With the way Immanuel Quickley and Jamal Shead played together in Wednesday’s win over the Kings, finding more minutes for the point-guard duo will likely be a priority for the Raptors going forward.

SACRAMENTO – The Toronto Raptors are learning things. 

The lessons have come somewhat out of necessity. As injuries have whittled away at head coach Darko Rajakovic’s lineup options, one pairing that has gained more prominence has included playing both of his point guards together. 

It wasn’t something that might have been expected out of training camp. Since Immanuel Quickley and Jamal Shead are the only point guards on the roster, it made sense to split their playing time so the position was covered by at least one of them for most of the full 48 minutes. 

But RJ Barrett missing so much time with knee and ankle injuries opened up an opportunity for Rajakovic to tinker. Injuries to Ja’Kobe Walter and some unconvincing play from the likes of Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji and Jamison Battle when given chances to expand their respective roles required him to fiddle even more. 

After having success with Quickley and Shead finishing games, Wednesday’s meeting with the Sacramento Kings was the fourth time in the past seven games that the pair started together, and the fourth time in the five games that Quickley was available to play (outside of two games he missed with back spasms last week). 

So far, so good. The Raptors used a dominant third quarter to push past the struggling Kings for a 122-109 win, their second-straight on their five-game road trip that takes them to Portland on Friday before finishing up in Oklahoma City on Sunday. 

After trailing by nine at halftime, the Raptors shredded a fairly — uh — passive Kings zone to win the third quarter 43-21, giving them a 13-point bulge to start the fourth. Toronto stretched that to 19 midway through the period, even though the Kings cut the Raptors’ lead to eight with 3:27 to play thanks to a late 13-2 run. The Raptors pushed back fairly easily, and their point guards were key to that. Quickley found Brandon Ingram for a bucket to stop the Kings’ run, made a pair of steals and finally hit a three to ice things after Shead punched the paint on a drive. The win bumped the Raptors’ record to 27-19 and kept Toronto in a virtual third-place tie with the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference standings. 

There were plenty of contributors. Barnes finished with 23 points, grabbed eight rebounds, added seven assists, made four blocks and had a steal. A full night’s work. Ingram also had 23, while Sandro Mamukelashvili had 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists in his ninth start of the season. 

As for the Raptors’ new, two-headed point guard, Quickley and Shead combined for 33 points, 14 assists, 11 rebounds and four steals against just three turnovers, data points that were split fairly evenly between them. 

“When Jamali’s on the ball, he knows how to get Quick involved and get him back on the ball,” said Rajakovic. “He does a really good job of touching the paint, and finding extra pass there, and Quickley, I think, he’s doing a really good job of balancing being really aggressive and looking to score.” 

Having them on the floor together seems to suit just about everyone, especially against the Kings who tried to play zone, seemingly, on every possession in the third quarter. Sacramento had no answer when the Toronto point guards were able to gain the paint and move the defence, or help the Raptors get in transition so they never had to deal with the zone at all. 

“Jamal goes so quick that guys kind of have to commit to him and then it’s like a late dump off,” said Mamukelashvili. “And Quick is really good and coming off and hitting you straight in the pocket so you can kind of go for a lay-up.”

But having them on the floor together seems to bring out something a little extra. 

On the season, the Quickley-Shead pairing has been statistically robust. In 262 minutes together before the Kings game, lineups featuring the two guards were +9.3 points per 100 possessions with a True Shooting percentage of 60.7
— significant improvements on the Raptors’ overall +1.9 net rating and 57.2 per cent True Shooting. 

“I would say it makes IQ’s job a little easier when Jamal is out there,” said Mamukelashvili. “I feel like he can space out more and get his rhythm shots, kind of take that pressure off him a little bit as well. And Jamal is just doing his job to a tee, where he kind of calms us down, finds openings, finds BI (Ingram) when he needs to get the ball and tries to facilitate and get everyone involved. I feel Jamal helps IQ’s aggressiveness.

“And it’s cool because we know we got two ball handlers, they can both come off a screen, they can both pass, both make shots … it’s all good.” 

It helps too that the two guards share chemistry and can identify how they help each other. 

“Well, for me, I’m always in, like, a scorer’s mentality, aggressive mindset, and then Jamal just adds another dynamic,” said Quickley. “So, when you got two guys like that … it puts a lot of pressure on the defence.” 

It will put a good kind of pressure on the coaching staff when the Raptors’ lineup returns to full health (an assumption, granted).  The expectation is that Barrett will be back on Friday against the Trail Blazers, and Walter won’t be far behind him if he doesn’t play Friday. The rotation will get crowded again soon enough, but finding more minutes for Quickley and Shead as a pairing will likely be a priority going forward. 

Grange for three: 

Injury updates: 

The Raptors’ injury news was more good than bad Wednesday. Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, out since leaving Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers after getting a hard chop from Luka Doncic, was deemed day-to-day after being evaluated on Monday and Tuesday. There is optimism that he won’t miss a long stretch of games with what has been diagnosed as both a bruise and sprain of his left thumb. He worked out before the game against the Kings. Barrett did too, and when I bumped into him as he was coming off the floor, he said he would be back “very soon.” Let’s put him down for Friday against the Trail Blazers.  Walter went through a good workout pre-game as he recovers from a hip pointer that has kept him out of the past six games. He, too, is “very close,” said Rajakovic. The bad — or at least the concerning — news? Jakob Poeltl went home from Los Angeles and is scheduled to meet with a back specialist in Toronto on Monday. The seven-footer has been out of the lineup — save for a six-minute appearance on Dec. 23rd — since Dec. 15th, a stretch of 19 games. Poeltl’s back has been an issue since training camp and has allowed him to play in just 21 of the Raptors 46 games.

All hail Russ: 

For all the problems the Kings have — a largely group of under-performing veterans that they want to trade but can’t because the rest of the NBA doesn’t want them, which is a tough way to start a rebuild — Russell Westbrook hasn’t been one of them. The 18-year veteran was added to the Kings just before training camp to bring his legendary brand of competitiveness and toughness to a Kings roster short on both. He came in Wednesday’s matchup averaging 15.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 7.0 assists while shooting 44 per cent from the floor and 35.6 per cent from three, while appearing in every game for the struggling Kings, which is pretty good value for a future Hall-of-Famer on a veteran minimum. He was honoured throughout Wednesday’s game for becoming the highest scoring point guard in NBA history, which he achieved when he passed Oscar Robertson on Jan. 3rd. He has a fan in Rajakovic, who worked with Westbrook for six years when they were both with the Oklahoma City Thunder organization. “I think this whole generation has taken his greatness a little bit for granted,” Rajakovic said. “Unbelievable competitor. He’s one of those guys who every single game is on and competes to the highest level … off the court he’s the nicest guy ever, and then he touches the court, and he turns into a beast, and that’s what I like about him.” Westbrook finished with 23 points (on 9-of-22 shooting), three assists, three rebounds, three steals and four turnovers against his old coach. 

That was … efficient: 

Not all 40-point games are created equally. Not only did Immanuel Quickley’s 40-point explosion against the Golden State Warriors match his career-high, set against Houston in March of 2023, but it was also the most efficient 40-point performance in NBA history. Quickley scored his 40-ball on 11-of-13 shooting while going 7-of-8 from three and 11-of-11 from the line, for a True Shooting mark of 112.1 per cent. As well, Quickley is now the only player since Wilt Chamberlain to have 40 points and 10 assists on at least 80 per cent shooting, something Chamberlain did three times. And Quickley joins Vince Carter as the Only Raptor to have at least 40 points and 10 assists in a game. Interestingly, Quickley was almost as prolific in his other career 40-point game as he shot 14-of-18 from the floor (5-of-7 from three, 7-of-9 from the line) and had nine assists in just 30 minutes. Quickley was pleased with his big night but wasn’t dwelling on it when I asked him about it before he took the floor against the Kings. “The thing about the NBA is whether you play good or play bad, you got another game coming in 24 hours, so it was great to celebrate (Tuesday), but all my focus is on Sacramento.” 

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