Title: Four Raptors rookies join doubleheader club, make history
Date: December 5, 2024
Original Source: Sportsnet
Synopsis: In my latest at Sportsnet, I wrote about four Raptors rookies making history by playing together in both ends of an NBA and G League doubleheader.
When the quartet of Raptors rookies took the floor together at Scotiabank Arena ten hours earlier, the situation could not have been more different.
As four-fifths of the Raptors 905 starting lineup for their annual 11 a.m. ET tip-off, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamal Shead, Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle helped lead the 905 to their best win of the season, a 134-92 wallop of the G League’s best team. Around 9:30 p.m. ET, they took the floor as part of a Raptors bench unit that was playing out the end of a 129-92 drubbing at the hand of arguably the NBA’s best team, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It was about as big a whiplash in quality of competition as you’d expect, going from a morning start in the minor league to a marquee meeting with the NBA’s best defence. With no disrespect to the Greensboro Swarm, now 8-2, there are levels to the game, and there are sub-levels within those levels, and enough levels between quality G League play and NBA Championship contention to make Nick Jonas’s head spin. The Thunder are a buzzsaw, and a heck of a way to end a very long day of basketball.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 