High-flying Raptors loving life above the rim

TORONTO — Scottie Barnes had to think about it.

Which was the better dunk during the Raptors’ 119-104 win over the visiting Washington Wizards on Monday night, I asked him:

Brampton’s own A.J. Lawson cutting through the lane and rising up after getting a slick bounce pass from Orlando Robinson late it the fourth quarter and smashing it off two feet?

Or six-foot-one guard Jamal Shead flying in out of nowhere for a one-handed putback of a missed RJ Barrett runner that was as spectacular as it was unexpected?

“That’s a tough one, dawg,” said Barnes. “I’m rating Jamal’s a 10. Damn, but I also have to do the DWade ( a reference to the former Miami Heat star turned dunk contest judge meme Dwyane Wade) and rate A.J.’s a 10.”

As Barnes was doing his calculus, Shead, the ebullient rookie point guard who is so often at the centre of locker-room banter, was actually advocating for Lawson’s entry, which was the exclamation point on a career night for the Brampton, Ont. product, who put up 32 points and 12 rebounds in 33 minutes off the bench.

“Damn, off two feet, back door?” said Shead of Lawson effort.

Shead’s argument swayed Barnes briefly, but in the end: “I’m gonna still go with Jamal,” he concluded. “I’ve never seen him dunk before. He surprised me.”

Shead surprised everyone. Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic was almost knocked over as the bench went to run onto the floor to celebrate Shead’s unlikely slam.

The next big debate was whether Shead’s dunk was the first of his career.

Officially, it was his second. According to NBA.com, he was credited with a dunk when he got his fingertips on the rim to guide home a lay-up against the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 1.

Shead stands by it, though others weren’t so sure.

After inspecting a replay of it on a team staffer’s phone, Barrett was definitive: “That was not a dunk.”

Shead was resolute, however. Monday night’s putback was his second career dunk, and as good as it was, it wasn’t even his best dunk lifetime, reserving that for a running slam he pulled off for Houston in college against a six-foot-seven defender at home against Alabama. “I met him at the rim,” he said. “That (his putback Monday) was my best NBA dunk so far, though.”

No one is debating that.

The theme here, is that winning is fun. And winning locker rooms are fun, for the banter alone. When teams win, they hang around and talk trash at each other. When they lose, they empty out quickly.

For a team that’s supposed to be thinking about the draft lottery, the Raptors are winning a lot. They are now 14-12 since Jan. 12, which is the seventh-best record in the East over that stretch. They were 8-31 prior. Their locker room is a fun place.

Given where the Raptors are in the standings, it might be problematic. The latest win improved the Raptors’ record to 22-43, which leaves them a half-game ‘ahead’ of the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets in the reverse standings as it relates to positioning for the draft. If the season ended today, Toronto would have the fifth-most ping-pong balls on lottery night, but that can change quickly: The Sixers – 2-8 in their last 10 – are in Toronto on Wednesday.

And while those bigger-picture concerns are valid, they remain outside the purview of the players on the floor.

The Raptors have done their part to manipulate the process: pulling their regulars one by one in the fourth quarter against Orlando last Tuesday, or – as they did against the Wizards on Monday – sitting out Jakob Poeltl for ‘rest’ even though the centre had played just 48 minutes in the space of a week. Veteran reserve Chris Boucher – one of the Raptors’ most productive players all season – hasn’t played in six games, though he did miss one for a wisdom-tooth extraction.

But in the end, players play, and they like to win because it’s vastly better than the alternative.

Take Lawson. He already was having a dream night before his dunk. He had started the last two games at home – his first two NBA starts of his career, and for his hometown team, no less – but they hadn’t gone as planned. He was pressing a bit and shot just 4-of-24 from the floor and 2-of-16 from three. Coming off the bench Monday, the six-foot-seven slasher grabbed one of the Raptors’ franchise-record 28 offensive rebounds (there were a lot available given Toronto shot just 43-of-109 from the floor), scored on the putback and never stopped. He hit two quick threes in the first quarter on his way to going seven-of-14 from deep.

“I’ve been dreaming about this for who knows how long, probably since I first touched a basketball,” said Lawson who grew up playing with Barrett, first with the Brampton Warriors club team, then in middle school and then for one year of high school before Barrett left to finish high school in Florida. “I’m a Toronto kid, grew up in Brampton. To have a performance like this means everything.”

And doing it with Barrett on the floor with him? “That’s a full-circle moment, right there.”

Fittingly it was Barrett who assisted on Lawson’s final three that gave him 30 for the night. It was his last hoop before his late dunk.

“They (the Raptors bench) were all laughing at me because on one of his threes (Jared) Rhoden was wide open in the corner, but A.J. was wide open in the other corner and A.J. had 27, so I was like (shrugs, and mimics passing to Lawson),” said Barrett.  “He made the shot and he got 30. I’m happy for him. A.J. is a guy who plays really hard, is really active, both ends of the floor, so it’s good to see a guy like that have a good game here.”

“I don’t know if everybody knows, but he (Lawson) was like short the whole time growing up. So he was short and, like, really fast. So he would just get, like, five, six steals a game, and then he could always shoot,” said Barrett. “So it’s just, it’s funny because I’m seeing him now. I’m like, does the exact same thing he did when we were younger. He’s just six seven now. It’s cool. Love playing with A.J., for sure.”

It was a feel-good moment and a feel-good win. It also was a reminder that even though the math says losing is better than winning this time of year for teams that only have the draft lottery to look forward to, winning brings a buzz that’s tough to get anywhere else.

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