Doug Smith

Doug Smith: Raptors mailbag: What’s wrong with Gradey Dick? Why wasn’t Jakob Poeltl starting? Toronto’s first-round pick from 2023 has fallen behind Jamison Battle in the rotation.

Ye Olde Mailbag, delivered

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After an ugly start, Raptors have settled down and look like they're gonna win going away. Tremendous games by Quickley and Poeltl

Big week looms with Knicks here Tuesday and at Minnesota on Thursday

Raptors show life in third quarter, up six over Washington going into the fourth
Quickley's having a nice offensive game, with 16 and 8; Ingram's got 22 and Poeltl very effective with 18

Raptors somehow climb back into it; down only 3 at the half after giving up 64 in the first 24 minutes.

Sure, the Wizards shot it well but that's a despicable Raptors defensive quarter and they're down 33-25 after one

And they win the challenge
Go figure

Not sure if using a challenge on an out of bounds call up 8 points with about two minutes left in the first quarter is the wisest call but Wizards are doing it

Wizards out-scoring Raptors 12-0 from three in first 4 minutes and, predictably, lead the game by 7

Raptors giving Collin Murray-Boyles the night off to rest his thumb, Poeltl back in to start with Quickley, Barrett, Ingram and Barnes vs. Washington in a couple of minutes

Last call for Ye Olde Mailbag so I can get it knocked off this evening and first thing tomorrow.

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Raptors somehow surviving two minutes of "don't watch, you'll turn to stone" offence

Helluva third quarter by the Raptors and they lead 90-78 heading to the fourth
BI;s got 18, IQ 17.

CMB has as many as FGs as Wemby and one more rebound than him.
That's insane

Raptors, playing a B2B against a very, very good team, up 10 on Spurs with 15 minutes left
Just like we all saw coming

Excellent half of sports entertainment
Raptors up 59-57 at the break, BI 14, Barnes 13; Wemby had a quiet 4-point game. I doubt that stays that way

We are among greatness as they introduced David Suzuki courtside

14-foot FT from Castle

It's not that Wemby changes shots, he most certainly does that
It's that he changes the "notions" of shots that gets me

Spurs 30, Raptors 29 after a pretty fun quarter
Toronto forces five TOs and gets 9 pts from Barnes; Vassell and Fox combined 6-for-9 for the Spurs

The first foul on CMB was legit, the second one was weak

They won't show the replay in the arena and I wouldn't expect them to but Wemby's block on Barnes's 2-footer was quite something. Like a "oh yeah, there's something I should do, what's that? Oh yeah, snuff this shot."

Spurs by 4 at first timeout

Certainly makes sense to let the young Collin Murray-Boyles lad chase Wemby around so he'll start and Jakob Poeltl will come off the bench for the Raptors in a few minutes

Raptors vs. Thunder: Toronto’s furious comeback falls short, Barnes suffers injury late in loss The Raptors seemed dead and buried as they begin the fourth quarter in an 18-point hole before they came alive and wiped out the deficit.

Seldom a dull moment with these Raptors

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Late collision leaves Scottie Barnes with a quad bruise and he’ll be questionable for Wednesday vs San Antonio, the Raptors tell us

Thunder by 28, we're done here and maybe the Raptors could use some rest; the somewhat imposing Wemby And The Spurs are hear tomorrow

Thunder play a Thunder-like quarter and take control of this one
Up 60-51 at the half. C. Wallace has 17, RJ Barrett still leads Toronto with 13

What was once a 10-point is now a 4-point deficit and Toronto's aversion to going the rim seems problematic

Pretty entertaining quarter; RJ's got 11, Scottie's defence been excellent Toronto's up 32-25 on Thunder

Jamison Battle checks in ahead of Gradey DIck for the Raptors

Raptors breaking out the rare white home jerseys.