Eventually, Raptors 905 are going to win a game. Unfortunately that may come Wednesday, when the Toronto basketball world will be focused on the Raptors, LeBron James, and Drake Night 3.
The 905 dropped the second end of a home-and-home to Maine on Friday, losing 112-93 to fall to 0-4 on the young season.
It wasn’t an easy game to get up for on either side. The teams played in Mississauga last night, then had to be at Pearson Airport before 7 a.m. for a flight to Maine. Making matters worse for the road side, the 905 were without Sim Bhullar, Axel Toupane, and Ronald Roberts, while the Red Claws had three players on assignment from the Boston Celtics to the Raptors’ two. Bhullar will not be traveling with the team to start the year, Toupane is dealing with a visa issue, and Roberts has an ankle sprain. Eleven healthy players isn’t too few, but all three figure to be in the 10-man rotation on most nights, and tipping off shorthanded for a travel back-to-back is suboptimal.
The Celtics’ assignees proved much more effective than Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira, too. Terry Rozier (16 points, eight assists) was too much for the non-Nogueira bigs to handle at the rim when attacking, Young (26 points, 15 rebounds, four assists) had one of his best games at any level, hammering the glass and knocking down open threes, and Mickey (17 points, nine rebounds, five blocks) was a menace on the defensive end.
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Nogueira, meanwhile, had a strong first half but played sparingly later as head coach Jesse Murmuys opted for smaller lineups (the team closed with three guards, Nick Wiggins, and Michael Kyser, a lineup designed to goose the offense in a failed comeback attempt). The affable Brazilian center finished with four points, four rebounds, and four blocks in 13 minutes, but the box score didn’t speak to some of the things that looked most encouraging. Most notably, a night after struggling with his pick-and-roll coverages some, Nogeuira looked more comfortable dropping back. That’s going to be an adjustment for him all season – while the parent club scheme change is designed to help Jonas Valanciunas, Nogueira was a good fit for the previous scheme, as he uses his length and footwork well to hedge on to guards. He still stays on his heels too much dropping back, but he’s figuring it out.
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That experience hedging in the past has also made him more comfortable switching on to guards.
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He also did this, which was all kinds of cool and shows great spatial awareness and comfort putting it on the floor. The handle is still a little clumsy, but being able to make these kind of moves will really open up his options from the elbows (remember he had nine assists Thursday and has range almost as far as the 3-point line).
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Nogueira’s tag-team partner had a poor night, too, though his came with another 35-minute workload. Caboclo was active defensively, tried to jump post-entry passes (he saw a decent amount of time at the four), and blocked three shots, but that aggression also saw him pick up five fouls. At one point, he was announced as fouling out, only to make a quick return. He was one foul away from being one foul away.
On the offensive end, the green light Caboclo has was glowing and flashing all night. He was 5-of-19 from the floor and 1-of-10 from downtown but never got shy, even as the misses accumulated. That’s a good thing for now, within the guidelines of his development, but it’s worth noting that Maine was sagging off of him a great deal when he caught the ball above the break. They closed on his corner touches, but up top they were willing to let Caboclo gun away. He’s still learning to attack closeouts, and some of that is a matter of seeing more of them in game action. Caboclo’s still going to shoot almost any time he has a window, but moves like this are encouraging steps, even if the 7-of-34 mark from outside on the young season is unsightly.
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So with a bad night from Caboclo, a short night from Nogueira, and a shorthanded bench, the 905 were in tough.
That’s not to make excuses for them, because they lost Friday’s game in much the same way they’ve lost their first three. The 905 committed 17 turnovers, a staple right now as they continue to learn their offense and get comfortable together. That’s bled into poor transition defense, and the Red Claws had a clear edict to let fly going back the other way, taking 44 3-point attempts on the night. The 905 defense wasn’t bad once set, and here’s an idea of what it can look like when everyone’s on the same page.
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It’s a long process at both ends, one that’s not necessarily about wins and losses right now and might mean taking some lumps in the short-term.
The 905 play Maine once again on Sunday before returning home to host Idaho on Wednesday.
Notes
*Despite the outcome, I thought Murmuys did a good job with the circumstances. His timeouts were well-timed and often led to responsive runs, he staggered his starters when Maine went all-bench, and a few of his side out-of-bounds (“side oobs,” as my notepad says) showed potential, if unfamiliarity.
*Jay Harris had an excellent game off the bench and was more or less the entire offense in the third quarter. He finished with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting and added eight rebounds crashing from the perimeter. Four turnovers to three assists for the back-up point guard isn’t ideal, but his scoring punch is something the team was really high on, and he showed why tonight. He also knocked down all three of his threes; if he can do that regularly, he becomes an even bigger weapon, as he shot just 32.9 percent in college. Smart play here, too.
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*This is a very D-League sequence:
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