Recap: Toronto Raptors vs Atlanta Hawks — 123-121 Raptors win a close one

Toronto overcomes travelling to Atlanta for the second night of back-to-back games and picks up an impressive road win.

The Toronto Raptors may have turned a new leaf after the All-Star break, beating the Atlanta Hawks in a tight, back and forth, playoff-esque affair.

Finally beating a team within their division last night, and doing so handily might I add, they looked to keep that momentum going against a sub-0.500 team in the conference.

From jump ball, you could’ve fooled me on which team was playing their second game in the same amount of days.

Toronto brought the energy early, whereas Atlanta seemed to have none. More specifically, Immanuel Quickley brought the energy and it ignited the team.

IQ was easily the quickest player on the court (pun intended). He gave the Raptors their first lead on an incredible layup that looked more like something you throw up while getting fouled than an actual shot attempt.

Quickley added to the lead with his first three of the game, and would prove to be hot from behind the arc in the quarter. His three threes and 13 points in the first frame led the Raptors to a 33-22 lead.

Dejounte Murray seemed to be the only Hawk locked in, as he led his team is scoring in the first quarter. Murray and Bruno Fernando were the only two Hawks with multiple field goals in the opening frame as well, as they couldn’t seem to get anything going on offence.

The second quarter began completely opposite of the first. Atlanta found life after subbing out Murray and putting Trae Young back in, and they had the Raptors on the ropes. After increasing their lead to 16 with a pair of early baskets, Toronto gave up a 10-0 run to let the Hawks right back into it.

Gradey Dick scored a pair of buckets to break up the run right before giving up another one. The Hawks scored eight straight points to bring the lead down to two, when who else than Immanuel Quickley hit a clutch three to keep the lead.

IQ and Gradey Dick appeared to be the only Raptors who seemed to notice the lead slipping away as they were the only ones scoring to keep it in place.

They did their best but basketball is a team game after all, and the Hawks as a team were simply outperforming the rest of the Raptors. Atlanta would re-take the lead after back to back threes from De’Andre Hunter and Saddiq Bey before drama would arise.

A supposed missed foul against Trae Young led to Hawks coach Quinn Snyder storming the court and getting in the face of the referees while yelling at them to call the foul. I’m glad something involving Snyder happened since I had this tweet locked and loaded since seeing it in the first quarter and now get to use it.

Gary Trent Jr. knocked down both free throws to re-establish the Raptors lead and Scottie Barnes would add to it a dunk and one.

Unsurprisingly, there would soon be more drama. It is the NBA after all. Hunter picked up a technical foul and complained to the refs as the “Ref you suck” chants filled State Farm Arena.

The remainder of the quarter was much more tame drama wise, but not basketball wise. Both teams exchanged a plethora of buckets, the Hawks repeatedly drawing in as close as possible without re-taking the lead.

A shot clock violation would mark the end of the Raptors’ first half possessions, but left a second on the clock to give Atlanta a chance to re-take the lead. Despite the buzzer audibly sounding, Saddiq Bey chucked a full-court shot that nearly went in off the backboard. It wouldn’t have counted either way, but was a good heave.

During the actual remaining game time, Bogdan Bogdanovic heaved up a full court shot of his own but wasn’t nearly as close as his teammate. The Raptors held their lead into halftime, at 65-64.

Throughout the close affair, Immanuel Quickley was leading the way. With 18 points and four threes, the Raptors point guard led both the team and the game in scoring, followed up by Scottie Barnes with 14 points. Notably, Jordan Nwora — who started in place of RJ Barrett — had zero points on three shot attempts, but led the way for Toronto as a +12.

So much for the Raptors keeping the lead talk entering halftime, as a pull-up jumper from Murray gave Atlanta a one point lead.

The basket started a 7-2 run for the Hawks, where they took a four point lead with roughly 10 minutes to go in the quarter. Over the next five minutes, the Raptors whittled away at the Hawks lead and once again overtook it with a Kelly Olynyk dunk.

Gradey Dick took over once they re-established the lead, draining a three, a long two and a layup, giving the rookie 16 points on the night. Another young Raptor in Ochai Agbaji would add his third and fourth threes of the night to bring Toronto’s lead to 96-90 at the end of the third quarter.

Bruce Brown led the fourth quarter surge by scoring the first five Raptors points of the final frame. Unfortunately, the Hawks scored six in that same time frame and managed to chip away at the lead for most of the quarter.

The rookies Dick and Agbaji made back to back buckets to increase the Toronto lead to nine points. Jalen Johnson and Scottie Barnes exchanged buckets to keep the lead the same, before a 7-0 Hawks run to cut the lead to two points.

Agbaji with another three extended the lead again and here comes SCOTTIE.

A massive block on Jalen Johnson for his first of many, despite only being credited with one, the rejection keeps the lead at five.

The block did not deject Atlanta as all, as they kept the pressure on. Toronto was wasting as much time as possible on the clock for each possession, attempting to limit the Hawks as much as possible. Even still, they brought it back to a two point game.

A clutch cross court pass from Barnes to Trent Jr. for a three nearly did the Hawks in with less than 80 seconds left in the game. Olynkyk would foul Bey on the ensuing possesion where the Hawks forward knocked down both free throws and it was back to a one possession game.

Making up for his foul, Olynyk then scored the next bucket to re-establish the five point lead. IQ would quickly (did it again) foul Hunter and just like a see-saw this game was up and down from a five to three point lead.

Thankfully for the Raptors, those points were their last meaningful ones of the night.

Johnson inbounded the ball to Bogdanovic, who handed it off to Murray and on the handoff, the Hawks guard stepped out of bounds and turned the ball over.

Before the Hawks could foul, Olynyk found Bruce Brown streaking towards the rim and he slammed down a dunk to once again make it a five point game. Trae Young would add a three with less than a second left but the game was already over as it ended as soon as the Raptors inbounded the ball.

Immanuel Quickley, unsurprisingly, led the team in scoring tonight with 24 points and six threes. Behind him, Scottie Barnes posted 20 points and 10 assists, getting the whole team involved. In fact, every Raptor who touched the floor tonight, outside of Jordan Nwora, scored 10 or more points.

The young wings off the bench in Gradey Dick and Ochai Agbaji were impressive tonight, showing the confidence to take more shots and hitting them in clutch moments.

Most impressively, the team managed to shut down Trae Young. The All-Star was limited to 11 points, seven assists and two threes, and was not even a scoring threat for much of the game.

Second half of a back-to-back or not, tonight was one of the Raptors’ most impressive and determined wins of the season, which is a great look for the new-look team after a tough pre-All-Star break stretch.

Toronto will now head to Indiana, where they’ll once again face former Raptor Pascal Siakam in a matchup on Monday.