The Toronto Raptors return home from an eventful four-game West Coast road trip that saw a bit of everything from the NBA’s top team thus far this season.
After blowing out the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors — both games without the services of Kawhi Leonard — the Raptors were on top of the NBA world and looked as promising as we’ve ever seen in the franchise’s history. I wrote as much following the 20-point victory in Oakland over a full-strength Warriors team, so, naturally, Toronto went on to drop its next two games, this time with the Raps’ other marquee star, Kyle Lowry, out of the lineup.
Here, in no particular order, are four takeaways from the Raptors’ four-game road trip:
• To the shock of nobody, when your all-star point guard is out of the lineup you suffer. The Raptors fared well in the two games Leonard missed, but when Lowry was sidelined the impact was obvious, particularly when it came to ball distribution on the offensive end.
Lowry’s greatest attribute this season has been his playmaking. After spending the bulk of the season to this point as the NBA’s leader in assists (he’s now tied with Russell Westbrook for first place with an even 10 assists per game), he’s been more effective setting up teammates than ever — his previous career-best was 7.4 in the 2013-14 season.
With Lowry out and the Raptors forced to deploy a more deliberate attack with Leonard playing on the ball more in the point guard’s absence, unsurprisingly the team dropped off in terms of assisted baskets — losing a wide receiver like Pascal Siakam for part of Friday’s game against Portland and all of Sunday’s tilt against Denver didn’t help.
In the first two games of the road trip, with Lowry, the Raptors registered 61 total assists. In the two games without Lowry? 33. During Sunday’s Denver loss, with Fred VanVleet sidelined as well, the Raps posted a season-low 13 assists as a team.
Although Lowry’s struggled shooting the ball from deep from late and is currently posting his lowest three-point shooting percentage in a decade, he remains a player teams don’t want to leave open, which clearly affects how defences square up against the Raptors when Lowry is on the floor. Throw in the many non-quantifiable things Lowry does to propel his team on a given night and they clearly missed their floor general over the past two games.
Lowry is currently considered a game-time decision for Wednesday’s home game against the Indiana Pacers.
• The Raptors’ three-point shooting has been wildly inconsistent this season, and that’s never been the case more than during the recently wrapped roadie.
The team ranks just 20th in the NBA in three-point shooting at 34.8 per cent on the season — surprisingly low given that their three-point prowess was expected to be a major strength heading into the season, particularly from the corners, the most coveted long-range spot on the floor.
On Sunday the Raptors shot a season-low 20 per cent from deep (7-for-35). They are now 8-9 when shooting under 35 per cent in games.
The Raps only have one loss this season when shooting 35 per cent or above. Ironically, it happened on this road trip, on Friday night, when they managed a season-best 58 per cent from deep against a Portland team that also caught fire from beyond the arc.
• The Raptors roster, as we know, is deep. But naturally, as they go further down the bench, their reserves aren’t quite reliable enough to count on for wins.
On Sunday the team was without three critical players in Lowry, Siakam, and VanVleet (along with Jonas Valanciunas, who will be sidelined for at least a month). It forced Leonard into a high-usage outing, which is generally a good thing given how effective he is, but with Delon Wright in the starting lineup (more on him in a moment), and meaningful minutes going to players who haven’t had many reps this season in Lorenzo Brown and Greg Monroe, the regular rotation players were sorely missed.
Another starter was C.J. Miles, who has seriously struggled this season. On the roster as a much-needed three-point specialist off the bench, Miles is shooting just 30.8 per cent from deep — the lowest mark since he was a teenager in the 2006-07 season. He has a quicker first-step, it seems, compared to last season, but has been a little too aggressive and forceful in trying to attack the rim, and has missed countless opportunities on drives to the hoop as he looks to regain his form — and confidence — shooting the ball.
But there were signs of hope, or an eventual turnaround, on the road trip. On Friday versus Portland he scored a season-high 13 points.
Miles has “been a shell of himself,” as Nick Nurse put it after the Friday loss in Portland, but the coach added that his performance that night was closer to what we expect from the veteran shooter. With Lowry and VanVleet out on Sunday the team needed another strong outing from the veteran, but he managed to go just 2-of-9 from deep for a quiet six points.
Undermanned as they were, the Raps were still in contention to win Sunday’s game against the West’s top team, and it wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that the Nuggets pulled away for the win, and that in itself is somewhat encouraging nonetheless.
• Delon Wright has shown flashes of his ability, but has yet to break through so far this season. His role has been altered and minutes are down thanks in part to the addition of Danny Green, and there could be a correlation there.
After failing to secure a contract extension heading into the season, the upcoming RFA entered the season with an opportunity for a big payday if he continued to perform at the level he established last season, or took another step forward as expected. Neither has happened so far.
Getting the start with Lowry and VanVleet out, Wright was hot and cold, and posted a season-high 15 points and eight boards while dishing four assists.
The talent is there, and every now and then he certainly has great handles and a high-level ability to break down defenders to get to the hoop.
Delon Wright pic.twitter.com/2tFvbnUBHo
— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) December 17, 2018
But in general he’s been struggling to make the most of those takes. From last season to this season he’s dropped nearly 10 per cent in field-goal percentage on shots within 10 feet of the rim, and dropped five per cent from shots within five feet. For a guy who is so effective getting to the rim, Wright seems to miss makeable layup chances at the basket and capitalize on otherwise oft-brilliant drives.
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