of all, I love all our guys and they know that. I deeply care for them on and off the court and my job as a coach is to push them, to coach them, to teach them, to love them and to show them all the areas that they can improve on,” he said. “Otherwise, if I would have another approach I am not honest with them and I would not be there to support them.

When I say calling them up, when a player, when I see that he can give more, I’m going to tell him that,” Rajakovic said.

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For his part, Agbaji had said his bad game had deserved to be mentioned by his coach and he fully supported it.

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The Kansas product then responded exactly as Rajakovic had hoped, by turning in two of the best games of his career. Agbaji shot 9-for-10 in New Orleans for 24 points with six rebounds and then had 13 and 5 on 3-for-4 three-point shooting at Miami on Friday.

“Ochai did a really good job of bouncing back from one or two games that he did not perform at high level and played with great energy in game against the Pelicans and that’s how I worked with him, that’s how I work with all the guys, what they do know is that I love them and support them and I will always be there for them,” Rajakovic said.

It’s the right approach for this young group in a season that is more about what comes next than the present.

UNDERSTANDING THE ASSIGNMENT

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When the Raptors fell to the Heat two days earlier, the visitors gave up way too many three-point attempts to realistically have a chance at winning the game. The 54 attempts were the third-most in Miami’s franchise history and 21 of them went in, compared to 11 makes on 29 attempts for the Raptors.

“Teams that decide to take a big number of threes and have the personnel to take those threes, they’re just going to take it,” Rajakovic had said before Sunday’s rematch.

“Definitely it’s something that you want to make it harder, I don’t think you can prevent a team to take threes but I do believe you can make it harder and more contested on those shots.”

The Raptors did just that, this time the difference was only 40 attempts to 29 and five more makes for Miami. And digging deeper, the Heat had only hoisted 28 threes through three quarters before letting it fly late in desperation, shooting five threes in the final two minutes.

RJ Barrett said afterward that Miami is elite at generating good outside looks, especially from the corners, but Toronto cleaned up its rebounding from the previous game a bit, helping to cut down on the chances surrendered off offensive rebounds.

@WolstatSun

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