• Ibaka can’t get here soon enough
• No Ross spells trouble on the wings
• Dwane Casey starting to get desperate
What was an exciting day for the Toronto Raptors ended on a sour note. After trading for Serge Ibaka earlier on Tuesday, you’d have thought the struggling Raps would be energized by the change. Instead they came out of the gates flat and lacked energy throughout. Toronto is now 4-11 in its last 15 games.
Both teams came into the game just 2-4 in the month of February. The Raptors have now lost 11 straight to the struggling Bulls. Their last win over Chicago was all the way back in 2013.
Here are the takeaways from a game that belaboured a point we already knew: Ibaka and a healthy Patrick Patterson can’t get added to this lineup soon enough.
Yet another PF
With Patterson still out and Ibaka not here yet, Jakob Poeltl started at the four. Poeltl is the sixth player to start at power forward this year for Toronto.
Once he clears his physical, the new No. 9, Ibaka will be the seventh starting four in the lineup. This was just the rookie’s fourth start this season, hearing his name called at PF in back-to-back games. The other two starts were at centre. Toronto started the second half small with Norman Powell in for Poeltl.
Poeltl finished with just four points and one rebound in 17 minutes, failing to make much of an impact. Most impending free agents lose money when they get injured. Patterson might be making money for himself while on the injured list as his value to the Raptors has never been more clear since his recent extended time on the IR.
Offensive Offence
It was woeful offensive night for Toronto, which came into the game with the league’s second-best offence. The Raptors scored just 18 first-quarter points. A big part of that was the six turnovers they produced in the first quarter. It took shooting 13-36 from the floor to get their starting backcourt to 40 combined points. DeMar DeRozan’s streak of games with 20-plus points was snapped as he finished with 18. Not even Ibaka could have saved this team on the offensive end of the floor.
Loss Without Ross
The loss of Terrence Ross will be felt in terms of a lack of wing depth. DeMarre Carroll played 40 minutes and scored four points. Powell was 0-3 from three.
DeRozan only took one three-point shot, which he missed. The team only made five three-pointers and four of them were shot by Kyle Lowry. The Raptors don’t have much depth on the wing and the players they do have there don’t provide much spacing. Some of that will be negated as they’ll get spacing from the four position in the form of Ibaka and Patterson, but it’s still not ideal to have your wing players miss uncontested looks from three-point land as much as they did versus Chicago.
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Guards Go Off Against Toronto
The trend of poor-shooting guards going off against Toronto continued. Rajon Rondo, Denzel Valentine and Doug McDermott combined for 15-24 shooting and 38 points.
Michael Carter-Williams shot 100 per cent from the floor. Toronto lost this game because of its poor offensive shooting, but we saw symptoms of the same defensive issues that have long troubled them. Dribble penetration and closing out perimeter shooters were again issues for Toronto defensively.
Wright Returns to Action
Delon Wright saw some action and got his first basket of the season. Wright played active defence in his nine minutes on the floor. When the Raptors made a run to get back in the game in the fourth quarter, it was primarily with a lineup that saw Wright, Lowry and Cory Joseph all playing at the same time. Don’t expect that unconventional group to see much time together moving forward, but the fact that Dwane Casey went to Wright out of the blue in an unconventional lineup shows the coach is grasping at straws to find a way to spark his team.
Sinking Fast
Not long ago, Casey and Brad Stevens were battling over who would coach in the all-star game having the conference’s second-best record. In the past 30 games, the Celtics are 23-7 and Toronto is 14-16. In the last 46 days, Toronto has gone from up four games on Boston to four and a half games behind them.
Forget about the Ibaka trade helping Toronto compete with Cleveland. This trade was needed to help them stay afloat and compete with Boston and Washington.