Throughout the 2016-17 NBA season we’ll take a look back at the week that was and set up the week to come in Raptorland.
Given the way the Toronto Raptors lost to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night, it’s understandable that the team and its fans want to focus their attention on poor officiating.
The Raptors were clearly robbed of at least getting a second chance to send the game into overtime, so it’s easy to get drawn into the cliché narratives of bad refereeing and the ridiculous notion that the league itself doesn’t want to see a team from Canada win tight games.
A bad call happened. Get over it.
Instead, if you really want to get angry about something, set your sights on the Raptors’ porous defence.
After starting the season 4-2 allowing only 99.9 points per 100 possessions, Toronto has stumbled in its last seven contests, going 4-3 while giving up an egregious 108.9 points per 100 possessions. This massive slip in defensive play has dropped what was a top-10 ranked defence into the No. 18 spot.
Looking closer at the Raptors’ first six games compared to their last seven, there’s been a significant drop in just about every defensive category with the exception of points in the paint allowed, which ultimately is a little negligible as teams are shooting better from three-point range on the Raptors than before.
First six games | Last seven games | |
Defensive rating | 99.9 | 108.9 |
Opponent FG% | 43.8 | 46.2 |
Opponent 3P% | 32.3 | 35.2 |
FBP allowed per game | 12.0 | 12.3 |
PITP allowed per game | 45.7 | 43.1 |
Going back to the Sacramento game, the Raptors did match their best defensive effort of this seven-game stretch, giving up 102 points, but they ended up getting 36 and 28 points hung on them in the first and third quarters, respectively, so as bad as the final play was, the Raptors deserved to lose that game because right now they seem incapable of putting together a sustained defensive effort for more than a few minutes at a time.
In fact, by this same logic, the Raptors probably deserved to lose every game of their last seven because they’ve consistently allowed teams to hang a high number on them in at least one quarter.
The Oklahoma City Thunder put up 28, the Charlotte Hornets had 38- and 29-point quarters, there were two 28-point quarters and a 29-point frame from the New York Knicks, the Denver Nuggets scored 38 in one and the Golden State Warriors came one point shy of scoring 30 or more in every quarter against the Raptors a night after the Cleveland Cavaliers had already done just that.
Narrowing in on individual quarters may seem a little unfair, but the reality is the Raptors are a good team and should certainly be better on the defensive end than they’ve shown of late.
In the immortal words of Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson, “This isn’t the try league.”
The better a team gets, the higher the expectations are and the harsher judges we all should be. It doesn’t matter if the opponent is as talented as the Warriors and Cavaliers or as weak as the Nuggets, there is no such thing as a moral victory.
D up and get the job done.
Lowry rounding into form
If you’re looking for something encouraging to latch onto, Kyle Lowry appears to be brushing aside some of that rust he showed to begin the season.
Over his last four games the all-star point guard has averaged 23.8 points, 8.3 assists and 5.8 rebounds per game on 41.7 per cent shooting and an excellent 42.8 per cent from deep.
The Raptors haven’t exactly needed Lowry to put up huge numbers with fellow all-star backcourt-mate DeMar DeRozan going off the way he has, but Lowry’s still probably the team’s best player and seeing him getting revved up is a good sign.
D-League update
Raptors 905, Toronto’s D-League affiliate, began their season Friday and Sunday, winning both games in very convincing fashion, a 100-87 decision over the Grensboro Hornets and a 117-83 slaughter of the Long Island Nets.
Brady Heslip and Fred VanVleet scored 20 apiece to lead the 905 against the Hornets with Heslip going 5-for-10 from distance and VanVleet added six rebounds and seven assists.
In Sunday’s game against the Nets, Bruno Caboclo flirted with a triple-double with 17 points 10 rebounds and seven blocks.