Raptors hold off lowly Rockets as they continue to search for consistency

Ah, expectations. They almost never fail to disappoint when it comes to leaving people disappointed.

We’re only 12 games into the season and already the difference between what might have been hoped for and what has shaken out so far for the Toronto Raptors is being noted and catalogued.

It’s too early to draw and hard and fast conclusions, but with more than 10 per cent of the season having played out, it’s too late to dismiss issues as ‘yeah, but it’s early.’

Had the Raptors come out on the wrong end of what ended up being a 116-109 win over the young, talented but lottery-bound Houston Rockets (2-10) as it looked like could be the case after a disinterested first quarter by the home side, Toronto couldn't have ignored it.

The Rockets were a win they had to have, and even if they did improve to 7-5 to snap back after a poor effort in their loss to Chicago on Monday, there are still some wrinkles to iron out.

But positives? There are a few, including the continued impressive two-way play of O.G. Anunoby, who finished with a season-high 27 points to go with 10 rebounds and three more of his never-ending supply of steals.

For Anunoby it’s just another night when he’s met expectations and exceeded them. He came into the game with 34 steals -- nine more than the next most prolific thief in the league -- and added three more against the Rockets, showing his ability to disrupt offences either on the ball, off the ball or as a help defender. His defence has been peak all season -- he’s had multiple steals in 10 of 12 games now and nine straight – but his offence is firing on all cylinders too as he ended up with four triples and four dunks.

It was also another huge night for Fred VanVleet, who led all scorers with a season-high 32 points and has now scored 89 points and made 19 threes in his first three games back after missing three with back tightness.

Toronto finished the fourth quarter on a 16-10 run that featured a pair of Otto Porter Jr. threes to give him a season-high 14 points of the bench, VanVleet’s final three and Anunoby’s final dunk on a brilliant feed from Thad Young, who was scoreless for the game, but a team-best +21 in 27 minutes, a testament to his willingness to dig in defensively and as a rebounder, and a good example for some of his younger teammates looking for lessons on how to affect the game without scoring.

“I didn't think we had a lot of our guys… [that] had their chances and didn't make the most of them, let's say,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse diplomatically after the game. “And Thad was huge. I thought he came in and started rebounding when we desperately needed it. He really went after the ball. Otto had his most minutes [24], I'm sure, this year and made some big buckets. But we need those other guys to play better, right, we need them to play better or more consistently.”

Toronto shot 41.2 per cent against the defensively challenged Rockets and was bailed out by 15 made threes, a 23-19 edge in second-chance points and turning 16 Rockets turnovers into 31 points.

But It wasn’t a seamless victory, and the Raptors' season so far hasn’t been either. Even though it’s barely turned November, if there are emerging issues, they can’t be allowed to linger. Which is why, for example, Nurse made a point of meeting with third-year forward Precious Achiuwa before Wednesday's game.

He went from a project to a potential building block in the space of three months, but increased expectations came along with it, and Nurse wanted to let Achiuwa know where he was falling short of the new standard.

Has Achiuwa been bad? Not really. His defensive numbers hold up well enough. He’s second on the team in bench scoring and second overall in rebounding. His three-point stroke (19.2) has been absent, but that’s the kind of thing that can turn around quickly.

But still, Nurse felt Achiuwa wasn’t playing up to expectations.

“He needs to play better, man,” said Nurse before the game. “… He’s just having too much inconsistency. Some nights he’s unbelievable, he’s into the game and doing it all. Some nights he’s not doing very much of it. I just had a long meeting with him and showed him a bunch of film. The biggest thing is I really want him to play better. This 12, 15, 17 minutes is not what I envisioned for him this year. I told him that. I’m envisioning more in the mid to upper 20s, plus. But I can’t if he’s not gonna execute our stuff defensively better.”

It would have been a nice story if Achiuwa had popped off with a high-energy outing against the Rockets, but it didn’t quite happen. Instead, he left the game with a sprained ankle in the third quarter and was 2-for-8 from the floor with two turnovers and -11 plus/minus when he did it.

For example: the Raptors were trailing 22-20 and playing some very defence optional basketball when Achiuwa checked in.

In his first six minutes, he got called for charging on a lay-up; got caught flat-footed trying to guard Rockets guard Jalen Green; missed a wide-open three and got caught in no-man’s land in transition as the Rockets scored a lay-up the other way. Achiuwa was -8 in the quarter, as was Chris Boucher in another no-show outing. The pair is counted on to provide energy off the bench and have been flat for multiple games. The Rockets took a 37-29 lead into the second period as the Raptors allowed them to shoot 70 per cent had a 9-2 edge in fast-break points.

“You can’t have too many of these dud [games],” said VanVleet. “You’ve got to flush it and get ready for OKC. I think they’re probably both overthinking a little bit. Best thing to do is go out and play hard and the rest can will happen for you.”

Achiuwa and Boucher didn’t see the floor again for the rest of the half with veteran Thad Young and Dalano Banton soaking up the minutes. The Raptors defence improved too, which is to say they played some: Toronto held the visitors to 4-of-21 shooting.

The Raptors offence didn’t exactly take flight -- they were 11-of-32 and hampered by four turnovers -- but the increased effort and intensity allowed Toronto to turn a 12-point deficit early in the second quarter to a 57-54 halftime lead.

Achiuwa hasn’t been the only culprit. Even second-year star Scottie Barnes has been uneven -- or at least relative to the sky-high hopes that were pinned to him after his rookie-of-the-year campaign last year.

On Monday, Barnes clocked in with the least effective games of the season in Toronto’s blowout loss to Chicago. -- mustering only five points, six rebounds and five assists on 2-of-9 shooting. Year-over-year Barnes averages are fine – his scoring down marginally (15.3 points a game last year compared to 14.3 so far this year), his assists are up (5.0 vs. 3.5), he’s a little less efficient from two-point range but is shooting better from three and taking more of them.

He's been steady, for the most part, but missing are the kind of breakout games that opened eyes so often last season: He’s been in double-figures scoring in seven of the eight games he’s played prior to Wednesday night, but has topped 20 points just once, compared to three times in the same span during his rookie year.

Anything to be concerned about?

“I don’t think we should draw many conclusions on anybody individually in some of these games that we haven’t played very well,” said Nurse.

After his rough outing Monday, Barnes was much better against the Rockets. He was front-and-centre in a Raptors third-quarter push that was otherwise highlighted by Anunoby’s defence (he had three steals in the period) and VanVleet (who had four steals in the game himself) taking charge offensively. Barnes was locked in defensively, made some nice passes out of the post and kept the flow going as Toronto started the fourth quarter with an 86-82 lead.

Barnes finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and five assists in his 34 minutes, while shooting 6-of-16 form the floor. Not his best, but better than the night before, so progress. And that’s all anyone can expect, really

The Raptors will have the burden of expectations on their upcoming three-game road trip as they visit Oklahoma City, Indianapolis, and Detroit -- all teams playing better than pre-season projections, but squads the Raptors will need to handle if they are going to gain some momentum in what promises to be a very tight Eastern Conference playoff race.