Let’s make one thing abundantly clear: No one should be pressing the panic button at this point. The Toronto Raptors are still sitting in first place in the Eastern Conference (13-4) in spite of two straight losses. But if there was a “concerning trends button” that one might be worth hitting after Toronto’s last two tilts.
During Friday’s loss to the Dallas Mavericks, the Raptors coughed up 106 points and allowed Dallas to shoot 46.5 percent from the floor. Things got worse on Sunday against the Lakers. Los Angeles bullied Toronto for 129 points (in overtime, admittedly), shooting 49 percent for the game.
In fact, even the Raptors last win—in Atlanta, last Wednesday—came with a price, as the Hawks shot 51 percent from the field despite ultimately losing 126-115.
“We’re pissed off,” said Greivis Vasquez. “Our energy has to change [on Tuesday]. We want to get this taste out of our mouth because we’re a winning team. We don’t want to lose three in a row.”
Toronto is averaging 108.5 points per game as they enter action tonight in Sacramento. They’re the No. 2 offensive team in the NBA, and they didn’t seem to miss a beat—on offence—without their top scorer, DeMar DeRozan. But defensively there has been some serious slippage. Dwane Casey knows his team has got to clean up the mess.
“We should know. We should have learned in the playoffs last year that playoff basketball is about defence,” Casey said. “Playoff basketball is about physical toughness. That hasn’t translated into the first half of our games yet. We have to flip that switch and get that because teams are coming out now and getting that rhythm and getting their mojo going and it can be hard to turn the water off once they get going.”
The Raptors allowed the Lakers to shoot 57 percent from the field in the first half of Sunday’s game. Spotting opponents hefty leads and lights-out shooting percentages has been a perplexing trend for Toronto this season. The team is often in comeback-mode in the second half, though admittedly, it’s suited them to some degree. As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, they’re one of the league’s best fourth-quarter teams.
“D” The Fourth
Points Allowed: 23.8 (11th)
Point Differential: +3.6 (1st)
Opp. FG%: 43.2% (13th)
Opp. Turnovers: 4.6 (2nd)
Opp. Points in the Paint: 8.5 (8th)
“We have to come with a killer mentality for the first two quarters, because we already know we’re going to play well in the third and the fourth,” Vasquez said. “Our problem is not points, it’s our defence. I think our disposition the first two quarters [on Sunday] really got us out of the game.”
Coach Casey echoed that sentiment.
“The main concern I have is the defence to start the first half,” he said. “Whether I have to jump up and down before the game or whatever it is, we have to come out of the locker room with some type of intensity and some type of disposition to say, ‘Hey, not tonight.’”
After spending most of the first month of the season as one of only two teams in the Association ranked in the top 10 on both sides of the ball, Toronto has slid to the middle of the pack on the defensive end. As the Raptors prepare for the Kings tonight, the club currently sits 14th in points allowed and 21st in opponents’ field-goal percentage.
But when Toronto locks in on the defensive end, they’ve been pretty much unstoppable.
Record when allowing less than 100 points
Golden State: 10-0
Washington: 9-0
Toronto: 8-0
Portland: 9-1
Chicago: 8-1
“It’s a credit to our players that they’ve found ways to win,” said Casey of Toronto’s 13-4 record. “But if we’re not careful, we might get to a point where [our defence] will come back to bite us. We have to make sure we build good habits and create good habits on the defensive end.”