The Toronto Raptors have very quietly become one of the NBA’s offensive juggernauts.
You may have missed it given this is a team that fields a starting lineup that includes a rookie who doesn’t shoot much in Pascal Siakam at power forward and a veteran small forward in DeMarre Carroll who reminds no one of Kevin Durant of the Golden State Warriors – the only team keeping the Raptors out of first place in several offensive categories.
The Raptors don’t pass very often – they rank 27th in the league in total passes made per game at 279.3, and 27th in assists at 19.4 per game. They play at a relatively slow pace, ranking 21st in the NBA in the number of possessions they use per game.
They have a reliable post scorer in Jonas Valancuinas but he rarely gets the ball, averaging just 9.9 shots per game.
But somehow, someway, the Raptors score, score a lot and score very efficiently.
Which is important, because as the season approaches the 20-game mark the Raptors self-styled identity as a defensively-driven team is taking a beating.
Heading into Wednesday night’s tougher-than-it should have been 120-105 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, the Raptors ranked second in the NBA in field goal percentage at 46.6 per cent and second overall in points per 100 possessions at 111.7 – trailing Golden State in each case.
And while they don’t pass much and don’t pass for many baskets, they don’t turn the ball over either – coughing it up just 11.82 times a game, third best in the league.
“They’re going to get a shot up, they’re not worried about moving the ball,” joked Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “But there is a method to the madness … it’s not just guys rolling out there, but that we don’t turn it over adds to the efficiency.”
This was all before the game, of course. Why did the Raptors struggle to put Memphis away? How about 20 turnovers? That didn’t help. Or allowing Memphis to score 28 points in the first quarter or shoot 49 per cent in the first half?
Not awful, but this was a team made up of nobodies, defensive stopper Tony Allen, and Marc Gasol. They played hungry, but the Raptors fed the beast before slowly putting the squeeze on in the second half as they help Memphis to 48 points and just 37 per cent in the final period as the Raptors slowly left Memphis behind.
Too slowly.
“We can wait and mess around with the game,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “We have to play quarter by quarter. We can’t wait around and mess around with the game. We have to have an identity, one through four.”
On paper the Grizzlies offered as close to a guaranteed win night as is reasonable to expect during an NBA season. The Grizzlies arrived with an 11-7 record, but that might be their high-water mark for a while. Memphis learned on Sunday that Mike Conley – the engine that makes them go at point guard – would be out for six-to-eight weeks with a fractured back. He joins Chandler Parsons (knee); Zach Randolph (personal) as well as former Raptors icon Vince Carter (hip) on the shelf.
In the end, Grizzlies rookie head coach David Fizdale had just nine players to call on Wednesday night – he dubbed them the ‘Nasty Nine’ and they played that way.
“The effort was fantastic,” Fizdale said. “… I was happy to see us still neck-and-neck with those guys deep into the fourth quarter.”
The Raptors (12-6) were looking for their fourth straight win and arrived healthy, rested and on a roll, having knocked down 19 of their last 30 three-pointers going back to their fourth-quarter surge against Milwaukee on Saturday before they went 13-of-19 against Philadelphia on Monday.
The Raptors couldn’t be faulted for thinking that they were going to make quick work of battered lineup.
Instead, the Grizzlies exposed a weakness that will be a growing area of concern for Toronto going forward. They can score in bunches, but their defence is so porous they need every point they get.
“Defence isn’t easy to hide,” said Cory Joseph. “You can see it on film. You look back on the game tape and you can tell our rotations are off, our energy isn’t there, communication … a whole bunch of things. It’s easy to pin-point because they have that clicker and when they stop it you’re always wrong.”
The Raptors defensive issues were no doubt compounded by their heavy dose of turnovers.
“Stop turning the damn ball over,” was DeMar DeRozan’s interpretation of Casey’s half-time message.
Giving up 100-plus points to a short-handed Grizzlies team simply shouldn’t happen; they’re not that good.
The Raptors have been distinctly middle-of-the-pack defensively to this point – 16th in points allowed, 23rd in defensive field goal efficiency and 24th in points allowed per 100 possessions.
In the early part of the season, much of that was attributable to the road heavy schedule and dates against the likes of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers – some of the best offences in the league.
But now halfway through a season-high six-game homestand, the Raptors are running out of excuses.
The Grizzlies are hardly the second coming of the 60s era Celtics, healthy or not. Even before Conley was injured they were 27th in the NBA in points scored a game and 28th in field goal percentage.
But while rolling out a rookie point guard in Andrew Harrison (21 points to lead the Grizzlies) and with Gasol their only proven offensive threat, Memphis had their way. They followed up their first quarter by taking a 57-55 halftime lead as the Grizzlies were able to shoot 49 per cent and 41 per cent from three. And then just when it looked like the Raptors would squeeze them out in the third, Memphis kept the pace cutting an 89-82 Raptors lead with 12 minutes to play to 91-90 after a quick 8-0 run.
Toronto responded with threes from Patrick Patterson and Joseph to push the lead back to seven, and then two more threes from Carroll and then Lowry midway through the quarter finally split the game open.
“First three quarters you can throw them out and do whatever you want with them,” said Casey. “But I thought we got our focus back toward the end.”
The Raptors got the win but they needed 28 points and 24 points from Lowry and DeRozan respectively in order to lock it down. They were as offensively efficient as advertised, combining to shoot 14-of-22 from the floor and 19-of-21 from the line. But because of their defence, the Raptors two minutes-eaters had to play close to 37 and 36 minutes to get the job done.
The Raptors can score and for the moment they are shooting the three ball at a ridiculous rate – 16-of-32 last night — but the point was made: on a night when an offensive vulnerable team was there begging to shut down, the Raptors allowed them to hang around to the bitter end.
As long as they are one of the NBA’s elite scoring outfits their defensive deficiencies can be glossed over. But unless they figure it out in the long term it’s going to get them.