The Toronto Raptors crushed the Brooklyn Nets 150-122 Sunday night in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series earning the first playoff series sweep in franchise history.
As the sweep might indicate, outside of Game 2, this series wasn’t particularly competitive as the Raptors were simply far too overwhelmingly talented and deep for the shorthanded Nets.
Next up for the Raptors will be another franchise first: A playoff date with the Boston Celtics, who also swept their first-round matchup with the Ben Simmons-less Philadelphia 76ers.
Before looking ahead to that series with Boston in detail, however, here are a few takeaways from this Nets series that could play a role heading into Game 1 with the Celtics.
Lowry’s injury looms large
Before anything else, while we wait for this Toronto-Boston series to start, the most important storyline to track will be the status of Raptors all-star point guard Kyle Lowry.
Lowry left Sunday’s contest with 2:48 left to play in the first quarter with what was announced as a left ankle injury at the time. After the contest, however, Toronto head coach Nick Nurse said he was going for an MRI on the arch of his foot.
No matter the specificity of the injury, this is potentially very bad news for the Raptors.
Lowry is, after all, still probably the team’s best all-around player and is the unquestioned heartbeat of the Raptors – “a big engine for us,” Nurse said of Lowry after Sunday’s game.
Until we know about the results of that MRI we won’t know how much time he might miss – if he even has to miss time at all, that is – so there’s no point, really, in speculating about his status until more information is known.
All you need to know about this situation is that any amount of time being that could see the Raptors without Lowry is not ideal.
Smothering defence
The Raptors played the best defence during the seeding games with a defensive rating of 102.7, a mark slightly improved through their four-game romp of the Nets at 102.4.
Though there were certainly some slippages here and there throughout the four games, for the most part, the Raptors were downright dominant defensively, holding the Nets to just 38.7 per cent shooting from the field and forcing Brooklyn to turn the ball over 14.5 times per game.
And in particular, outside of his 35-point explosion in Game 4, the Raptors put the clamps on Brooklyn rising star Caris LeVert as they limited him to just 37 per cent shooting and a minus-52 for the series with the likes of Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby getting the brunt of defensive duty on him.
Though it’ll be harder to do so against the Celtics who obviously have more offensive firepower than the Nets do, but this, in a nutshell, is what the Raptors do to opposing teams: neutralize their stars.
Against the Celtics, the top priority will be finding a way to limit Boston’s dynamic duo of Jayson Tatum and Kemba Walker first and foremost and with the defensive chops that Anunoby and VanVleet bring to the table, it’s very possible the Raptors will be able to do so.
Either way, defence is this Raptors’ team’s identity and was one of the main reasons why they had nearly no issues handling the Nets and will be relying upon doing much the same in Round 2 against Boston.
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VanVleet has been hotter than the Sun
And speaking of VanVleet, he’s not only been a stalwart defensively, he’s also been the Raptors’ most potent offensive weapon thus far in the post-season.
VanVleet has been the Raptors’ playoff scoring leader, averaging 21.3 points per game with remarkable shooting splits of 52.7 per cent from the field, 55.9 per cent from deep and 80 per cent from the free-throw line all combining for an incredible 70.1 per cent true-shooting percentage during Toronto’s first-round series.
Among his many strong performances in the first round, VanVleet’s Game 1 stands out the most as he dropped 30 points on an astounding 8-of-10 from three-point range.
Outside of an off-the-mark 3-for-11 showing from deep in Game 2, VanVleet’s been an absolute marksman from distance and while this heater is unlikely to last forever, the Raptors should look to ride VanVleet’s hot hand for as long as they can against Boston.
Bench shows out in a big way
Fulled by an NBA-record 100-point showing in Game 4, the Raptors’ bench has looked the deepest so far in the playoffs averaging 56.5 points per game and enjoying a plus-35 advantage.
Heading into the playoffs there was a lot made of how Toronto’s bench could be a major difference-maker and used a big advantage over its competition and so far, the chatter is all looking warranted.
In particular, interchangeable Raptors sixth men Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell have been awesome for Toronto, averaging 36.8 points per game off the bench.
Powell and Ibaka both enjoyed excellent Game 4 performances to help pad their stats a bit – Powell scored 29 points on 9-of-14 shooting and Ibaka 27 on 12-for-14 – but regardless they’ve been excellent for the Raptors so far looking every bit the interchangeable starters Nurse has employed them as all season long.
The Celtics are a team that also boasts impressive depth, but it’s hard to see them being able to match the likes of a Powell and Ibaka playing the way they’re playing right now.
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Pascal the good and the bad
Lastly, in this series, we saw Pascal Siakam at his best and less so, and that’s reflected in his series stats.
Siakam averaged 20.8 points per game for the series, but only shot 41.7 per cent from the field and a dismal 28.6 per cent from three-point range.
Looking at each of his games from in the series individually, Game 3 stands out as his best-looking performance as the all-star scored 26 points on 11-for-23 shooting, but where we actually saw Siakam at his best was in Game 2.
In-Game 2 Siakam was locked in defensively, making a game-saving deflection with less than two minutes to play.
Siakam only shot 42.9 per cent from the field for 19 points in that game, but he was active and engaged on defence, which is what you want to see from your star when his shot seems to be a little off.
It was another rough night from the field in Game 4 – 9-for-22 for 20 points – and make no mistake that should be a concern for the Raptors as they move into the series with the Celtics. However, at the very least, Siakam’s length and athleticism should mean that no matter how his offence is looking, his defence should never be lacking, and that’s how he should be impacting each game for the time being until he’s able to get out of this apparent shooting slump he’s in at the moment.
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