Three standout Raptors from preseason shellacking of Knicks

Kawhi Leonard’s second preseason Raptors debut. Toronto and Raptors Twitter were abuzz with excitement. Leonard was on a minutes restriction, per head coach Darko Rajaković, but that didn’t matter.

What did was seeing the Klaw on the court in that Raptors red and white chevron. It was finally real.

More, Allen Graves made his Raptors preseason debut, and this all came against the defending champion New York Knicks, who were, albeit, sitting their starters because they played yesterday (ban preseason back-to-backs).

Leonard and the Raptors shellacked a combination of the Knicks’ bench and some players who will likely wind up on their G League affiliate. Toronto was up 39 by the time Leonard checked out for good at halftime, and the final score was 148-98 in a raucous yet largely inconsequential affair.

However, Tuesday night’s beatdown provided the first inklings of what the Kawhi Raptors 2.0 will be. If we’re to believe a one-game sample against the Westchester Knicks, Toronto’s return to glory is imminent.

Kawhi Leonard

Leonard’s impact on the turnover battle and transition game was immediate. He stepped up on a Jose Alvarado drive at the block and got his jumbo mitts on the ball for a steal.

For his first field goal back in a Raptors jersey, he first high-pointed a rebound, hit ahead to Scottie Barnes, and later got it back from Immanuel Quickley where he drilled a deep 3 as the trailer. The play was lackadaisical. Barnes didn’t see the hit-ahead pass until almost too late and barely corralled it. Then he dropped a languid no-look to Quickley. Leonard was the only participant in the play that looked locked in — catching and shooting without hesitation — robotic, if you will.

Later on, Leonard even got the fortuitous bounce on a late-clock corner 3. Yeah, that corner.

He filled it up from three in general, dropping 4-of-8 and finishing with 21 points in just 16 minutes, grabbing five boards and two steals.

Leonard mostly played low in the Raptors defence, aggressively helping in the gaps and from the weak side, in keeping with the team’s tendencies. On offence, he both rebounded to start transition attacks and acted as a finisher, hitting 3s both as a trailer and running wide to the corners. The Raptors were third in transition frequency last season and placed a huge emphasis on playing fast. They also had uniquely aggressive help principles. Kawhi fit right in.

The halfcourt offence with Leonard looked a little disjointed at times, but that’s to be expected. It was his first time playing with these guys for Pete’s sake.

One play where it wasn’t was the Rip-Split-Pin sideline out-of-bounds play that the Raptors often used last season. As our Samson Folk pointed out once again, Leonard presented a new wrinkle to the set, giving Toronto the option to post up Leonard against a mismatch on an empty side. He easily scored over the top, of course.