Defence goes missing as Raptors' modest win streak ends at two

There’s a very good chance that Sacramento Kings star Domantas Sabonis heard about the trade that sent former Raptors forwards OG Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa to the New York Knicks last week, looked at his own schedule and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Last season, the Kings were the most prolific offensive team in the NBA and their 119.4 offensive rating was the highest ever recorded. Sabonis – the Kings' multi-skilled centre – was a major reason why as he averaged 19.1 points, a league-leading 12.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists while converting 61.5 per cent of his field goal chances. The upstart Kings finished third in the Western Conference and snapped an NBA record 16-season playoff drought and Sabonis was both an all-star and all-NBA selection as a result.

But you know which team was Sabonis’ kryptonite last season?

That’s right, the Toronto Raptors. In two games against the Raptors, he averaged just 15 points and five assists and committed 14 turnovers. In particular, Sabonis struggled the last time the two teams met – in January last season – as he had nine turnovers and nine points and the Kings lost by 18 points. It was his worst game of the season and. Anunoby – well on his way to making his first all-NBA defensive team selection – was a big reason why.

There are plenty of reasons to look positively at the deal that sent Anunoby, Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn to the New York Knicks for Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, two young players who should be fixtures for the Raptors for years to come. Anunoby, meanwhile, was unlikely to re-sign with the Raptors as a pending free agent.

But you have to give up something to get something, and as the Kings – and Sabonis in particular – demonstrated on Friday night, the Raptors gave up some significant size and defensive acumen.

Whether that’s exactly why the Raptors gave up 21 threes to the Kings (on 38 attempts) – the largest single factor in what was a hard-fought 135-130 loss – or not, the fact is the Kings were more than the currently constructed Raptors could handle, and Sabonis was a major problem from start to end.

Sabonis finished with a triple double – 24 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists – before fouling out with 1:10 to play. 

“I mean, you got to figure out a way to not to help too much, but also be able to guard him,” said Raptors forward Chris Boucher, who had 14 points and nine rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench for Toronto. “You know, if sag on him, he's able to make plays and his vision is really good. And then he's really good in the post too … he's a great player. So great players do what they want.”

The loss snapped their modest winning streak at two as they head to San Francisco to continue their six-game, west coast swing on Sunday against the Golden State Warriors. The Raptors fell to 14-21 while the Kings improved to 21-13. 

The Raptors stormed back from down 20 at half and down 10 to start the fourth quarter and got as close as two with 2:38 to play on a Quickley triple and had it to three with 42 seconds left on a lay-up by the Raptors guard. It appeared that Quickley might have been fouled on a three-point attempt with 11 seconds to play, but Toronto didn’t get the call.  The Raptors got the offensive rebound and called timeout, but a long heave from three by Quickley ended up well off the mark and the game was over.

The Raptors had eight players in double figures, led by Quickley and Scottie Barnes with 20 each, but couldn’t overcome the Kings shooting 21-of-38 from three to Toronto’s 13-of-37.

“They did get hot, but I also thought we could do a better job on some of those [threes],” said coach Darko Rajakovic. “We had certain players that we had designated as ‘hot’ shooters and chase them off the line and we lost them in certain situations … we did not do a good enough job of making them play inside the line.”

Sabonis put his stamp on the game in the first quarter when he scored 12 points on seven shots. There was a fastbreak ‘Euro-step’, a post-up over an over-matched Barrett, a nice finish out of a pick-and-roll and a putback after an offensive rebound where he simply overwhelmed Jontay Porter, the Raptors' two-way player who is the Raptors' backup centre at the moment. Porter played well and finished with a career-high 10 points in 13 minutes off the bench, but Sabonis looked comfortable against him and anyone else the Raptors tried on him as he ran the Kings offence as the hub of a well-greased wheel, with Sacramento jumping out to a 36-27 first quarter lead. 

After Sabonis dominated the Raptors in the paint in the first quarter, he showed how – when given time and space – he can eviscerate a team with his passing.

The Raptors were trailing by just four points with 5:45 left in the second quarter when Sabonis really started carving them up. He found Davion Mitchell and Malik Monk on cuts for lay-ups and then Keegan Murray and Monk for threes. They were the backbone of a 25-9 run the Kings finished the half with that gave them a 77-57 lead to start the third quarter.

It was tied for the most points the Raptors have given up in a half this season and tied for the sixth most surrendered in any half in franchise history. That the Kings hit a remarkable 14-of-26 from deep in the first two quarters was a big factor – the Raptors were just 5-of-17 – but that Sabonis was able to roam so comfortably was a big reason so many Kings shooters were so open so often. Sabonis had 12 points, 10 rebounds and six assists in 18 first-half minutes.

Who will replace Anunoby as the Raptors' go-to stopper is an open question, perhaps an even more urgent one given that Achiuwa was often the next on the list for those types of assignments and had one of his best games of last season against Sabonis and the Kings at the Golden 1 Center.

Rajakovic is hopeful that Barrett can pick up some of that slack in certain matchups. “I had a conversation today with RJ and I think he has a lot of potential to be really good defensive player,” he said. “I think he has length but also he has a pretty good feel where to be on the court and how to rotate and what to do … there is things that we can work on and improve on, but I see a lot of defensive potential with him.”

But the reality is that it’s nearly impossible to replace the defensive versatility that Anunoby (and Achiuwa) could provide. The Raptors got some traction in the third quarter, but they did so with offence, outscoring the Kings 40-30 in the period and cutting Sacramento’s lead to 10 to start the fourth quarter.

The Raptors were able to tighten things up in the fourth quarter, mainly with each man guarding their own with enough added intensity that the Kings couldn’t get them into rotations over and over again, which is where they generated so many open threes in the first half. Rajakovic played Boucher for extended minutes off the bench and got some energizing minutes from Dennis Schroder, who led all bench with 18 points in 31 minutes.

But the Raptors gave up too much, too easily, too soon – with Sabonis leading the way for the Kings – and in the end, they paid for it.