For better or for worse, Collin Murray-Boyles was Raptors’ only positive

Things could not have been uglier for the Toronto Raptors to start the game against the San Antonio Spurs. On one hand, the Raptors were doubling players from within their sight lines, leaving far more threatening players at the rim, opening easy passes for easier layups. On the other hand, Victor Wembanyama was hitting spinning layups in traffic. On one hand, the Raptors were allowing blow-bys on closeouts and failing to rotate in order to protect the paint. On the other hand, they were failing to attempt anything at the rim because of the presence of Wembanyama. 

Then Collin Murray-Boyles entered the game. 

He set a screen for Brandon Ingram, caught the ball, and laid it in for Toronto’s first paint points. Nothing flashy, just his first career NBA points. He did the same in pick and roll with Jamal Shead on the next possession, this time finishing with a floater. He gathered a steal by playing the gaps off the ball (and threw it away trying to hit ahead in transition, before you get too excited), hit a triple, grabbed an offensive rebound, forced a Spurs turnover chasing another, and drew free throws. All in the span of a few minutes.

If you think that was a mouthful to read, imagine living it for Murray-Boyles. 

Then he sat, and Toronto immediately collapsed into a quivering puddle of missed jumpers, toothless and feckless defensive aggression, and wild rotations taking awful angles. He entered the game again early in the second quarter and snatched a steal in 12 metric seconds. Guarding Wembanyama, he stood him up and didn’t give ground, forcing a kickout (that of course eventually led to a foul and free throws). 

The ball simply gravitates towards him. He always seems to touch it on offence, making decisions about the flow of the system around him. He finds himself defending the ball, or digging towards it when he’s off the ball. When he’s simply guarding above the break not doing anything, drivers seem to simply head straight into his orbit. 

On a team that for three games in a row has lacked many players who simply do stuff, Murray-Boyles is a standout in that category. When he’s on the floor, stuff will happen. 

He didn’t spark a game-winning run for the team. This is real life, not Coach Carter. Toronto continued pissing its pants live on television. (Kind of like the last time they played Wembanyama.) The defence remained incomprehensible. With Toronto trying to win, paying an expensive roster in order to win, it had the 28th-ranked half-court defence entering the game against San Antonio. That surely dropped further after Wembanyama came to town.

Well, actually, it wasn’t Wembanyama who did much of the damage. San Antonio’s guards found easy lanes to the hoop, as Steph Castle, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and Dylan Harper found layups or free throws virtually every time they touched the paint. And they touched the paint virtually every time they wanted to. 

The overhelping is one thing. The failing to rotate to redirect drives is another. The inability for the bigs to even get to the paint to stop layups is yet one more. And, finally, if Toronto does force kickouts, closeouts have been wild and wacky things. At one point, Scottie Barnes started closing out to the wrong wing after not realizing that his man had drifted to the opposite wing. He hit an uncontested triple. 

There were moments of life. Toronto actually played some defence to start the third quarter — and without Murray-Boyles on the court! It forced a few turnovers, which, whatever, but perhaps even more importantly it actually forced missed shots. The seriousness didn’t last. Barnes failed to corral a defensive rebound that fell to Castle for a layup. It was a game typified by far too little effort at times when effort was needed and far too much effort when simple straight lines were needed. (Seriously, rotations were atrocious.) 

It would be reasonable at this early juncture of the season to wonder if coach Darko Rajakovic needs to change the defensive system. The guard defenders cannot corral the ball when they’re trying to dig into the ball high above the break. The big defenders cannot get back into the paint when they’re so high themselves. And no one seems to know who is supposed to be rotating where. 

This is the recipe for an atrocious defence. But the team has the same roster, more or less, as the one that closed the season last year on such a defensive tear. Rajakovic has changed the system, demanding more aggression, shifting back to the approach that Toronto employed (unsuccessfully) to open last season. Poeltl’s defence especially improved last season after Toronto allowed him to play slightly lower against screens. 

Because the team is asking for such wild defensive performances, players who are unable to perform in this system are being sidelined. Gradey Dick is seeing his minutes dwindle. I’m sure he’d be far more comfortable defensively if he weren’t 30 feet away from the rim reaching for the ball in space. That’s like trying to fight Darth Vader without any pants on. Or a lightsaber. But instead Dick isn’t playing despite offering plenty of offensive punch, largely because of his defensive struggles, even as all of his teammates are struggling on defence. Coaches need to coach to the players they have.

Murray-Boyles re-entered the game in the third, tipped in a Shead lob. He was also crossed out of his shoes in the open floor by Wembanyama. Magnet hands and bull strength can only carry you so far against sheer lunacy. Although it can work okay sometimes; later in the third he saw Wembanyama too deep in the paint guarding him, so he drove him under the rim, gathered through his body, and drew two free throws. It was one of two times on the night that the Raptors showed no fear at his presence in the paint. (RJ Barrett had the other moment, hitting a hook over him.) 

Murray-Boyles hit a triple on the next offensive possession, then forced a miss in the paint on the following defensive possession. He was everywhere. In the fourth, he stripped Wembanyama above the break and forced a travel from a guard on the next possession. He forced another turnover guarding Wembanyama on the roll on the following possession, and the breakaway dunk pulled Toronto to within eight. He hit yet another triple a few minutes later, his third of the night.

Then he stripped (or blocked?) Castle on a drive, and got cooked a few times guarding Wembanyama in isolation. That’s life. He was spectacular, contributing in a multiplicity of ways on both sides of the court. Once again, Toronto wasn’t going to win this one. The Raptors’ defence is too atrocious, and the Spurs are too good. But Murray-Boyles at least gave viewers something to watch.

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