Raptors start and finish strong against Thunder, but lose anyway

The Dark Knight Rises began as a worthy sequel to a brilliant movie. Tom Hardy delivered an instant classic with, “they expect one of us in the wreckage, brother.” It was a high-pace, slick, and well-connected first act in the movie. It quickly fell apart beneath the weight of its own purposes, some bizarre directorial choices, and a plot that was too complex by half. There was a clear high-water mark that looked initially like the movie was only just revving into second gear.

It’s hard to see the high-water mark of a tidal wave. Everything, after all, is underwater. Similarly, it was impossible to choose a highlight of the Toronto Raptors’ defensive performance in the first quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The quarter was an avalanche of limbs, a parade of hands, a cavalcade of pokes. Brandon Ingram on the first possession of the game nearly forced a backcourt violation with his pressure on the ball.

At one point, Scottie Barnes picked up Alex Caruso full court and picked him clean on an attempted crossover. On the next possession, he picked up again, stayed with Caruso on an in-and-out dribble faking the crossover, forced him to pick up the dribble with his pressure, and then stripped the ball clean once again. 

Collin Murray-Boyles poked the ball away multiple times at the point of attack as he switched onto the ballhandlers of pick and rolls. Barnes erased a Chet Holmgren layup as the helper. 

The Raptors found their way to five extra shooting possessions versus the Thunder in the quarter. Usually, Oklahoma City finds its way to more shots. Instead, Toronto out-Thundered the Thunder. When they weren’t forcing turnovers, they were attacking the offensive glass. Murray-Boyles tipped one out for an RJ Barrett triple. Jamison Battle grabbed an offensive board in a crowd before diming Jamal Shead for a triple of his own.

But it turned out the tidal wave was more of a kiddy-pool flood. There was a high-water mark. It likely came in that first quarter, but it was only identifiable in hindsight. You don’t know the good old days until they’re gone. In the second, the Thunder scored 35 points, with Cason Wallace especially shaking free off the dribble at will and finishing at the hoop, diming his teammates, and even stepping back on Jamal Shead for a squint-and-you-think-it’s-Shai pull-up triple. 

Toronto’s defensive pressure turned into miscues by commission, as players got back cut due to overpressuring. There were moments. Barnes collected another monster block. But in general, the tautness of the string of Toronto’s defence snapped under too much pressure. 

And on the other end, the offence sludged into the mud of the Thunder’s defence. Layups were blocked. Passes were tipped. That happens. But the sloppiness of Toronto’s play was the real problem. At one point, Ingram failed to seal his defender in the post, leading to an easy tipaway steal and transition bucket. 

When Barnes was in the game, the Raptors were serious contenders. When he sat, the Thunder dominated. Rajakovic lamented after the game that Barnes didn’t receive enough free throws. He was physical, and he was defensively dominant. And Toronto did win his minutes by 18 points in a nine-point loss. Keep in mind, the Thunder were without a huge portion of their championship roster, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. Still, the Thunder were able to take Toronto’s defensive menace and defang it in only a quarter.

And in that grind, Toronto’s identity broke down to Barnes’ ability to win in isolation. This was a vision of the future, a vision of the playoffs. This team can only go as far as Barnes’ greatest weakness will take it. And, to be fair, Barnes is an exceptional player. Even his worst abilities are still strong. He started the third quarter by posting up, picking up his dribble, reposting, driving, and hitting a hook shot. He drove and dimed Murray-Boyles for a layup on his duck-in from the weak-side dunker spot.

Barnes was very good. But such things are not the building blocks of efficient team-wide offence. There were misses in there, too. And the Thunder remained a high-octane offence the other way. Oklahoma City’s lead grew and grew. Toronto just couldn’t survive Caruso. He stole the ball away on pick-and-roll passes or on entry passes from the baseline. He finished layups on broken plays. He hit triples. Toronto had a chance whenever it was the more physical team. It simply wasn’t when Caruso was playing. (Caruso’s plus-22 in the game was the only mark that surpassed Barnes’.)

The last time these two teams met, the Raptors out-Thundered the Thunder. This is what they looked like then:

There were moments of winning on the margins that made up the hull of Toronto’s weatherworn boat. Walter — a guard — slipped a screen, caught the ball falling out of bounds, and found Barnes in the dunker spot for a layup. Shead threw a seeing-eye pass to a slipping Mamukelashvili that took an angle I haven’t seen a Raptor point guard attempt since one Kyle Lowry. In the third quarter, he cut baseline on an Ingram post-up, caught it, and slung an immediate behind-the-back pass to Walter for an easy corner triple. Barrett beat three Thunder for an offensive rebound and laid it back in. Those are winning moments from a winning team.

That’s what it takes to beat the champs. Not just beat them. Steal their flow. The Raptors were more Thunder than the Thunder. That reflects exceptionally on everyone, from the coach on down to the stars on down to the role players. This is the type of game that dissuades a front office from making sizeable trades.

The first quarter was a sequel that held up the standard of the beloved original in the series. Toronto fell apart after that, becoming a caricature of itself. (Like most sequels!) Even Darko Rajakovic fell back to bad habits, with a poor challenge in the third quarter on an Ingram charge that took less than a minute to confirm as an offensive foul. Battle committed a flagrant foul. Barnes started to fall for some up-fakes as he chased blocks. Shead missed triples. The Raptors fell apart under the weight of of their own purposes.

Ja’Kobe Walter did go berserk from deep as Barnes created open triple after open triple for his teammate. He even splashed a buzzer beater to end the third quarter. That was a positive. But it was overshadowed. The buzzer beater cut the deficit to 18.

Toronto opened the fourth quarter with a real push. Quickley hit a triple. Barnes drop-stepped for a layup. Toronto cut the lead to 10. The Raptors’ defence started forcing misses again. This will have to be the foundation of any Toronto run against good teams. Then Caruso re-entered the game, and Toronto was once again unable to enter the ball into the post without committing a turnover.

An Ingram triple perhaps told the Raptors that a comeback was possible. He then gathered a defensive rebound, isolated on an empty side of the court, and danced his way to a mid-rage pull-up. He grinded his way into the middle of the floor, gathered into a pull-up, and then laid the ball down to Murray-Boyles for free throws. Barnes jumped a hapless Thunder dribbler and stole the ball. From down 25, the Raptors pulled even on a Shead triple. That, perhaps, was the high-water mark.

“I wish I knew the answer,” said Rajakovic after the game. “The second and third quarter[s], that was not us.”

The comeback turned out to be fake. Toronto’s offence ground to a halt just when it mattered most. The Thunder found some triples, and the Raptors found some turnovers. And so Toronto’s sequel to their win of the year fell flat. The Raptors made a game of it. There were moments of brilliance. But ultimately, the Raptors were defined by their weaknesses, not their strengths.

This has become a consistent pattern against the league’s best.

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