Raptors need Leonard-like difference-maker to emerge after Game 2 loss

This was the Toronto Raptors team everyone expected to show up for Game 2.

After all, the guys who took the floor in Game 1 bore only the faintest resemblance to their real selves, the team Raptors fans have fallen for even more deeply than the one that won a championship a year ago.

A team with a title in their pocket and chips on their shoulders.

The names on the jerseys were the same, but the passion, the hoops IQ, the determination that has made their NBA title defence one of the most enjoyable seasons in franchise history were all missing.

It might have been the mood after an intense few days, when it seemed like the NBA bubble might burst after the fallout from the Jacob Blake shooting descended on the league like a dark cloud, but the Boston Celtics were dealing with the same issues and they came out blazing.

Would the Raptors respond? That was the question.

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It got answered quickly. This time it was Toronto that came out with energy and set the tone for Game 2. When they sprinted out to a quick 15-9 lead, no one was calling ‘game,’ but there was a sigh of relief.

The Raptors were here to compete; to use their blend of smarts, heart and selflessness that makes their whole greater than the sum of their parts — or almost any other team’s parts.

When the Raptors went up 12 late in the third quarter on the strength of a signature 11-0 run that featured Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam making plays, Serge Ibaka knocking in threes and Kyle Lowry diving for steals and making assists before even getting to his feet, there was a sense that the universe was righting itself.

The real Raptors remained on campus at Walt Disney World Resort.

But for how much longer?

Because here’s the catch: it wasn’t good enough, and the Raptors might not be either.

Toronto did plenty of Toronto things, but against a Celtics team featuring a budding MVP-caliber star in Jayson Tatum and a point guard who can score when he wants in Kemba Walker — not to mention A+ role players in Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown — the Raptors got stuck in the mud down the stretch.

Sometimes they tripped over their own feet in the process — as Boston came back for a 102-99 win to earn a commanding 2-0 lead heading into Game 3 on Thursday.

This was always going to be the test for Toronto even as they sailed through the second half of the season, soared in the restart and breezed through their first-round series against a paper-thin Brooklyn Nets team.

What would happen when they ran up against a team with comparable or better talent that was equally well-prepared and equally willing to play a smart, selfless style?

It was hard to know because typically those teams don’t get thrown in your way until the second round of the playoffs and sometimes later.

Last year, the Raptors’ supporting cast could hand the ball to Kawhi Leonard when the game got slow, the refs swallowed their whistles and the three-point line seemed like it had been suddenly moved to 30 feet and the other team was playing with six defenders, not five.

Leonard lifted the Raptors to a championship and then left for the Los Angeles Clippers, and now Toronto is left trying to solve elite defences by committee.

In theory, Siakam was supposed to step into the closer’s role but he’s evidently not ready for it. That is the only fair takeaway after watching him struggle mightily against Boston and play below his standard since he joined the Raptors in Florida.

In Game 2 he showed some signs of breaking out early on against Boston but couldn’t sustain anything and came undone down the stretch.

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The game was hard-fought from the start, but just when the Raptors finally managed to separate themselves in the third quarter, the Celtics were gifted five straight threes — the last one a four-point play — by Smart in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, which wiped out a promising eight-point lead to start the period. The Celtics led 86-85 with just under eight minutes to play.

These things happen.

“I mean it sucks,” said Lowry. “He made five shots, you know, he’s a pro, you know you got five looks and got [an] and-one on one. He got hot and we didn’t cool him off.”

But it was what happened after which is cause for concern.

Toronto kept scrapping and clawing. They kept a lid on the Celtics for the most part, forced some turnovers and grabbed some offensive rebounds and were able to get to the free-throw line a few times, too.

But they struggled to create anything easy. They didn’t have Leonard bulling his way into the paint and pulling up for a fadeaway at the end of the clock. The Raptors shot 5-of-21 from the floor in the fourth and that might have been flattering.

At the key moment they had Siakam — who finished 6-of-16 from the floor and is now 16-of-37 (34 per cent) in his last three games against Boston — trying to score in isolation against the Celtics’ Smart, one of the toughest and most resourceful defenders in the NBA.

It didn’t go well.

Siakam drove left with 36 seconds left and Toronto trailing by three, only to have Smart strip the ball. The Raptors retained possession and ran a play to get Siakam an open look in the corner, but Siakam stepped out of bounds and the game was pretty much decided, save for a desperate game-tying effort from the three from VanVleet that fell short.

Raptors head coach Nick Nurse defended Siakam, as he should and you would expect, when he was asked about the last two plays.

“I think Smart fouled the [expletive] out of him on the one,” Nurse said. “There’s one for you. Then we ran a good play there, and looked like it was open, for the corner three. It’s not one we use a lot, but you’re saving it for that kind of situation and it’s just unfortunate.

“That’s one thing that’s hard, too – the court has a different feel to it. There have been a lot of guys stepping on the sideline in the bubble, and that’s just probably unfortunate.”

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Siakam is in his fourth season and made tremendous progress as he earned the NBA’s Most Improved Player nod last season and his first All-Star spot this year. But being the focal point of quality NBA defence in a playoff series is a different level of responsibility and for the moment he’s falling short.

In fairness, he hasn’t had much help. The Raptors shot 11-of-40 from three and are 21-of-80 in the series. VanVleet and Lowry can’t seem to find the mark against a swarm of rangy Celtics defenders as they were 11-of-38 from the floor combined and 3-of-19 from three – echoing their performance in Game 1. Coming off a career year Normam Powell was supposed to provide clutch scoring to help fill the gaps but has been absent, going just 1-of-5 in the 13 minutes Nurse thought he deserved, a story in itself.

“I mean we’re pretty pissed right now we’re down 0-2,” said Lowry. “… This is not a situation we’d like to be in, but you know it’s not a normal situation in the playoffs where we lost two home games. We just lost two games. We got a chance to get enough to get one game. That’s all we gotta do is get one game and take [it] one day, one game at a time and know that the Celtics have been playing extremely well so we got to find a way to, you know, get ourselves going.”

The question is who is going to spark them? Who is going to carry them over the rough patches? Who is going to penetrate defences that seem impenetrable?

They had a guy like that, but he plays for the Clippers now, and the Raptors that remain will have to figure it out on their own.

Somehow.

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