They are presented in the Scotiabank Arena with the mask of “Black Panther”. Once in the field, Trae Young however lacked bite. Faced with the Raptors deprived of their titular leader, Fred VanVleet, the Hawks star has known hell even.
We understood from the first quarter that his evening was going to be long. Opposed to a Scottie Barnes much heavier and taller than him, but hyper mobile, the leader had a lot of trouble finding his partners in good conditions.
Like this situation at the end of the first quarter where, after a “pick-and-roll” with Onyeka Okongwu, he wanted to convey the leather to his interior with a one-handed (left) pass. Risky pass and finally intercepted by Barnes who, after Precious Achiuwa’s cover on the Hawks point guard, had returned to cut the line.
A ball followed by a three-on-one counterattack and ended with a dunk from the same Achiuwa served by Barnes. Trae Young lost three more similar balls in the first quarter alone.
An intensity born with Scottie Barnes, who had already made his defense speak this summer, author of a remarkable game overall (21 points at 7/14 on shots, 7 rebounds and 8 assists). ” I’m glad he shot 14 times », starts by saying hello to Nick Nursebefore adding: But first he was great in defense. He really set the tone with his work on Young. He gave pace in attack, dropped the ball to score in transition but his defense was exceptional tonight. »
The size of the Raptors made the difference
The Raptors coach specifies that before the meeting, he and his men had spoken about this challenge represented by the Hawks duo Trae Young – Dejounte Murray. “ We talked about denying all passes and trying to deny shots: we did it well. They didn’t have many open shots. We caused 18 lost balls and probably half a dozen more just by deflecting the balls. »
These 18 “turnovers” were all the harder to accept for the Hawks as their opponents only lost… six. A fatal difference. Tonight, speed didn’t beat height because as Nick Nurse says, the inch factor was key against Young. ” That’s the size of our team. After the ‘switches’ in defense, we were able to send someone big on him, to challenge him especially when he was looking to find a teammate with a pass. »
As a result, the leader was not only limited to 14 points at 3/13 on shots, with 10 assists, but above all he lost 10 balls in 32 minutes. A triple-double negative while some of his teammates, like De’Andre Hunter, also struggled to shake off an equally impressive OG Anunoby in defense. He finished with six interceptions as the Hawks overall only stole one fly ball. ” He can really be a nightmare for others », Qualifies Pascal Siakam.
” A team like this will pound you, like they did. They played with more urgency. They played harder, they passed us “, enumerates Nate McMillan. ” We got our asses kicked, we weren’t ready to play », adds Dejounte Murray. The Raptors were.
