Toronto Raptors vs Charlotte Hornets Final: 111-106 — Barrett and Quickley lead the way to a close victory

In their first game this season without Scottie Barnes, the Raptors’ youth led the way as they took down the Hornets in a close affair.

The Toronto Raptors get back in the column beating the Charlotte Hornets on home court by a score of 111-106.

Toronto’s lone All-Star this season, Scottie Barnes, went down in their last game with a fractured hand and is out indefinitely. With tonight being the first game this season that Barnes will miss, the Raptors needed to fill the holes left in every aspect of their game, as the forward leads Toronto in nearly every counting statistic.

Luckily for the Raptors, Charlotte is banged up as well.

Before the game even started, Hornets head coach Steve Clifford made it clear that his team would be playing small for much of the night. With usual starting centre Mark Williams out injured, the team opted to begin the game playing small-ball and did not list anyone at centre, starting three forwards instead.

The decision was immediately a mistake.

The Raptors countered by going small and athletic outside of starting centre Jakob Poeltl, and the team was clicking early.

Ochai Agbaji made his first start as a Toronto Raptor and the second year forward made an immediate impact. Agbaji scored the Raptors first two baskets of the game, both being shots at the rim assisted by Poeltl.

Charlotte’s lack of a true centre on the court allowed Toronto to feast in the paint early, forcing the Hornets to sag off their man and open up the three point line.

Immanuel Quickley took advantage of the space he was given and knocked down Toronto’s first two three pointers of the game, both off RJ Barrett assists. IQ has shot the deep ball at a nearly 46% clip in the last five games and continued that trend by making both his attempts in the first quarter.

Turning the tides on the Raptors, Grant Williams and Miles Bridges combined for a 6-0 run to bring Toronto’s lead down to two points and force a timeout.

Out of the timeout, Mississauga’s very own RJ Barrett stole the ball from Bridges and took it the distance.

The sequence would also then see Barrett take a seat on the bench as he was subbed out for rookie wing Gradey Dick, who would also make an immediate impact.

The Kentucky product nailed a corner three for his first points of the game to an eruption of cheers from Scotiabank Arena.

One of Toronto’s other Kentucky products, Immanuel Quickley, wound up being the sole bright spot of the last five minutes of the opening frame as the lead slipped away. Quickley added a two-pointer and two free throws to bring his point total to a game-leading 10 points in the opening frame.

The rest of the roster combined for the same about of points as Quickley to end the quarter as two free throws from Grant Williams gave Charlotte their first lead of the night. Heading into the second, the Raptors trailed 29-27.

Toronto would bring the game back to a tie within 90 seconds of the second quarter starting, as Barrett and Dick combined for the tie after Vasilije Micic extended Charlotte’s lead to four.

Davis Bertans would begin to heat up, making his first three of the game before D.J. Carton cut the lead down to one point. Unfortunately, the basket would be Toronto’s last for over two minutes.

The Hornets got off to a 7-0 run and forced a Raptors timeout with a little over half the quarter to go.

Agbaji would re-enter the game and once again immediately prove to be an athletic force at the rim with his second alley-oop finish of the night. The third of Toronto’s Kentucky alumni, Agbaji drew an and-one foul on the play but wound up missing the free throw.

The wing would also then miss the next two shots of the game, both coming from the three point line as the Raptors hemmed Charlotte into their half of the court.

As they say, the third time’s the charm, as Agbaji would attempt a third straight three, finally knocking one down for his first of the night.

Poeltl and Quickley would add baskets of their own, completing the Raptors’ 9-0 run in only two minutes of play and re-establishing a close lead.

Toronto’s run forced another Charlotte timeout and the re-grouped Hornets came out of it with a vengeance. The teams exchanged leads and eventually ended up tied on multiple occasions, the tie only being broken for good in the last minute of play.

Barrett and Quickley each picked up a bucket in the final 60 seconds of the first half giving the Raptors a 52-48 lead. The final minute defence was stellar and forced Charlotte to miss multiple jumpers, entering half-time with the Raptors ahead by four.

The second half started off poorly for the Raptors both on and off the court. It was announced at half-time that starting centre Jakob Poeltl would not return to the game with a dislocated finger. In his place, Kelly Olynyk joined the remainder of the starters as the second half got off to a rough start.

A couple of missed threes turnovers gave the Hornets the opportunity to re-take the lead after a three from Brandon Miller, but thankfully Charlotte was also off to a tough start.

Grant Williams grabbed a botched defensive rebound before the ball rolled out of bounds, calling a timeout from his position of sitting on the court. The timeout did nothing to help the Hornets, as they missed a shot, fouled Barrett (who missed both shots) and then turned the ball over all within thirty seconds.

Toronto’s first points of the half would come on the ensuing possession, a little over two minutes in, when Olynyk was sent to the line after drawing a foul against Micic. Breaking their score-less drought ignited the Raptors on both ends of the court.

Gary Trent Jr. poked the ball away from Micic and would up getting it back from Quickley on the fast break and made a contested layup. The points caused another Charlotte timeout, this time working more in their favour than the last.

The Hornets drew the game back to a tie with a 7-2 run in less than two minutes of game-time. Coach Rajakovic called his third timeout of the game and boy, did the Raptors ever catch fire after that.

Trent Jr. and Barrett made back to back threes as the Raptors had all the momentum and kept the pressure on with the Scotiabank Arena crowd behind them. Charlotte would add a few baskets but a put-back from Barrett and two more threes from Trent Jr. erupted the crowd once again.

With the highlight of the game to this point, Agbaji was super-human in showing off his athletic abilities. He denied Bridges with a massive block against the backboard and took it all the way to the house himself with a layup.

Unfortunately not just for Raptors fans but all of the NBA, Miles Bridges would then take over, scoring six of his team’s next eight points. Luckily, the Raptors have Jordan Nwora, who would add two baskets of his own and keep the Raptors ahead by multiple possessions.

Heading into the final frame, Toronto led 82-75.

Scotiabank Arena turned back into Jurassic Park as the Raptors took over and dominated the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. Nwora continued his hot stretch by scoring the first five points of the quarter.

Gradey Dick would add his second three of the night and Barrett would knock down a two-point jumper followed by a three of his own as Toronto pulled away. With each basket, the crowd cheered louder and louder, shoving the home court advantage in Charlotte’s face.

Leading by 14 points, the Raptors were due for a poor run at some point. It came as the Hornets went on an 8-2 run where Toronto was playing a little too comfortably.

Gradey’s third three of the night ended the run and put the Raptors into triple digits. Davis Bertans would answer back with a three of his own as he was falling in what was still a cool highlight despite it coming against Toronto.

As the clock ticked down, the Raptors started to let the Hornets back into the game. The team was shooting themselves in the foot, giving Charlotte easy points as they fouled Williams on back-to-back possessions. The Hornets forward then added an unconventional hook-shot basket to cut the Raptors lead to only four points.

With less than two minutes to play, Toronto drew a kicked-ball violation and coach Rajakovic called his second-last timeout in an effort to settle his team down.

The timeout had the complete opposite effect, as Grant Williams continued to single-handedly will his team to a tie with another basket, cutting the lead to two.

Barrett would go on to miss his second shot since the timeout and give the Hornets the opportunity to take the lead. The red hot Bertans would do just that as the Charlotte forward made his fourth three of the night to give his team a one point lead.

Charlotte’s lead wouldn’t last very long, as they fouled Quickley on back to back possessions and missed a long jumper for a four point swing in Toronto’s favour. Leading by three, just over 24 seconds to go, the Raptors had to defend as the Hornets inbounded the ball.

In an extremely questionable decision, Charlotte inbounded to Bertans who quickly put up a three and missed. Quickley grabbed the rebound for Toronto and was immediately fouled, sending him to the line where he made both shots and put the Raptors up by five.

A two possession game, the Hornets called their final timeout to set up a play. Instead of letting them get it off, Agbaji fouled away from the ball, sending Williams to the line and the Hornets retaining possession.

Brandon Miller made a layup to reduce the lead down to two and Trent Jr. was fouled on the inbound. The Raptors guard made for some dramatic scenes as he missed the first of his two free throws before making the second. Leading by three, Trent Jr. iced the game with a steal and layup of his own to secure the win, 111-106.

Winning the season series against Charlotte 3-1, the Raptors were led by their youth. RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley led the team with 23 and 22 points respectively, with IQ adding 11 assists to tie a season-high.

Ochai Agbaji put up a season-high 20 shot attempts, only making six of them but converting that into 13 points and a career-high with nine rebounds to go along with it. His Kentucky counterpart Gradey Dick added three threes and 11 points, marking his 14th game this season with multiple threes off the bench and becoming the first Raptors rookie since 2020 to do so.

The win pulls Toronto to 1.5 games back of Brooklyn for 11th in the East and snaps their short losing skid. They’ll host the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday as they look to pick up another win despite the absence of Scottie Barnes.