TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors aren’t the happiest bunch right now.
A day after getting bopped by 18 points in Game 1 of their second-round series with the Boston Celtics, the Raptors were back at practice and not feeling all too pleased with their performance on Sunday.
“I mean the mood’s not good. We’re not happy and we’re a little pissed off and we should be,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse on Monday afternoon. “We’re not proud of anything we did yesterday.”
Harsh, but fair words from the Raptors bench boss.
In Game 1, the Raptors only shot 36.9 per cent from the field and 25 per cent from three-point range as the Celtics defence came as suffocating as advertised in the lead-up to the series.
Still, as good as the Celtics’ defence is, it was still aided by an all-around dreadful performance by the Raptors, and they know it.
“We just didn’t play good. Sometimes it’s that simple,” said Raptors guard Fred VanVleet. “We didn’t really do anything good enough to win the game, and they did. They were the better team. We weren’t moving fast enough, weren’t playing hard enough, didn’t make enough shots, didn’t execute the game plan. Like, you name it, we didn’t do it.”
But is it really that simple?
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According to Nurse, while there are certainly adjustments that need to be made, the biggest one is likely just more energy.
“We didn’t bring it, man. We weren’t running hard,” said Nurse. “It was like we were playing uphill both directions. Right? We weren’t running hard back, we weren’t running hard forward. We weren’t cutting hard. There was a speed and energy problem that I think was — it was a physical problem, which I think was created by our mental state, which wasn’t right.”
Not being in the right mindset is understandable given the emotional nature of the week that was that preceded the Raptors’ second-round opener with the Celtics. But at the same time, Boston was dealing with it exactly the same, too, and it came out like a house on fire Sunday.
There are many valid concerns with the Raptors after Game 1, such as their inability to get out in transition and the poor job they did of defending the corner three – according to CleaningTheGlass.com, the Celtics were 10-of-15 on corner-three attempts alone.
Thankfully for the Raptors, however, bouncing back in the face of adversity is something they’ve gotten used to. This was a team that still managed to finish with the NBA’s second-best record despite being among the most injured teams in the league and went down 0-2 to the Milwaukee Bucks last year before recording four straight wins to reach the NBA Finals.
This group has proven before that it can fight its way out of a corner.
“I think that’s just when you draw on your experience a little bit. We’ve all been in these positions. We’ve been on the good side. We’ve been on the bad side. We understand the ups and downs that come with the playoffs,” said VanVleet. “A lot of our guys in the rotation have been battle-tested. You understand that there’s gonna be a game like that probably. You hope that it doesn’t come. But it did. Now it’s our job to make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”
Added Nurse: “I’d much rather be holding hands and skipping rope after a win, but again, this is where we find ourselves…. I mean, listen, we’ve certainly been punched squarely in the nose and we’ve got to stand up and either start playing, playing better, or not, and that’s kind of where we are.”
Raptors’ jumbo lineup could be a key
Among the in-game adjustments Nurse attempted in Game 1 as he was searching for a way back into the game was to go with a bigger, so-called “jumbo” lineup that featured both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka on the floor.
While seemingly not the best idea given the position-less nature of the way the Celtics play, going with the dual-centre look was actually pretty successful as the Raptors were only minus-4 in the nine minutes with the pair on the court together.
“I mean it was OK,” Nurse said of playing Ibaka and Gasol. “Obviously they had a nice run kind of when the game was, you know, everything was going wrong and the game was getting away from us early and we went to it and it kind of, it brought us back with a chance.”
It wasn’t exactly a huge sample size, but the success shown from going big like this could be something to look out for going forward.
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Post-up Pascal
Another interesting sight Sunday was the number of post-up looks Pascal Siakam was getting.
A clear focal point of Toronto’s offence in Game 1, if Siakam’s going to be matched up against Jaylen Brown as much as he was on Sunday, theoretically it makes sense to want Siakam to take advantage of his height advantage over Brown and operate inside and go hunting for high-percentage looks in the paint.
Siakam had been struggling with his shot in the Brooklyn series, after all, so trying to get him going from closer to the basket is logical.
Unfortunately, Siakam continued to struggle, going just 5-of-16 from the field for 13 points, including a 4-for-11 mark in the paint.
Those are all bad-looking numbers, obviously, especially because some of those misses were bunnies, but that’s also why the Raptors are going to go back to this post-heavy focus with Siakam in Game 2, because the all-star did manage to get inside where he can create problems for Boston, both as a scorer and as a guy willing to find his teammates.
“For the most part, they looked OK. You know,” said Nurse of Siakam’s post touches in Game 1. “And I think that we’re trying to get him going a little bit, so we were trying to get him some touches and that wasn’t a bad way to do it. I think we need to do a little bit more around it, a little bit. I think we need to cut a little bit more and have a little better spacing and relocation and things like that, possibly, if we go into him there.”
Though he wasn’t able to convert as much as he liked, there did appear to be some success found with tossing the ball to Siakam in the low block.
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Raptors reunited with their family
Monday was a big day for the Raptors in the bubble as it meant they could finally see their families who were allowed inside.
“Just excited, just excited. I miss my family. Family is huge for me. It’s been a while,” said VanVleet of the prospect of seeing his loved ones again. “I think the last time I saw them was Father’s Day. It’s been a while, but it will be good to see everybody. And right on time after getting our butts kicked yesterday. So that’ll kinda take my mind off of it for a little bit today, and then I’ll get prepared and get locked in for the game tomorrow.”
VanVleet had a rough Game 1 scoring just 11 points on 3-of-16 shooting including a 2-for-11 mark from three-point range.
It was well documented what happened the last time VanVleet got an addition to his family during the post-season last year, so who know what may happen with the Raptors guard now reunited with his family in Disney World.
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