The Toronto Raptors have been through a lot since they won the NBA title in 2019.
And just as a reminder that all their issues haven’t been on the court, Toronto Public Health put out a notice before the Raptors hosted the New York Knicks on Friday that those in attendance at the team’s on Sunday should monitor themselves for COVID symptoms.
This warning was in response to a possible outbreak at Raptors president Masai Ujiri’s Giants of Africa charity event where a large number of the guests went to the game later.
Things are concerning enough that Nav Bhatia, the Raptors’ most prominent fan, had to miss his first home game in franchise history as he stayed at home to self-isolate, though said he is symptom free.
It doesn’t feel like 2020 all over again, but the outlines of it are right there.
But one problem they haven’t had — or rarely had — is the confidence that when they hit the floor, they would play hard and play together. It was a feature of Dwane Casey’s teams. It was the secret sauce of the team that won the title and it was especially so of the lineup that set a franchise record for winning percentage in the truncated 2019-20 season that finished in the bubble in Orlando.
Even last season when the Raptors were exiled to Tampa and everything that could go wrong did, they played to their potential most nights.
Not so much this season — and Raptors head coach Nick Nurse is running out of patience.
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He called his team out for a lack of effort and energy after a loss to Oklahoma City on Wednesday night and suggested it’s not something he wants to be make a habit of. Not at all.
“Listen, I’ve been complaining about it myself,” he said. “I don’t want to yell at anybody.”
So how to assess the Raptors’ outing against the Knicks?
It would have to be encouraging. The Knicks are having their own challenges this season but the Raptors didn’t give them very much breathing room other than a shaky stretch to start the second quarter when they were outmatched by the New York bench.
When you shoot 34.5 per cent from the floor and still manage to win 90-87, chances are the effort was there. That the Raptors held the Knicks to 36.3 per cent shooting themselves is proof of it.
The best examples were a pair of sequences at either end of the floor down the stretch. The Raptors’ winning basket was supplied by a Gary Trent Jr. triple with 1:11 to play that came after first Pascal Siakam and then Scottie Barnes earned offensive rebounds to keep the play alive.
At the other end the home side had to survive three Knicks possessions in one as Toronto would swarm defensively, force what seemed like a turnover only to have the ball be ruled to have gone out off a Raptors player. In each case Toronto brought multiple bodies to the ball and left with the Knicks with nowhere to go. It was tough, desperate defence.
Perfect.
“You just got to keep making plays at that point in the game,” said Fred VanVleet, who was in the middle of every scrum. “It’s time to make a play and we talked about before a game just by any means necessary and that’s exactly what it was there. Double and triple the amount of stops we needed; we couldn’t get the ball. There was probably a jump ball that should have been called. It rolled off my foot, you know there was all types of stuff going on. But we just kept making play after play.”
The win improved the Raptors to 12-14 and 3-3 on their season-lone homestand, which wraps up Monday night against Sacramento. The Knicks fell to 12-14.
It wasn’t the homecoming Canadian national team star RJ Barrett wanted as he finished with 19 points on 5-of-19 shooting, though he almost brought the Knicks back with a five-point burst late in the fourth quarter and front-rimmed a three that would have sent the game into overtime at the buzzer. He made a smart play in the final seconds when he drove the ball the length of the court, pulled up in the paint and found a wide-open Julius Randle trailing for what could have been a game-winning three, but Randle couldn’t convert.
“It was a great shot, it went in and out,” said Barrett, who had an estimated 1,000 guests at the game in his first visit to Scotiabank Arena since the 2019-20 season. “I’m taking that shot every time.”
The Raptors had all five starters in double figures, led by Trent Jr. with 24. Barnes had 12 points, a career-high 14 rebounds and three assists, VanVleet had 11 assists and Chris Boucher had 13 points in his second straight start.
Scottie Barnes all-round game tonight:
12 PTS
15 REB
3 AST
2 STL
2 BLKHe’s the second Raptors rookie ever with a 10/15/2/2/2 game. The other was Tracy McGrady. pic.twitter.com/NOVXzugyYN
— StatMuse (@statmuse) December 11, 2021
Big picture, the Raptors’ effort level — at least in Nurse’s eyes — shouldn’t be something he needs to worry about. The Raptors talent shortage — especially with OG Anunoby (hip) and Khem Birch (knee) out — is challenging enough.
Nurse was happier with what he saw against the Knicks.
“Just the loose balls and offensive rebounds and stuff are a good sign of that,” he said. “I just think we really needed to play with that kind of (energy)… well, we have to, we have to win the 50-50 balls and we gotta get on the glass to get some extra possessions and things like that and I thought we did that all night coming, up with loose balls, a lot of deflections, it seemed like. Tipped a lot of passes, made a lot of passes not quite on target because of our high hands and things like that.”
There wasn’t much not to like about how the Raptors started the game against the Knicks. With Boucher starting in place of Precious Achiuwa (shoulder), the Raptors started with a jolt.
The Montrealer hit a three early — something that’s been missing for him this seaso– was active on the offensive glass and had seven points midway through the opening quarter at the Raptors led 23-7 and then 30-10 at one point before starting the second quarter leading 31-14.
But by that point, the Raptors were into the bench lineup and the Knicks were too. This was a problem because the Knicks have one of the better benches in the league and the Raptors one of the worst.
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Form held. The Knicks bench outscored the Raptors 20-3 in the second quarter and 24-4 for the half. After a 25-8 run to start the second period, the game was very suddenly tied 39-39, though the Raptors were able to scratch out a 50-42 lead by halftime.
The third quarter was the best part of what was overall a rough night for Barrett, who struggled to get shots to drop for most of the game — an issue for him much of this season, though his form has returned recently after battling the aftereffects of a stomach bug. Barrett aimed his shoulders at the rim and forced the Raptors to keep him out of the paint.
They couldn’t and Barrett earned eight trips to the free-throw line, where he scored seven of his nine points in the period, trimming the Raptors’ lead to 69-65 to start the fourth.
The Raptors couldn’t quite pull away, but they refused to wilt either. The effort was there — an absolute prerequisite for them — and this time it was enough to carry them home, no yelling required.
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