TORONTO — No one likes a wet blanket. No one appreciates someone who looks at a perfectly good, fun, uplifting and potentially hopeful thing and pipes up with ‘um, yeah, what about this?’
Good things are fragile and rare, and should be embraced.
So, let’s just start with this: the Raptors’ recent six-game winning streak came at just the right time. The team (Fred VanVleet) has worked doggedly to keep themselves in the mix in the Eastern Conference even while never having the top tier of the rotation together.
It wasn’t so much that it saved their season as it did reward them for not letting it fall off the rails when it very well could have been sent careening by injuries and COVID-19.
But — and you knew the cold, soggy blanket was coming — it was six wins against teams that the Raptors had no business losing to, especially during their healthiest stretch of the season. The Clippers were undermanned; the Knicks slumping and short-handed; the Spurs slumping and missing their best player; the Bucks without Giannis Antetokounmpo and to more of their top six; the Jazz with — almost literally — no one and the scuffling New Orleans Pelicans. Five of the six wins came at home.
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And yet they needed a career game from VanVleet to outlast the G-League version of the Jazz and more late-game heroics from VanVleet to pull away from the lowly Pelicans. Oh, and Pascal Siakam has been playing the best basketball of his career, arguably.
So, the question remains: Are the Raptors any good?
Well, fortunately, the Phoenix Suns — defending Western Conference champions and tied for the NBA’s best record — arrived healthy and rested in frigid Toronto just in time to provide some insight.
Overall impressions?
This version of the Raptors could be on to something. They were missing two starters and missed more open threes and free throws than any good team can afford to, but they were within an eyelash of extending their winning streak to seven at the expense of the Suns, thanks to a tireless effort defensively and in terms of sheer hustle, and just enough craft offensively to keep them around until the final moment.
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Sure, they fell just short in the 99-95 loss as their record dropped to 20-18 while the Suns improved to 31-9, but there was plenty to be encouraged by without dipping too far into moral victory territory.
“You just got to appreciate the fight, be proud of the fight,” said VanVleet, who was the focal point of the Suns’ defensive energy for most of the night. “That was a really intense, tough game, That’s probably as good as it gets without a crowd in there. They certainly raised their level, there’s a reason why they have the best record in the NBA, it’s because they play that way every night.
“[But] I thought that we answered the call. I thought it was a good test for us. Obviously, we didn’t come out with the victory but you appreciate the fight.”
The Raptors were led by OG Anunoby’s 26 points while Siakam added 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. VanVleet got the superstar treatment defensively from Phoenix but still managed 21 points and five assists, while Chris Boucher was a terror off the bench with 13 points and 16 rebounds — nine of them on the offensive glass — in 37 minutes off the bench.
All five Suns starters were in double figures as Phoenix was able to overcome making 20 turnovers and surrendering 22 offensive rebounds by holding the Raptors to 40.4 per cent shooting and a miserable 8-of-37 from deep.
The Raptors were trailing by six with 4:13 to play when Siakam converted a tough runner in the lane and Anunoby stepped out for a three to cut the Suns lead to one. Anunoby forced Devin Booker into a turnover with 1:41 to play. Booker fouled him in the pursuit of the ball and Anunoby made both free throws to put Toronto up one. But Booker hit a jumper at the end of a possession where the Raptors had come up with two stops but couldn’t manage a third. On the Suns’ next turn, a Chris Paul fadeaway from 12 feet put the Suns up three with 31 seconds to go, which proved to be the winner.
The Raptors were competitive despite struggling to connect from deep — a problem most of the season — and the free throw line where they left 10 points on the table. But in their favour, the offensive rebounds and forced turnovers allowed them to take 15 more shots than the Suns.
Boucher’s nine offensive rebounds — he says he’s been studying Dennis Rodman of late — and five more in 10 minutes from Justin Chamagnie helped keep the Raptors in it.
“He got ‘em today,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse of Boucher, whose consistent effort level off the bench has coincided with the Raptors’ strong run. “He was really, again, a big factor in the game, just relentless on the glass and it’s good to see.
“He’s got some energy and he’s got some length, he’s got some springs and he’s using it so it’s good.”
The Raptors were short-handed as Gary Trent Jr. (ankle) and Scottie Barnes (knee) were scratched, making way for Khem Birch and Yuta Watanabe in the starting lineup.
Even during the streak there have been some concerns. The defensively ferocious team that was promised out of training camp has still yet to arrive. Before the streak started the Raptors were 21st in defensive rating, allowing 110.1 points per 100 possessions. Not surprisingly that improved once the Raptors got healthy and against such ‘meh’ competition, but it’s not like they went into lockdown mode. They allowed 108.3 points per 100, which was 10th.
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Instead, it is their offence — already surprisingly good this season with a 13th overall rating — that has carried them as the newly healthy Raptors were pumping out 119 points for 100, second-best in the league since New Year’s Eve.
And even then, their offence has been supplemented by lots of extra possessions — the Raptors are second in offensive rebounding and third in steals — that makes up for some shaky shooting and flawed half-court execution.
But against the Suns a version of the Raptors that may be more sustainable if they hope the surprise some people in the East was visible for extended stretches. They got in the ball defensively, guarded the paint against dribble penetration and they scrambled around to contest shots wherever the Suns were lucky enough to get them.
They held Suns stars Paul and Booker to five points combined in the opening quarter while the Raptors’ top duo — VanVleet and Siakam — countered with 16 points and five assists. For the game, the Suns stars were held to 31 points total — about 15 points below their typical output.
Moreover, the Raptors forced the steady-handed Suns into six early turnovers and — after surviving an early case of butterfingers themselves — opened a 31-23 lead after the first quarter thanks to plays like a pull-up three by VanVleet in transition, and Siakam working the pick-and-roll deftly and finding Khem Birch rolling to the rim with a pin-point pocket pass. VanVleet’s shooting and Siakam’s playmaking have featured prominently in the Raptors run.
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But the Suns came back in the second quarter, a situation made easier because the Raptors couldn’t hit a three – the Raptors were 1-of-9 from deep, whiffing on one open look after another — and in part because with Trent Jr. and Barnes out, the Raptors’ depth was once again an issue.
Yuta Watanabe started in place of Trent Jr. and was a step late at every turn, it seemed, which is perhaps not surprising given he had missed the previous four games due to health-and-safety protocols. And when Nurse went to Svi Mykhailiuk for some punch off the bench, there was nothing there either. The pair were scoreless in 12 combined first-half minutes as the Raptors saw their lead whittled to 48-46 at the break.
Fortunately, Boucher has continued to thrive in a slimmed-down role off the bench, focussing on using his speed and length to pester shooters at all corners of the floor while flying at the rim on offence. It was his put-back dunk that tied the score in the final minutes before a Siakam pull-up jumper sent Toronto into the fourth with a 71-69 lead.
The Raptors couldn’t quite hold on but proved against an excellent team that their recent winning ways weren’t purely the product of a mushy schedule. They’ll get plenty of more chances to test that theory in the weeks to come and if they want to get to where they want to go, they’ll have to do more than be close.
“Well, I think that I wouldn’t say we played great the last couple of games, right?” said Nurse. “But we found a way to win and that’s the meandering through the league schedule. You’re not always going to play that great and then tonight, when you have to play really hard and tough against a really, really good team [you prove] that you can do it… So just continue to build that’s what I take from it. Just continue to build and [that] should give us some confidence.”
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