It’s hard to imagine a pair of outings more jarringly dissimilar than the two the Toronto Raptors strung together over the weekend.
On Friday the Raps were world-beaters, eviscerating the Atlanta Hawks with swift ball movement (en route to 37 assists) and reaching a franchise-best 20 games over .500 in the process. Then Saturday rolled around and with it a lethargic effort against the Houston Rockets that saw Toronto manage just 12 total assists while looking a whole lot like the Raptors of seasons past—and that ain’t a good thing.
There sure wasn’t much in the way of positives to take from Saturday’s loss, in which the Raptors committed 25 turnovers, shot just 32.5 percent from the floor and were held to 76 points—one more than their season low. Call it rust, fatigue from the first post-break back-to-back or whatever you want, it doesn’t make the Raps’ disjointed effort any easier to swallow.
“[The Rockets] were hungrier, played harder, did all the grimy things that we did [Friday night] and didn’t do tonight,” Dwane Casey said after the 98-76 loss. “Everybody walked on the floor [without] the right mindset. The focus and sharpness wasn’t there. Everybody is going to come at us, we’re one of the top teams in the East for a reason, and if we don’t play that way bad things are going to happen.”
The fact that none of Casey’s observations are exactly news to this Raptors group, who have been at or near the top of their conference all season, makes their lacklustre performance in Houston all the more disheartening. Over their past two games, the Raps have been reminiscent of a band that sounds amazing on the record but falls flat when you see them play live—you hope it’s just an off-night and the music you hear in your headphones is closer to the real thing.
The complete lack of edge on Saturday was disturbing (though, in fairness, it was a terrible night for both clubs, and the Raptors had the game in reach before James Harden took over and reminded us why, so far this season, he’s the NBA MVP). But the beauty of the 82-game grind is that Toronto has the opportunity to put that loss behind them tonight in New Orleans against the depleted-but-still-potent Pelicans.
New Orleans just can’t seem to field a healthy team and tonight they’ll be without the services of Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson. Alexis Ajinca should see big minutes as a result and Toronto should be wary of the French big man, who torched the Raptors for 22 points on 10-of-13 shooting when New Orleans beat Toronto at the Air Canada Centre in January.
New Orleans enters tonight’s game at the Smoothie King Center (the NBA’s greatest venue name—sorry Sleep Train Arena) fresh off a win against the Heat. But that victory snapped a four-game losing streak and was just the Pelicans’ second win in their past seven outings.
Eric Gordon, who carries the dubious distinction of being the player New Orleans received for Chris Paul three seasons ago, dropped 24 points and hit six threes in the win. The 26-year-old shooting guard has quietly reinvented his game since returning from a series of knee injuries and has emerged as a deadly sharpshooter from deep. His 46 percent success rate on three-pointers is second only to Kyle Korver’s 50.9, and over the past 30 days Gordon is shooting a ridiculous 58 percent while attempting more than five threes per game in that stretch.
Another hot night from Gordon could make the difference against Toronto, but if there’s one area where the Raptors showed consistency over their Jekyll and Hyde-like weekend, it was their ability to defend the three-pointer. Houston and Atlanta, two teams that utilize the long ball as often and effectively as any in the league, shot a combined 14-for-67 from behind the arc against the Raptors.
James Johnson is coming off a career-best 27 points and, like Gordon, should be one to keep an eye on again tonight. He was the only player with a pulse on Saturday and will be vital tonight in limiting Tyreke Evans’ forays into the paint. Lou Williams, who missed Saturday’s game with an ankle injury after dropping a career-best seven threes on Atlanta is listed as probable.
Given Toronto’s latest performance, coupled with the revenge factor, there certainly won’t be a lack of incentives for the Raptors to get back on track tonight and remind us all why they sit second in the conference.
So, which Raptors team will show up? The one that took on the first-place Hawks and ran them off the floor? Or the one that laid an egg less than 24 hours later?
It sucks that the question even needs to be asked.
