The Toronto Raptors are hotter than the sun at the moment, having won 15 straight games with an eye towards 16 before the all-star break when they take on the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center Wednesday evening.
Obviously, during this run there have been many highlights. So many, in fact, that picking out just one – or even a few – can prove to be difficult.
In the latest episode of Free Association, however, hosts JD Bunkis and Donnovan Bennett pointed out a few aspects of the win streak that have stood out to them.
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Bunkis delved into some of the stats around Toronto’s winning streak and saw the Raptors looking golden on a number of fronts.
“The last Raptors loss was on Jan. 12, it was a one-point loss to the Spurs,” said Bunkis. “In their last two losses, the Raptors have lost by a combined guess-how-many? Three. They’ve lost by three combined points in their last two losses. It’s been a pretty damn good team. …
“Over the last 15 games, the Raptors are first in field-goal percentage, they’re shooting 50.5 per cent as a team, they’re first in effective field-goal percentage, they’re first in true-shooting percentage, first in three-point percentage — they’re 40.6 per cent as a team – they’re third in assists per game, they’re fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio, they’re third in assist ratio, they’re first in steals per game, they’re sixth in defensive rating and second in net rating. It’s been good.”
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Bennett, on the other hand, responded to critics of the streak who have tried to diminish the accomplishment, citing the level of competition the Raptors have faced, reminding people that it’s not just this 15-game run that’s been impressive.
“For people who say, ‘Oh, they’re beating up on weak teams, the schedule’s been weak.’ Yeah, that’s true, there’s no question the schedule’s been weak,” Bennett began. “But the reason why the schedule has been so weak with just over 30 games left after the all-star break is because to start the year their schedule was so hard. So I’m not going to penalize them because they’re beating up on a lot of weak teams because it all balances out.
“They’re going to play 82 against the entire league. And when you tell me that so far this season and we’re not even at the all-star break and Gasol has missed 19 games, Powell 16, Lowry 12, Siakam 11, Ibaka 11, VanVleet 10. Those are their best players, and they’ve missed the most games.”
You can listen to the entire episode of Free Association in the YouTube player above where, among other things, Bunkis and Bennett also discuss the impact of rookie Terence Davis so far, talk about the buyout market a little bit and dissect the Andrew Wiggins trade.
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