So, that didn’t go very well. If you haven’t watched the game and you’re just checking in to see how it went, let me put it this way: the good news is, you didn’t have to watch it. Everything else is bad news.
Last night’s game against the Hawks was difficult to watch for anybody who hasn’t jumped on the burgeoning Atlanta Hawks bandwagon. There are two major problems that have presented themselves in the recent 10 game slump culminating in last night’s loss: the offence, and the defense. Since there’s no special teams in basketball, as much as last night felt like the punt team spent long stretches on the floor, that pretty much encapsulates the entirety of the game. The Raptors looked bad everywhere, with bright neon bad body language. They looked closer to the mid 90s teams that lived in those purple throwback jerseys than they did to the team that evoked irrational 1st place confidence just a few short weeks ago.
The best way to oversimplify what happened is to say that this team doesn’t play like a team executing together. For weeks there’s been talk about how DeMar’s return would buoy the defense, offer a release valve for an offense lacking diversity and bring back the side-to-side action that the Raptors were lighting the basket on fire with to start the season. DeMar looked to have his touch back offensively last night to be sure, scoring 25 points on 11 of 18 shooting, but the ruts the team has fallen into on both ends did nothing to get better.
This team played like they got big ideas of who they were and too used to watching Kyle Lowry and Lou Williams do their things individually. The motion has slowed. The game has become a bad version of everybody get theirs. The Raptors offense was always designed as less of a Spursian passing machine and more of a niche product designed to get each guy open shots on the spots of the floor they like best. But the actions that led into those shots are either missing, half-assed or now telegraphed to a league that was always going to eventually adapt. The free throws are gone, the offensive rebounding and put-back baskets of a season ago have declined and any attempt to manufacture offense seems to be individually based, instead of creating for each other. It doesn’t look selfishly motivated; more detached.
The Raptors have now fallen to the second lowest assist% in the league, finding baskets for each other just 53.8% of the time. Atlanta, to the surprise of nobody who watched them tack up 30 assists against the Dino’s last night, lead the league in this particular stat at 67.9%. The Raptors have good shooters, and their offensive philosophy isn’t without merit. But the open shots they generated the first time they played and beat Atlanta were more often than not well challenged or taken away this time. Atlanta has gone 23-2 since that home loss because they’ve adapted how they’ve played and been otherworldly focused. The Raptors have completely failed to adapt, and played last night like, for the first time in a very long time, they didn’t think they could win.
The Dinos got popped defensively again last night, even worse than the less than subtle 110 point, 21-point deficit final score implies. Decry the ineffectiveness of Jonas Valanciunas verticality approach, Terrence Ross’ checked out decline and the lack of inside presence as much as you’d like from last night’s game. They’re all true. But the problem is much bigger. The defensive scheme doesn’t fit the personnel and it’s an even worse fit for the effort level. The madman scrambling style that made Dominik Hasek a hall of game NHL goalie has the opposite effect in the NBA. Teams are shooting the lights out against Toronto because they’re getting wide-open shots. Opposing teams with great shooting and ball movement, like the Suns, Warriors and, clearly, the Hawks, have set the basket on fire from above the break and the mid range.
The Raptors defensive scheme is designed in part to encourage those mid-range shots. And they’ve done a passable job of taking away the league’s most desired shot in the corner three. But there is a difference between accepting mid range shots and forcing three point attempts out of the corners and above the break and leaving them wide open. The Raptors play a frantic scheme with very aggressive trapping on the sides, rushing out to run three point shots off the line and switching when necessary. This kind of operation requires an extremely athletic lineup, and highly precise timing. OKC and the Lebron Miami heat ran very similar schemes in the past. Both were torched by superior ball moving teams, i.e. the Spurs, when length and athleticism simply couldn’t keep up with the precision pace, space and shooting. Toronto doesn’t have the personnel those teams had, nor the comfort in the system, and those teams still lost. There’s a clear point here. Raptors are now down to a 110.1 DefRtg in their last 10 games. Since dropping their matchup against the Bulls on Dec. 22, the Raps have gone 4-6 while giving up 110.1 points per 100 possessions. That number would tie them with the worst defense in the league with the woeful Timberwolves on the season.
The loss resulted in a closed-door players meeting where it’s been reported that the team discussed the issue of them getting too big for their britches. Focus alone and recognition of what the problem is could go a long way. We’ll see. Self-awareness would be the only moral victory you could possibly find in that 110-89 drubbing.
