LOS ANGELES — There were plenty of things for the Toronto Raptors to be worried about as they got set to take on LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers.
At the top of the list? How to manage without starting centre — and their only centre — Jakob Poeltl, who was ruled out for the next two weeks at least and likely longer with a sprained ankle he suffered stepping on teammate Pascal Siakam’s foot on Sunday night in the second of half of the Raptors’ win over Golden State.
With the Raptors having included Precious Achiuwa — the closest thing they had to a backup centre — in the trade that sent OG Anunoby (another option to guard centres) to the New York Knicks that brought them Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, Toronto will be exceptionally thin up front while Poeltl is out.
Can the Raptors survive playing small ball?
Maybe. They came close against the Lakers and will certainly get their chances to keep trying beginning with their game Wednesday night here in Los Angeles against the Clippers. But they absolutely won’t if the referees won’t cooperate, at least according to Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic.
The Raptors managed to be competitive without Poeltl, and did a reasonable job against Davis for the most part. They even thrived for long stretches. But in the end — and we mean the very end of what was a remarkably hard-fought and entertaining game that ended in controversy, from the Raptors’ perspective — the Lakers and Davis in particular came up big, pun very much intended, in a 132-131 L.A. win.
But in Rajakovic’s view, it was the refereeing that was the biggest difference. After the Lakers enjoyed a 23-2 advantage in free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter — the largest discrepancy in the NBA this season — the Raptors rookie head coach was furious and held nothing back in a brief but intense post-game rant that will cost him in the pocketbook but surely gained him some credibility with his players.
“That’s outrageous,” Rajakovic said to start an impassioned post-game session that lasted barely a minute. “What happened tonight is completely B.S. This is shame for the referees.”
He was just getting warmed up:
“I understand respect for all-stars and all that,” he continued. “But we have star players on our team as well. How is it possible Scottie Barnes, who is all-star calibre player in this league, he goes every single time to the rim with force and tries to get to the rim without flopping, not trying to get foul calls, he gets two free throws for whole game? How is that possible? How you going to explain that to me?
“[Was it that] they [the Lakers] had to win tonight? If that’s the case, just let us know so we don’t show up for the game, just give them a win.
“That was not fair tonight and this is not happening the first time for us. Scottie Barnes is going to be all-star, he is going to be (the) face of this league and what’s happening over here during whole season… is complete crap.”
In that context what the short-handed Raptors did manage was even more impressive, though with or without the help of the referees, Davis was dominant.
After a Gary Trent Jr. three with 68 seconds left put the Raptors up by one, the broad-shouldered, seven-footer restored the Lakers lead with a score at the rim on the other end and then blocked a Barnes driving lay-up at the other. Davis then buried six free throws in the final 34 seconds as the Raptors couldn’t guard the Lakers giant without fouling, apparently.
In all, Davis scored 20 of his game-high 41 points in the fourth quarter to ensure the win for the Lakers who had a 36-13 free throw advantage overall. The Raptors had four of their five starters finish with at least 20 points, led by Barnes’ 26 and Siakam’s 25. The Raptors also had to get by without Quickley down the stretch after he fouled out with 21 points and five assists in just 26 minutes. Thad Young, a surprise starter in place of Poeltl, had 10 points and five rebounds in 29 minutes, while Trent Jr. had 14 and Dennis Schroder 10 off the bench for Toronto, who fell to 15-22 and 2-2 on their six-game western road swing. The struggling Lakers improved to 19-19.
What the Raptors surely realized playing without a traditional centre is that there are opportunities, but plenty of challenges. What they found out trying to do it against Davis — the best big man in the NBA outside of the Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic category — was, at times, a major challenge.
On Tuesday night against the Lakers, the Raptors started with little-used veteran Young before Jontay Porter got a crack as they roughly split the first-quarter minutes against Davis. Predictably, the Lakers force-fed Davis early and he responded as an oversized man among boys, going over and through the Raptors for 16 first-quarter points on 7-of-9 shooting.
“We’re just going to have to do it by committee,” said Young. “You know ‘Bron and AD, they’re going to have their hands on the ball 80 per cent of the time, have a lot of shots go up and a lot of opportunities for them … [for us] it’s just ‘next man up’ mentality.”
The Raptors were largely able to manage the damage elsewhere and trailed just 28-24 to start the second quarter.
The Raptors found success in the second frame by staying small and turning the game into a track meet wherever possible. Rajakovic gave the ‘centre’ minutes to Young — who at six-foot-nine is an under-sized power-forward, really — and Barnes. The Lakers stopped trying to find Davis on every other possession, to their detriment. When they did go to Davis, the Raptors doubled aggressively. But in general the Lakers looked out of sorts, with James visibly upset with his teammates, which perhaps reflects their 4-10 record since they won the inaugural In-Season Tournament back in November, or their .500 mark overall.
Meanwhile, the Raptors — riding a 3-1 wave coming into Tuesday’s game since they reshuffled their roster in a trade with the Knicks — were able to find their offence in spurts. After a James pull-up triple put Los Angeles up by eight midway through the second quarter the Raptors unfurled a 17-8 run that took them into halftime with an unlikely 53-51 lead. Leading the charge was Barrett, who followed up his 37-point outing in Toronto’s blowout win over Golden State on Sunday with a 16-point first half against L.A., scoring 14 in the second quarter alone on 6-of-7 shooting. Meanwhile, Quickley, who came over from the Knicks with Barrett, scored 10 in the half and eight in the second quarter.
“RJ’s been turned loose man, he’s back home. And I’m sure there’s a lot of pride, growing up a Raptors fan. He presents a lot of challenges,” said Lakers head coach Darvin Ham before the game. “It looks like he’s playing free. Seeing that game against the Warriors you know, he’s just constantly in constant attack mode.
“And Quickley? We got a taste of him when he was still in New York not too long ago [Quickley had 20 points off the bench against the Lakers in a Knicks win in December]. So those are two really high-level pickups… “
The Raptors certainly think so. Their presence continued to pay dividends, especially in the third quarter as Quickley put the Raptors up by eight with consecutive threes. The first one was set up by an incredible play by Young, who dove on the floor to prevent a turnover and whipped a left-handed pass to Quickley in the same motion. The Raptors guard then hit a pull-up three in transition and erupted in his trademark skips back to the Raptors’ end as the Lakers had to call a timeout to restore order. Their own three-ball-fueled 14-4 run prevented the Raptors’ lead from getting bigger, but after Barrett found Trent Jr. for a three in transition, and former Laker Schroder was able to score on a jumper in the final minute of the period, Toronto was able to take an 89-88 lead into the pivotal fourth quarter.
From the Raptors’ view, the referees took over from there. But if they didn’t manage to emerge with a win, they at least gained a deeper appreciation for their head coach.
“It just says he’s all for us,” Young said regarding Rajakovic’s post-game outburst. “He’s all for us as a family. We’re always going to be behind one another and he’s going to continue to fight for us. We love Darko and we definitely think the world of his coaching and we appreciate him going to bat for us.”