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Raptors Disappoint On A Memorable Night As Shooting Struggles Continue

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This is a guest post from Neeraj Varma.

In the NBA’s modern era of rapid player movement and athlete empowerment, it’s rare that a superstar player returns to play against their former team, and isn’t greeted with an outcry of boo’s and curses. The only NBA Finals MVP to ever leave for another team immediately after winning a championship returned to Canada last night and became one of the few outliers in NBA history to experience the opposite.

Kawhi Leonard – one of professional sports’ softest spoken superstars, who was put on a pedestal by 37 million Canadians last summer – was like Toronto’s supermodel ex-boyfriend coming back to recognize what the franchise did for him, and was awarded with his championship ring in memorable fashion.

Everyone who felt the rumblings of each bounce on “the shot” – or whose limbs trembled as Steph Curry launched a hopeless full-court heave in Oakland on June 13th, crowning the Toronto Raptors as NBA Champions – had their schedules cleared for December 11th, 2019, since the day that the Raptors’ schedule was announced.

The pre-game hype generated by fans and media alike was ineffable. Last night, New Balance continued their sharp marketing by putting the honourary Canadian hero on a billboard looking over Yonge and Dundas square, just hours after the Toronto Raptors posted a sentimental tribute video on their social channels. Seeing the game take place over the retro purple court, with the Raptors donning their dinosaur jerseys, only made the spectacle exponentially more rousing. It was the intersection between paying homage to the losing and mocked era of this franchise, and seeing one of the best basketball players to ever play – who was a Raptor, and brought the team its first and only championship – return to that court.

Whether you were lucky enough to throw on your iconic Raptors jersey crested with a now-legendary “2” and head down to Scotiabank Arena to pay your respects in person, or if you were among the regular season record-setting audience staring on with emotions running rampant in the comfort of your own home, we all stood witness to a classic moment.

While last night wasn’t the first time that the new-look Raptors have had their jab at Kawhi since his departure, it felt like it was. In the first matchup, exactly one month prior, the Raptors were on their second night of a tough back-to-back, and were without Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, and OG Anunoby (for all but 107 seconds of the game). On the other side, the Clippers were missing the second head of their dragon, Paul George, who was sidelined with a shoulder injury. 

Yesterday, the injury report was far less star-studded, which made for a more crystallized picture of how these two team’s stack up against each other. The final score of the game has its own narrative: that the Clippers are good, and the Raptors are not. Any casual NBA fan knows this isn’t true. It was a blowout by the end, a 112-92 final in favour of the returning Leonard.

The final score doesn’t tell you about the fact that both teams were neck-and-neck in the first quarter, and that after going down by 18 points at halftime, the Raptors came roaring back on a 25-12 run to start the second half. Anunoby poked the ball loose from Leonard, dashed down the court, was fouled at the rim, then proceeded to hit two free throws and cut the Clippers lead to five. The Raptors defense was synchronized, Marc Gasol was facilitating like Jason “White Chocolate” Williams, and Norman Powell was turning up the jets like he was playing against the Milwaukee Bucks.

Everything after that run was ugly. In a span of just under eight minutes between the end of the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth, the Raptors only hit one shot, courtesy of Chris Boucher. After dropping 32 points in the first quarter, the team totalled 60 points over the rest of the game. Kyle Lowry shot 1/8 from the field and 0/7 from deep. Serge Ibaka channeled his inner Joel Embiid and failed to score a point on 8 shot attempts, including a missed dunk. 

After leading the league in three-point shooting percentage at 40.2% prior to last Tuesday, the Raptors have shot 25.6% from deep on 191 attempts since. Needless to say, the Dinos haven’t done a good job finding the bottom of the bucket since their winning streak ended. 

Coincidentally, the Raptors’ team-wide slump began at the same time that Ibaka and Lowry returned. Both players have severely underperformed since coming back, and while they are partially to blame for the sloppy play as of late, jumping ship on two of the instrumental pieces in bringing Canada its first NBA Championship is asinine. The sample size of poor play is minuscule, and prior to their injuries, both players were playing some of the best basketball of their entire careers, a big part of the reason why the Raptors started the season off with a 7-2 record. Nick Nurse said himself post-game, “The best version of our team is with those guys clicking at a high level.” 

In evaluating the Raptors play, it’s important to understand the consensus belief of Raptors fans and basketball analysts prior to Lowry’s and Ibaka’s returns: that they could romp over teams without two of their best players, and that, once healthy, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Contrary to what some fans may think right now, the glimpse of stellar basketball that this team flashed at the beginning of the second half against the Clippers is probably a more accurate representation of what we can expect moving forward than, well… the other 40-some minutes of action.

The other X-factor for this team, who has been missing from the past two games, is Fred VanVleet, who is posting career-high numbers in almost all traditional categories, and has entered himself into the Most Improved Player debate. The numbers support the narrative claim that VanVleet’s presence is imperative to the Raptors’ success. He leads the team in steals per game, and assists per game, and ranks third on the roster in scoring output.

Ultimately, this team’s ability to win games moving forward will depend on when, not if, everyone can click. Right now, guys are getting in each others’ way, and that’s the cause of such a disjunctive, frustrating-to-watch offense. Since Lowry and Ibaka have returned, Pascal Siakam has shot the ball at a 40.2% clip, including 20.8% from deep, and is making 5.2 trips to the free throw line per game, as compared to his 43.8% shooting, 37.7% from long-range, and 4.3 free throw attempts per game, without Lowry and Ibaka. That’s not to say that Siakam and Lowry are an inefficient combo, though: in the first eight games of the season, Siakam was shooting 51.9% from the field, including 40.4% from deep, and 4.9 free throw line trips per game, next to Lowry. Simply, they need to relearn how to fit with each others’ play style, and Siakam needs to remain aggressive. Yesterday, after taking two off-dribble threes in the first three minutes of the game, Siakam didn’t take his third field goal attempt until the 4:42 mark in the second quarter. That can’t be the case for someone as important to their team, and as talented as Siakam. It’ll take time for this team to adjust, but it’ll be worth it. 

With fully healthy rotations, Nurse should be able to deploy a 10-man lineup in most games that looks something like the following:

PG: Kyle Lowry/Patrick McCaw
SG: Fred VanVleet/Terence Davis
SF: OG Anunoby/Norman Powell
PF: Pascal Siakam/Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
C: Marc Gasol/Serge Ibaka

Upon VanVleet’s return, this would be fans’ first look at a fully healthy roster that runs deeper than eight or nine players. On the occasional night, Nurse could even look to go 11 guys deep by throwing Boucher or Matt Thomas into the mix. It’s known that this team can shoot the heck out of the basketball, as they did in their first 19 games. Despite ranking #29 in the league in defensive rebounding, and #26 in offensive rebounding, they’ve given fans hope in that category as of late. Against the Philadelphia 76ers, they won the battle on the glass by two, and then only got outrebounded by three against the Clippers – which are two of the biggest teams in the league. They’re doing better than they have been over the last few games, in terms of rebounding, at least.

That doesn’t change the fact that optimism is low right now, as is understandable. The Raptors aren’t showing their upside lately, but if you read between the lines, there’s more to be excited about than there is to get down about. Kawhi Leonard, Canada’s former saviour to whom fans are forever grateful for, outright embarrassed the Raptors tonight, but that’s what happens when one of the best teams in the league faces off against a squad in a slump. Enjoy the game for what it was: an emotional ride, and some closure to the dream that Toronto sports fans lived in for all of last year.

Now, it’s time to get back to basketball. The Raptors schedule over the next four games features only one opponent with a marginal winning record, which should be a good opportunity to pick up some wins, while bolstering the team’s confidence. It’s too early to quit on the Raptors, they’re way too good for that.

This is a guest post from Neeraj Varma.

Raptors Disappoint On A Memorable Night As Shooting Struggles Continue originated on Raptors Republic.

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