OAKLAND – They knew what was likely coming.
Playing at Oracle Arena isn’t just another game. It’s like trying to hold your ground on the edge of a hurricane.
It might come early. It might come late. The knockout punch might come in the middle of the third quarter.
But you know it’s coming.
“Man, it could be a one-point game, you walk in the kitchen get something to drink, come back, they can be up 14 that quick,” was the way DeMar DeRozan described the defending NBA champion Warriors’ ability to break games open with little notice. “That’s the type of team it is, that’s why they’re the champions for a reason. You have to be aware of that.
“That’s why you can never get discouraged, if they go on a run you’ve got to keep fighting, that’s always been our mindset every time we got down, we never looked at it like it was over. As long as we fought back in it, give ourselves a chance.”
The Raptors kept fighting back in their 117-112 heartbreaker to the defending NBA champs. They gave themselves a chance. A really good chance. It looked like the hurricane might not ever quite make shore. Missing big men Jonas Valanciunas and Lucas Nogueira, both with ankle injuries, and missing in copious amounts from the three-point line – a disturbing emerging pattern – Toronto kept at it.
Missing bodies, missing threes? Turn to second-year forward Pascal Siakam who go the start at power forward alongside Serge Ibaka at centre and watch him go off for 20 points – he matched his career-high 14 in the third quarter alone – to help keep the Warriors in view. How about a double-double from second-year big man Jakob Poeltl, who battled and scrapped his way to 12 points and 14 rebounds– including 11 offensive rebounds, a career-high that might stand for a while. How about key contributions form rookie OG Anunoby and emerging third-year guard Delon Wright?
It all added up and when DeRozan scored eight of his 24 points down the stretch – his last a jumper that gave the Raptors a 112-107 lead with 2:13 to play – it looked the Raptors were going to get their first win at Oracle in DeRozan’s eight-year NBA career.
But then the storm finally hit: A triple by Kevin Durant to tie, a game-winner with 32 seconds left by Steph Curry, the lid covering the basket for the Raptors. They ended up getting sucked into iso-ball down the stretch and what was so close ended up being out of reach. The Warriors won it on a 10-0 run the Raptors couldn’t find shelter from.
It was there for the taking, though, small comfort that may be as Toronto dropped to 0-2 on its six-game road trip and 2-2 on the season.
For all the Warriors’ justified hype, it was the Raptors that came into the game with the better record (2-1 vs. 2-2) and with less holes in their game – statistically at least. They are best known for their offence and even with a .500 record came into the game ranked first in threes made (15.3 per game); second in scoring (120.8) and third in three-point percentage (41.9) while boasting the league’s most efficient offence, averaging 117.1 points per 100 possessions.
But they have their issues.
After their third straight run to the NBA Finals and a long pre-season trip to China, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was lamenting his team’s fitness and focus after a pair of early season losses to the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies before their blowout over Dallas in Game 3.
And they might even be bored. Through four games they’re 21st in the NBA in defensive efficiency – uncharacteristic for a team ranked first, fourth and second in that measure during their unprecedented 205-41 romp since 2014-15 (the best three-season win total in NBA history).
Kerr said he spent their whole morning film session Wednesday on the Warriors’ foul problem – they are 26th in the NBA with 24.8 a game – and they are 20th in the league in turnovers. Kerr thinks it’s because his team simply isn’t into it mentally yet.
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The challenge for Kerr and his club is they are so talented and so experienced, they have officially reached the ‘flip-the-switch’ stage of their arc: they know they can turn a game in their favour in a moment.
They showed signs of it early. The first run came late in the second quarter after Lowry hit a left-handed layup to put Toronto up 43-40 with 5:51 to play. The Warriors turned that around in 90 seconds on threes by Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Thompson again. The 9-0 run put the Warriors up six and was just a hint at how quickly they can turn a game.
They pushed their run to 17-7 and the Raptors were teetering. But they knew it was coming.
“Just look at last year,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “They had us down 20 points in the first half of that first quarter and we bounced back and cut it to four or three.
“You have to have a constitution that says: I’m not going to quit. I’m not going to give up. I’m going to keep competing against this team because they are a team of runs. You have to withstand their runs and make your own runs offensively and defensively,” said Casey. “You have to be mentally prepared for them. They are going to make shots. You are not going to prevent Golden State from making shots. What you can’t let it do is drain you emotionally and physically when they do that … you have to be mentally tough enough to say: ‘yeah, you scored on me, now be tough enough to play me on defence.’ If you don’t have that mentality that is when they get you down and keep you down and start pouring it on you if you give in to their three-point barrage.”
That question was answered as Toronto came back and won the third quarter 33-30, mainly thanks to Siakam’s simple hustle plays – most of his scores were beating the Warriors to spots, beating them to the ball.
The problem is the Warriors’ barrage keeps coming, and the Raptors don’t have an answer yet.
To their credit, Toronto remained aggressive looking for three-point opportunities, it’s that they don’t have anyone converting them yet as they finished 8-of-34 from deep to the Warriors’ 12-of-26.
Coming on the heels of the Raptors’ 10-of-37 performance in their loss to San Antonio to open the trip, it’s a stretch of play that will test the team’s faith in its new perimeter-oriented approach.
Kerr’s advice?
Keep the faith.
“I think every team has to forge their own identity, Houston wants to take 50 [threes], that’s who they are. Every team has to play to their strengths but there’s definitely been a movement by a lot of teams to play faster and shoot more threes,” Kerr said. “I think it’s just the trend that has been leading us all in this direction. And we didn’t start it, by the way, we’ve just been following the trends.
“My guess is, this is as an observer, that Toronto has learned from the playoffs the last few years. They’ve played Cleveland and they’re out their lighting it up from three, that’s tough to beat and they just wanted to make a subtle shift in that direction.
“Again, that’s just an observation more than anything else. But whatever you do, you have to commit to it.”
The Raptors say they will remain committed, their results against the Warriors indicative of where it might take them.
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