Familiar flaws return for Raptors at inopportune time vs. Wizards

WASHINGTON — Before the game Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse was musing about flying in former Raptor CJ Miles.

He was joking, we’re pretty sure. It was prompted by the presence of Delon Wright in the Washington Wizards' starting lineup on Thursday. With Wright on the floor against Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Jakob Poeltl, all that was missing for a proper reunion of 'the Bench Mob' — the five-man second unit that gave Toronto the NBA’s best production in their team-record 59-win 2017-18 season — was Miles, the now-retired veteran who gave the group of then NBA youngsters a little bit of old-man wisdom.

Miles was also a better-than-average three-point shooter over the course of his 14-year career and hey, the Raptors could use some of that.

And maybe some quality bench play, they could use that too.

The Raptors need some kind of help, period, as they flashed a lot of their season-long flaws in a 119-108 loss to the Washington Wizards. A lot of the Raptors' optimism of late has been based on Toronto’s improved defensive profile since they re-acquired Poeltl at the trade deadline, but scoring in the half-court remains an issue. To sum up: they can’t shoot. The Raptors were 9-of-33 from three for the game and went 3-of-10 in the third when they were trying to mount a comeback. The Wizards made 14 threes on 30 attempts and shot 50.6 per cent from the floor, which — with most other categories being roughly equal — was the difference.

Or part of the most discernable part of the gap between the two teams that are neck-and-neck in the Eastern Conference standings, racing to show they’re not the teams their record says they are through the first three quarters of the season.

The wonky shooting was a symptom, but Toronto’s early season tendency to come up flat in a game when they need to be flying was on display too. And the bench unit being anywhere from a minus-10 in 7:24 (newcomer Will Barton) or a minus-26 in 18 minutes (Gary Trent Jr.) is a movie that has been seen before.

Adding Poeltl, the team getting back to full health and moving Trent Jr. to the bench was supposed to solve some of those problems, but not Thursday.

“We’ve got to compete. We’ve got to compete,” was Nurse’s blunt post-game assessment. “We’ve got to compete better. We need all hands on deck. Everybody who steps on the floor has got to compete.”

Toronto was led by O.G Anunoby who scored 14 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. Poeltl was excellent, with 23 points, 13 rebounds and four assists on 8-of-9 shooting, but it was slim pickings after that. Siakam (13 points, 11 rebounds) was scoreless in the second half; VanVleet was 5-of-17 from the floor and 2-of-11 from deep.

Washington got 30 from Kyle Kuzma, who was 4-of-9 from deep while Kristaps Porzingis had 25 and was 2-of-4 from distance.

After falling behind by 19 early in the fourth Toronto finally showed some life when Anunoby checked in and scored nine points in a two-minute span. Two of his scores came on lay-ups cutting off Poeltl before he finished the run with a three, prompting a Wizards timeout with their lead down to 11 with 7:23 to play. But the Raptors missed their next five three-point attempts — interrupted by a couple of Poeltl lay-ups — and when Porzingis hit a fadeaway jumper the Wizards were back up by 13 with four minutes to play. Toronto kept pushing but a pair of costly turnovers in the final two minutes after they had cut Washington’s lead to eight held them back. A lay-up by Wright and a tough lefty finish by Bradly Beal late in the shot clock gave Washington a 10-point lead with 1:31 left, which was plenty.

The loss marked the second time in the past week the Raptors (31-33) have had a chance to get back to the .500 mark and the second time they’ve fallen back in borderline embarrassing fashion. The first was Sunday when the Cleveland Cavaliers were up 30 early in the fourth quarter and then on Thursday when Toronto was playing the first of a two-game set against the Wizards (30-32) who started the night a game behind the Toronto in 10th place but pulled ahead of them into ninth on the strength of a being up 1-0 in the season series.

The two teams meet again Saturday and if Toronto doesn’t play with a greater sense of purpose some serious doubts will have to be cast on their chances to make anything positive out of what has been a weird season and the decision to be buyers at the trade deadline, rather than sellers.

“Our energy was at an all-time low from the beginning of the game,” said Chris Boucher, who led the bench in scoring with 12 points in 13 minutes but was still minus-16 for the game. “But also when we [the bench] came in. Usually that’s what you’re supposed to do, come in and change the energy of the game and I don’t think we did that."

“You don’t pick and choose your bad days,” he added. “Today was a little bit flat for a lot of us. We missed a lot of gimmes, we didn’t follow the game plan, those are games you just want to flush and go to the next one. Obviously that was an important one but it’s one of those game where have to learn about ourselves and try to get better.”

Scoring might help. Despite Toronto's 5-2 record since the trade deadline, offence has continued to be an issue much as it has all season long. Heading into this two-game match-up with the Wizards Toronto was 22nd in offensive rating over their past seven games and 20th in three-point shooting by percent and 24th by makes.

The Raptors are hoping to push to the playoffs or — failing that — position themselves well for the play-in tournament. In any case, post-season basketball typically puts a premium on half-court offence and Toronto remains 27th in half-court offence, per cleaningtheglass.com.

The arrival of Poeltl has provided some other options offensively. At the most basic level he’s a good offensive rebounder; a handy pick-and-roll partner for VanVleet and has also shown the ability to facilitate offence as a passer. The Raptors need all of it. Poeltl showed his versatility in the fourth quarter as he counted three of his four assists catching the ball near the high post and finding cutters, Anunoby especially, but it shouldn’t have taken that long and in between there were too many possessions where the Raptors rushed into shots when they didn’t have too or ended up forcing tough ones late in the clock. The misses — and the turnovers — bled into their defence.

“… Bad execution on offence that lead to easy transition for them,” said Poeltl. “If we execute better on offence, if we get better shots with better rhythm that will help us on defence, especially in transition as well.”

It was the Raptors' search for offence that inspired them to sign former Wizard Will Barton as a free agent after he’d been waived last month. We’ll see how it works in practice, given Barton’s production fell off sharply this season after he was traded from Denver in the off-season, but Nurse sounds like a man desperate for what Barton can offer, at least in theory.

Barton played just seven minutes and was 0-of-2 from the floor Thursday.

They probably could use Wright, who was traded by Toronto in the deal that brought back Marc Gasol during the 2018-19 championship season. Wright has bounced around some since but has carved out a reputation as a solid third-rotation guard. Amazingly he’s soon to turn 31, but he causes problems with his court vision and ability to get in passing lanes defensively and otherwise find the ball. He finished with a game-high 11 assists.

The Raptors defence was particularly special in the first half as they trailed 59-50 after two quarters, but their offence may have been the bigger issue. Toronto missed their first 10 field goal attempts and were trailing 10-0 after the first three minutes with Kuzma scoring all the points for both teams. Toronto steadied themselves a little bit after that and tied the game at 12, but at each turn the Wizards were able to make a shot or a couple of them to keep Toronto at bay, while the Raptors struggled to score against a Wizards zone or — really — in the halfcourt at all.

The Raptors simply struggled to put together solid offensive possessions. Midway through the third quarter they attacked the Wizards zone as neatly as they had all game: Anunoby made a post entry to Poeltl who quickly kicked it open to a wide-open VanVleet who nailed the corner three. Next trip? VanVleet took a three in semi-transition and missed — he was 1-of-6 from deep at that point — and then after Porzingis made a three at the other end, Siakam took a three early in the clock that was never close. A couple of possessions later VanVleet got into the lane on the dribble and found Poeltl for a pair of scores, but there wasn’t enough of the latter and too much of the former.

Toronto couldn’t shoot their way back into it, and no, CJ Miles isn’t on the next plane, and the bench mob will not be reunited.