5 things: Raptors continue to slide as three-point drought reaches new low

Here are five takeaways from the Toronto Raptors' 124-123 loss to the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday.

1. The Raptors badly needed this win against a road-weary Kings team. Sacramento was playing on the second night of a back-to-back after being blown out, and was without its best shooter in Kevin Huerter, then lost head coach Mike Brown after he rushed the court to confront an official. The Kings were sluggish and slow as the Raptors paraded to the basket and quickly established an early lead. However, the urgency to put the game away was lacking, as the Raptors came undone on defence, starting in the second quarter when the Kings got four-straight layups, including three straight-line drives with no help coming at the basket, and even worse, they allowed a putback from a Kings guard crashing in from the three-point line. Toronto tried to stage a late comeback push and was lucky to get two missed foul shots through intentional fouling, but Fred VanVleet's attempt at a game-tying three bounced out despite a rather lucky break with De’Aaron Fox being clearly pushed to create the separation. An uncharacteristically poor night from Pascal Siakam, shooting 6-of-17 from the paint, really did them in, especially in the final two minutes, where he shanked two layups.

2. The two most notable underperformers on the season came alive. Fred VanVleet scored a season-high 39 points by relentlessly attacking the paint, where he scored 11 two-pointers while also shooting a perfect 11-for-11 from the line. VanVleet has made a concerted effort to attack the paint and to use the midrange amid his extended struggles from three, and it's starting to balance out his game. Scottie Barnes was impressive in his own right, both in the team game, where he was able to time his cuts to relieve pressure for open hook shots, and in his own play creation, where he zipped cross-court feeds to beat the defence for his 10 assists. Those two took turns carrying the offence, and it was a reminder that the Raptors do have the talent to support Siakam, except that it just hasn't been there consistently this season.

3. It’s almost impossible for the Raptors to compete in the modern game with so little three-point shooting. The Raptors finished with just six makes from distance for the second straight loss, and were outscored by 33 points from the arc. At one point in the fourth, former Raptors castoff Terence Davis had more threes than the entire Raptors roster. Toronto has only three high-volume shooters when fully healthy, which is now down to two with O.G. Anunoby sidelined for at least a week. VanVleet was great inside the arc but continues to misfire on his bread-and-butter shot, including a fortuitous chance to tie after his push-off on Fox went uncalled. Gary Trent Jr. strangely played the fewest minutes of anyone in the starting lineup, and didn’t even get many chances to shoot threes. On the whole, the Raptors only tried 21 threes as a team and it’s not like the Kings weren’t leaving them open. It’s almost mathematically impossible to compete trading twos for threes, and it’s why Sacramento hung around early on when Toronto started brightly. The Raptors shot 60 per cent on twos and didn’t have a single turnover in the first half and, still, they didn’t score enough. This is the fault of the front office, who have punted on shooting across the board in recent seasons, leaving the Raptors stunted offensively.

4. The Raptors are back to bleeding points off the bench. Chris Boucher had a poor night where he wasn’t able to impact the glass, and compounded that with a shaky showing in decision-making. Aside from him, there are no impact scorers off the bench who could possibly match the production of Malik Monk, who scored 24 points off Sacramento’s bench with five threes. Coach Nick Nurse used all of his options except Malachi Flynn, who might as well not even wear a uniform under his warmups given how rarely he plays, and got very little on either end save for a few cutting layups by Juancho Hernangomez and Christian Koloko. Sure, the Raptors are dealing with injuries to three of their rotation players, but by stacking so many redundant positions in reserve, there was nobody who came close to the two-way production of Anunoby or the quick-twitch physicality of Precious Achiuwa, or even the occasional outside shooting of Otto Porter Jr. Or put it another way: The Raptors haven't had a single three-pointer made off the bench in two straight games.

5. In a sign of clear desperation, Nurse dusted off Khem Birch in the fourth, who predictably posted empty results as the Kings nudged ahead in the game. Sacramento wisely put more size on the floor to control the glass and to wall off the paint since the Raptors couldn’t hurt the Kings from beyond. Koloko was benched for Thad Young, who tried to use his veteran wits to make a few plays in the paint, but it was all comically short of what Sacramento had in Domantas Sabonis, who bossed the game with 21 points and 20 rebounds on 10-of-13 shooting. The Raptors lose the centre position every night, and the only question is by how much. Again, this is an issue that the front office has left unaddressed for three straight seasons. If the core of this group is Barnes, Siakam and Anunoby, and none of them feel comfortable playing centre outside of situational matchups, then why are they banking on third-stringers who wouldn't even get consistent minutes on tanking teams?