Raptors 84, Clippers 98 | Box Score | Quick Reaction | Reaction Podcast
Teams are not going to be perfect in the preseason.
That reality was worth keeping in mind for those who stayed up until some 3:30 in the morning to see the conclusion of the Toronto Raptors’ second preseason game, a rematch from Sunday’s victory against the Los Angeles Clippers. It did not go particularly well.
Again, preseason is the right place to get the sloppiness out, and as the Raptors work on fundamentally shifting their offensive identity and working a host of new and inexperienced characters into the mix, there will be a lot of bumps in the road. The first quarter on Tuesday, for example, was full of them, as the Raptors committed nine turnovers and opened the game 1-of-8 on thees and 7-of-20 overall. The quick trigger a lot of the players have clearly been mandated to employ led to some ugly misses from outside, and there were some growing paints in terms of moving the ball – while you can see the intention and even some solid passes (Jakob Poeltl made a nice dish to the perimeter after a Fred VanVleet pocket pass, for example), there are instances where it momentarily feels like the ball should always be in the hands of Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan (like when Bruno Caboclo once again struggles to execute a swing pass along the top).
Lowry, by the way, sat out to rest. Between his absence and the absence of Norman Powell in the second unit, there wasn’t a great deal of shot creating in the early going. DeRozan continued to look like a player trying to grow as a manipulator of defenses and had a beautiful post-up bucket against Danilo Gallinari, but teammates missing shots proved problematic for his final stat line. C.J. Miles hit an extremely deep three but missed two other early looks, and Serge Ibaka threw down a nice hammer but couldn’t otherwise make much of his seven shots in the first seven minutes.
BAKA 🔨 #RTZ https://t.co/oRqHeXBFiw
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 4, 2017
The bench group – which included Poeltl in place of Lucas Nogueira and K.J. McDaniels in Powell’s slot – couldn’t get much going at all, with Fred VanVleet-led pick-and-rolls the only thing breaking down the defense even a little, outside of some Pascal Siakam theatrics. The stagnant offense in the back half of the quarter had the Raptors down 28-19 early, a number that could have looked better had their problems not also flooded over to the free-throw line, where they were 3-of-9.
Oh, and Milos Teodosic is out here making basketballs fly and hearts swell. How do you not love a guy capable of passes like this?
Why do all the best passers in the world come from Serbia? pic.twitter.com/Trb4FpnVKZ
— Harrison Wind (@HarrisonWind) October 4, 2017
The second quarter didn’t start any better, with Caboclo struggling at both ends of the floor (patience remains necessary, and he settled in a bit later) and McDaniels joining him with some understandable but ineffective over-zealousness. VanVleet continued to try to be the attacker the unit needed him to be, and he stayed on the floor even as Delon Wright came back in, a potential harbinger of some second units when Lowry needs extended rest. The starters filtering back in did little to help with the lob-heavy Clippers attack, and the absence of Lowry was palpable, even in a preseason game, when DeRozan was off the floor. It’s two games in a row there’s been no look at a potential Lowry-and-bench group, so it’s hard to get a gauge how they might play normally. At least the team did a decent job of continuing to find Jonas Valanciunas (who was once again embracing the new system, by the looks of it), when he wasn’t getting called for fouls for just being large.
The offense picked up with a full starting contingent in again, which is encouraging. DeRozan was DeRozan, Ibaka drilled a three, and Wright made a tough finish through contact, and while stops were still at a premium the other way, they looked more like a reasonable facsimile of themselves with four starters (plus Wright) working together. Miles is a nice fit with this group, by the way, even if there’s a defensive trade-off – he just commands a ton of attention away from the ball, and he’s more of a threat to attack a closeout than the Raptors are accustomed to from their fourth or fifth starter. Wright’s ability to push on the break can be big, too, as he’s tough to keep up with and track on the move in space.
The defense, though, was presented some challenges thanks to the incredibly fun Clippers’ attack, which saw plenty of dunks, Blake Griffin continuing to put the world on notice he’s primed for an enormous year, and Ibaka growing frustrated enough to pick up a technical foul. And Teodosic…just, come on.
okay clippers pic.twitter.com/R5Xcqrbl8U
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) October 4, 2017
All told, the Raptors found themselves in a 62-48 hole at the break, a gap that would have been wider had DeRozan not made a couple of great plays in the closing minute. It was maybe a more reasonably well-played half than the deficit suggests, at least for some players (DeRozan, Valanciunas, Wright, and VanVleet in particular), and there wasn’t enough of the newer (or at least lightly used) motion offensive principles to evaluate. There’s a lot of new stuff to work on, so it’s not all going to be on display and all working every half of the preseason.
The third got off to a better start. The Raptors ran a motion set out of the gate that utilized Valanciunas in a less predictable way (he missed, but that’s not really the point), then the extra pass on a DeRozan-Ibaka pick-and-pop gave Wright a seam to attack, dumping off to Valanciunas for an easy two. The Raptors turned the ball over in the backcourt shortly after, but even then, Ibaka provided some nice defense and the Clippers were forced into a shot-clock violation.
Tricky stuff from, @delonwright. 👀 #RTZ https://t.co/5WldawG5K9
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) October 4, 2017
SERGE IBLAKA! ❌ pic.twitter.com/W6HNXpggBX
— NBA TV (@NBATV) October 4, 2017
Things got a little silly at that point. Ibaka and Griffin got into it a bit after fighting for a rebound on a free-throw, and the fault probably falls on Ibaka, who’d been frustrated a fair chunk of the game (perhaps with his own struggles) and was lucky not to pick up a second technical here. He did get a fifth personal. Then Griffin passed to DeAndre Jordan but Jordan literally ducked and the ball went out of bounds. Like I said: It got a little silly. It also caused Griffin to decide to put an end to the competitive portion of the exhibition, hitting a touch bucket in close and then a nice hook shot before Gallinari got to the line and made it an 18-point game midway through the quarter. He followed with a three and a ludicrous spinning mid-range jumper over Siakam’s outstretched arm.
The nice thing about the preseason is that minutes in blowouts still matter, so while Griffin may have called “game” with 17 minutes still on the clock, there were still 17 valuable minutes for the Raptors to play with. Dwane Casey went back to the same second unit as the first half – logical given they want to get a longer look at guys rather than three-to-five minute bursts – and Caboclo rewarded the extended opportunity with a nice dump-off pass to Poeltl for a foul. The speed came out a bit again, with VanVleet pushing in transition or zooming around picks off the ball and Siakam barreling toward the rim but somehow staying in control enough to get his own rebound. Poeltl put himself in position to do some nice things, too, but had trouble finishing at the rim and the free-throw line.
Casey went deeper into the bench late in the quarter, downsizing with Caboclo, McDaniels, and Alfonzo MckInnie as interchangeable wings, which sounds like one hell of a Raptors 905 option for Jerry Stackhouse to smother teams with (all three won’t be down there, but let a Hershey Centre regular dream). They entered the fourth down 28, Lorenzo Brown and Lucas Nogueira came in off the bench, and a combination of depth and regression helped narrow the gap from there. One of my favorite things about these otherwise-garbage-time scenarios is that the minutes still mean a ton to the players playing and to the coaches evaluating, and so the effort level doesn’t really slow, even if the context of the game makes any extrapolation difficult. Give me annoying VanVleet presses and guards crashing the offensive glass to make a good impression and Nogueira getting handsy in passing lanes and Siakam flying over an earlier bedtime any day.
That the Raptors managed to actually make it somewhat of a game requires the contextual factors to be appreciated, but a plus-14 mark as a group over seven minutes and change is always going to be an encouraging result, even if it was much too little and more than a bit too late. Nogueira, in particular, made a strong case to once again be the second center into the game on Thursday, and Siakam had a great stretch. What Casey’s rotation looks like as the games draw closer to dress rehearsals should be really interesting. You can check the quick reaction for more player-by-player evaluation (this is already quite long for a preseason blowout recap, even by my long-winded standards).
It’s still a loss, one in which the Raptors committed 26 turnovers, tallied just 15 assists, and shot 6-of-36 on threes. It was anything but perfect, despite the positive signs at times. Perfect’s not a reasonable expectation right now. Change is hard, and the preseason is notoriously sloppy. The important thing from here for the Raptors will be learning from and building on some of the challenges from this one rather than using them as cause to go back to what’s worked in the past. There should be enough perspective here to recognize that growth is not linear and requires patience. Thursday’s game in Portland should be telling, and there will be a more defined measuring stick for progress after two games, one good and one less good.