Raptors fumble chance to gain some momentum with more poor shooting in Orlando

ORLANDO, Fla. — The NBA schedule can be unforgiving. There are stretches where between travel, injuries, and the quality of the opposition, just treading water is a reasonable goal and worth acknowledging when it happens.

The Raptors treaded water effectively in October and November when injuries and illness were rampant. They could have found themselves underwater but to their credit, they squeezed out enough wins to keep things on track.

But the flip side is also true: when the schedule turns in your favour, good teams take advantage and pump their record with enough air to see them through tougher times.

Having caught a break to start the week when the Los Angeles Lakers sat out LeBron James and Anthony Davis, two games in Orlando against the struggling Magic looked like a great opportunity to gain some badly needed momentum.

Instead, the Raptors came to Florida and blew that opportunity entirely, dropping consecutive games to a team who sported the NBA’s worst record before Toronto arrived and now doesn’t after Orlando followed up their well-deserved win Friday with an even more impressive 111-99 defeat of the Raptors on Sunday evening.

The talented young Magic flashed their offensive potential on Friday and on Sunday night showed all their size and athleticism can make them a tough team to score on, too.

Tough for the Raptors at least, who perhaps are easier to guard than most teams, given their ongoing inability to shoot.

Toronto was playing without O.G. Anunoby, who sat out with a strained hip, but his absence didn’t hurt them all that much defensively as they held the Magic to 46.8 per cent shooting from the floor — an improvement from Friday. But Orlando caught fire from deep in the second half and that was all the rocket fuel they needed. They shot 10-of-18 from the three-point line in the second half and started the fourth quarter making four-of-five as Orlando took an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter and kept Toronto at arm’s length the rest of the way.

The Raptors? Unable to hit the water if they fell out of a boat is the phrase that comes to mind. They have been the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA since Nov. 4, a stretch of 19 games in which they’ve shot just 29.5 per cent from deep. They were 6-of-25 on Sunday, which is about par for them, but no way to win consistently in a league where three-point shooting is so often the differentiator. The Magic outscored Toronto by 24 points from the arc Sunday.

It’s unfortunate because the Raptors were physical, determined to attack the paint and willing to take a knock when they got there as their 33-of-38 showing from the free throw line shows (the Magic were 25-of-31). They won the turnover battle (19-8) but struggled against the Magic on the boards and were out-rebounded 42-27.

“We’re having a hard time shooting the ball right now,” said head coach Nick Nurse. “… I don’t know. We just need to figure out a way to will some in there. I thought again we had quite a few that were pretty open. It wasn’t like we were shooting turnaround jumpers from three. There were some faced-up looks and things like that. And [missing so much] probably gets into your psyche a little bit. It probably affected us. I think your offence is going to affect your defence. And they were giving everything they absolutely had defensively for super-long stretches of that game. And it gets a little discouraging when your offence can’t get going.”

The loss dropped Toronto to 13-14 (and 3-11 on the road) while the Magic improved to 8-20 and 7-9 at home. The Raptors were led by Gary Trent Jr. who had 24 points as he drew the start in place of Anunoby. Fred VanVleet scored 20 and added seven assists while going 10-of-12 from the line in his 42 minutes.

Scottie Barnes had 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting and grabbed only two rebounds as he continues to struggle to get over the hump in his second season. He was more engaged defensively but still finished a team-worst minus-15 on the night and was minus-39 over the two games in Orlando. The best young players on the floor again were Magic rookie Paolo Banchero — who had 20 points and 12 rebounds on 14 shots — and second-year wing Franz Wagner, who added 23 points on 14 shots.

Trying to get a split against one of the NBA’s weakest teams was paramount but almost as important was that Toronto would respond after getting embarrassed by the Magic on Friday. They had a long practice on a Saturday afternoon on what otherwise could have been an off day, with the goal of addressing where they fell short.

What stood out so dramatically in Friday’s game was how easily the Magic could punch gaps in the Raptors defence for long stretches and how once they breached the paint, the path the rim was mostly unimpeded. That's how Orlando managed to shoot 59.2 per cent from the floor and their two big guns — Banchero and Wagner — could go 20-of-26 from the floor on Friday.

The Raptors forced the Magic into 20 turnovers with their aggressive ball-hawking — traps, reaching and jumping the passing lanes — but were vulnerable otherwise.

“We’ve got to guard the ball a little bit,” was VanVleet’s prescription after Friday’s loss. “Sometimes we fall into the schemes too much and rely on them, when we have to sit down and guard the ball, just keep it simple; keep the ball in front of you, one-on-one basketball.”

There was plenty more of that going on in the first quarter of Sunday’s game. There were deflections, straight-up competitive individual defence and bodies on the floor in pursuit of loose balls. The Raptors held the Magic to just 19 points and 36.7 per cent shooting — literally almost half the production and efficiency compared to the first quarter Friday. Not coincidentally, Toronto led 19-18 after 12 minutes. The only fly in the mix was that the Raptors offence was ragged as well as the Magic, who were emboldened coming off consecutive wins at home were meeting Toronto chest-to-chest at the point of attack and taking their chances if they got beat off the dribble that their superior size would help them tidy things up in the paint.

But guarding without fouling was an issue and when Pascal Siakam picked up his fourth foul when he got called for moving laterally as seven-foot Mo Bomba rumbled down the lane for a dunk, the first half shifted a little bit.

The Raptors offence stalled even as VanVleet vainly worked to break down the Magic with repeated paint attacks. But Orlando was content to trail VanVleet with their length and size, confident he wouldn’t be able to hurt them by getting the ball all the way to the rim. When the Raptors did get to the paint and get the Magic defence scrambling Toronto couldn’t take advantage, such as when the Raptors did everything right only to have Khem Birch miss a wide-open corner three that would have been Anunoby’s or Siakam’s in different circumstances. Meanwhile, the Magic went on a 14-2 run the minute Siakam left the floor, with Bamba the prime engine as he scored 11 points with a dunk, a pair of threes and free throws as the Magic eventually took a 47-39 lead into the half. Toronto shot just 35.9 per cent from the floor and 2-of-13 from deep in the first two periods.

The game opened up offensively a little bit in the third quarter, but unfortunately it was the Magic who began to get loose as Banchero and Wagner each shook free for a pair of threes. The Magic shot 6-of-10 from deep in the period and 66.7 per cent from the floor overall for the quarter. VanVleet finally saw a three drop and Trent Jr. knocked down a pair also. Toronto also bullied their way to the line for 17 free throws with Trent Jr. and VanVleet converting four and five each, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with Orlando who led 82-75 to start the fourth. Another flurry from deep — Wagner hit three triples in less than 90 seconds in the opening minutes of the period, all off paint touches by Magic guard Cole Anthony — pushed Orlando’s lead to 16. The Raptors were 0-of-6 from deep in the fourth and the comeback wasn’t going to happen.

"It’s a bad time for [a shooting slump]," said VanVleet, who was 2-of-7 from deep and is 13-of-57 in his last six games. "We desperately need them the way the offence is flowing. We need some of those threes to go down and the other team just gets more and more aggressive, and they load up more if you don’t make them and we saw some of that tonight.

"But we fought. It just wasn’t good enough."

The Magic played well over the weekend — it would be wrong to say they had nothing to with the way things unfolded, and they clearly have some really good young players to build around. But the Raptors have standards and ambitions, and the only way for them to reach them is to take care of the opportunities the schedule offers. There was a gift waiting for them here in Florida, and they fumbled it.