Doncic celebrates birthday by putting cup 30pts and getting his 11th triple double of the season. Mavericks beat the Raptors, 136-125.
TORONTO- Wednesday February 28, 2024.- Scotiabank Arena.
My seat was behind one of the basketball nets and the Mavericks bench to my right. Both teams come out for warm up and in the very front row is Raptors 1# SUPER FAN Nav Bhatia with some family members. Nav waits for the right opening and says hello to Luka Doncic and politely ask if he could get a photo with him and his family. Luka Doncic politely agrees. A couple rows in front of me is this middle aged African women and she had taken off her shoes and every time Kyrie Irving goes in for a lay up in warm up she starts waving her shoes above her head to him. In hoping Irving would notice her. I wasn’t sure if she was trying to get him to come over and sign his signature shoes that she is wearing on her feet and has taken them off to show him.
Raptors starters: S Barnes: 19pts, RJ Barrett: 26pts, I Quickly: 28pts, G Trent Jr: 11pts, & J Poeltl: 16pts. Bench Points: K Olynyk: 13pts, G Dick: 7pts.
Mavericks starters: L Doncic: 30pts, K Irving: 29pts, PJ Washington: 23pts, D Livelly II: 9pts, J Green: 5pts. Bench Points: T Hardaway: 16pts, D Gafford: 13pts.
1st Quarter- The game starts, Dallas does not register their first point until 2 minutes in and the usual back and forth scoring. As Luka Doncic makes a nice driving lay up. Scottie Barnes makes a nice dunk.The teams are evenly matched. Doncic and Irving combined for 22pts in this quarter. Dallas lead by 2 after 1st quarter.
2nd Quarter– more of the same in this evenly matched game. You can see Doncic creativity with his no look behind the back passes and how he draws opposing players to him then dishes the ball to his team mate who is not covered. Luka makes a step back jump shot. Raptors lead at the break.
3rd Quarter- Dallas coach Jason Kidd must of given the speech of his life to his players as the Mavericks put up 40pts in the 3rd quarter alone compared to the Raptors 25pts. creating a 14pts. This is where the Raptors wheels feel off. Raptors are horrible from the line 66% compared to Dallas 81%. RJ Barrett makes a 23 ft 3pts jumper and then Kyrie Irving returns the favour with one of his own.
4th Quarter– Raptors out scored the Mavericks in the 4th quarter by 3pts but it was to enough. Mavericks Luka Doncic & Kyrie Doncic combined for 37pts after the 2nd half. In addition to Dallas bench contributed Hardawy Jr 16pts and Gafford with 13pts. For the raptors is Quickly with 28pts and RJ Barrett with 26pts to end the game, Scottie Barns only got 19pts and Raptors Bench K Olynk with 13 points.
The Good: Look forward to Raptors next game.
The Bad: Raptors feel apart in the 3rd quarter.
The Ugly: The raptors 2024 season
For more information about the Toronto Raptors visit: https://www.nba.com/raptors/
Thank you to: ESPN
