WASHINGTON, DC — What happened to the bench?
That’s one of the bigger questions the Raptors are left to ask themselves after falling 122-103 to the Washington Wizards Friday night. It’s not just about one game. The Raptors were always going to face adversity at some point in the playoffs, and this loss is much more likely a mere setback, rather than a sign of impending doom. But the play of Toronto’s second unit wasn’t an issue only in the game 3 loss — it’s been a cause for concern since the series began.
After combining for a minus-64 in Friday’s defeat, the Raptors bench is now minus-109 over the first three games of the series. Toronto’s non-starters have been outscored by the Wizards reserves, 119-113. They’ve been out-rebounded, 42-33. We could go on.
“We’ve got to be more aggressive. We’ve got to do a better job,” said Pascal Siakam, who was icing a badly cut lower lip which required three stitches after he caught an errant elbow late in the game. “They were ready tonight and they took us out of what we wanted to do. We’ve got to be ready when we come out. And make sure that we throw the first punch.
“They jumped on us early when we came in at the end of the first quarter. And we didn’t respond well to that.”
The second unit’s struggles are a very unusual turn of events, as during the regular season, the Raptors bench was one of the team’s greatest strengths. Toronto’s second-most used lineup after its starters was an all-bench group — Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, CJ Miles, Siakam, and Jakob Poeltl — that finished the season with a 17.1 net rating, making it one of the league’s most effective lineups.
When DeRozan played with that group in place of Wright — Toronto’s fifth-most used lineup — it put up an 11.5 net rating. When Norman Powell was in there instead of Miles — the sixth-most used — the net rating was 7.5. Insert OG Anunoby for Siakam — tenth-most used — and it was 12.2.
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No matter who Raptors head coach Dwane Casey rotated in, the bench consistently rose to the occasion. Toronto doesn’t win as many games as it did this season if not for its bench simply outplaying the opposition’s night in and night out. And yet, it’s fallen flat in the playoffs.
So, what’s going wrong? You can start with VanVleet, the back-up point guard who’s been held out of all but three minutes of this series due to a right shoulder injury. He was Toronto’s unofficial sixth-man-of-the-year, and was a member of four of Toronto’s five most effective lineups during the regular season. There’s no way around it — his absence has been massive.
“He makes a big difference,” said Miles. “You don’t rattle him. You don’t speed him up. He’s another guy that makes shots in that unit. A penetrating guard, which also helps a lot of the stuff that we do because he breaks defences down. He gets in the paint. He gets the ball moving. He gets defences in rotation.
“Especially for a guy like me, it makes the game a little easier. Because now you’ve got to try to help and keep tabs on me. And I can move around more and get moving it. So, we definitely miss him.”
Of course, just how much VanVleet’s been missed is tricky to quantify. He’s only one player. It’s entirely possible the rest of Toronto’s reserves would still be struggling even with VanVleet zipping around the floor and dragging up everyone’s plus-minus with three-pointers.
Still, it’s hard to imagine the Raptors not playing significantly better with VanVleet involved — Toronto’s secondary lineups simply haven’t been the same without him.
“Obviously, we miss Fred — he’s a really important part of our bench unit” said Poeltl. “But that’s really not an excuse. Because we know we have enough guys on our bench. We know we have enough players that are more than capable to play and produce out there. It’s on all of us.”
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That’s similar to how Casey feels. Like any good coach, he’s focused on the players available to him, not the ones he wishes he had. His expectations are as high as anyone. And his bench hasn’t been meeting them.
“Everyone, when they go in the game, they’ve got to go in and do their job,” Casey said. “Whether Fred is here, whoever is on the floor and in uniform, you’ve got to go in and do your job. And our guys have done that for the entire season. So, it’s not because of Freddy. The second unit has to come in guns-a-blazing, ready to roll — and we didn’t do that [tonight.”]
It’s hard to criticize Wright and Miles, who were both fantastic in the first two games of the series and instrumental to Toronto’s victories. But neither had a good night Friday. Miles went 1-of-5 from three-point range and finished a team-low minus-22. Wright went 2-of-8 from the field, finishing with only six points and an assist after he combined for 29 points and seven assists over his last two games.
Poeltl has been bizarrely ineffective throughout the series, picking up nearly as many fouls (8) as points (11) or rebounds (9). He’s a team-worst minus-23 for the playoffs. Powell, who has taken over some of VanVleet’s minutes, barely registered on the stat sheet in the first two games, and played his way off the floor in the third when he was stripped beyond the arc by Ian Mahinmi, Washington’s back-up centre.
Siakam has had his moments, shooting 7-of-13 from the field in the series with 12 rebounds over the three games. But he’ll be the first to tell you he can still find another gear. And third string centre Lucas Nogueira has been a combined -26 since his difference-making work in game 1.
But, really, the issue isn’t as much how Toronto’s bench players are playing individually, but how they’re playing collectively. The eye-test will tell you the ball isn’t moving like it was in the regular season, the shots aren’t being created as easily, and defensive pressure hasn’t been nearly as intense as it could be.
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Toronto’s second-most used lineup over the three games — DeRozan with four bench players: Wright, Miles, Siakam and Poeltl — has been outscored by 14, boasting a 66.7 offensive rating and 125.6 defensive rating in 12 minutes. The sample’s tiny, but that shows you just how thoroughly they’ve been out-played.
Plus, turnovers have spiked tremendously. Toronto was the fourth-best team at limiting turnovers during the regular season, finishing with a 13.3 turnover percentage. Through three playoff games, that number’s shot up to 16.4.
“We’re turning the ball over and not getting stops,” Miles said. “Which is two things that we don’t do — that we didn’t do all year. Things that allowed us to play up tempo, to change the game, because we turned people over and we got efficient shots.
“We’ve been able to shoot the ball well enough to mask it a little bit but we’ve got to take care of the ball. We’ve got to get more stops.”
Toronto’s defensive rating for the playoffs now stands at 113.8. It was 103.4 during the regular season. Again, small sample. But it’s the sample we have. Poeltl thinks the second unit simply isn’t playing hard enough defensively, and needs to force the Wizards into more uncomfortable situations
“We’re just not aggressive enough out there,” he said. “We’re playing kind of passive on defence, we’re letting them come to us and make a move and we’re trying to react afterwards. And that’s really not how we’ve been playing all season long. So, we’ve got to turn that around. And just do better on Sunday.”