They bucked their recent trend and started out strong, bringing a great deal of energy from the opening tip. They maintained that intensity into and through halftime, carrying a three-point lead into the fourth quarter. They executed for most of the fourth, shaking their usual (and earlier) turnover troubles and committed just two miscues in the final frame.
They did a good number of things better than they have been. And still, Raptors 905 lost on Wednesday, dropping a 111-110 decision to the visiting L.A. D-Fenders.
As head coach Jesse Mermuys is fond of repeating, this is a very young, inexperienced team that’s still learning how to win. On Wednesday, they lost in somewhat of a new way; so far this season, they’ve been able to correct the ways in which they’ve lost and do better the next time out, and that has to be the hope again here, frustrating though the constant lose-adjust-lose-adjust pattern must be. This is the D-League, after all, and an expansion affiliate at that. The entire point is for everyone, individual and team, to gain experience and learn and make these small, incremental improvements that will later add up to more.
This loss wasn’t for lack of effort or energy, the latter something that’s been pointed to late in close games in the past. The 905 were all over the glass, earning a 51-41 rebounding advantage, and they pounced on any loose balls or errant passes the D-Fenders offered up. A team with Ronald Roberts as its backbone is never going to be short on energy, and the human pogo stick held the entire team’s intensity level up throughout with a 19-points, 16-rebounds performance.
“I thought effort was great. I thought we fought,” Mermuys said. “I thought we were engaged, we were playing hard, I thought we stayed together. I didn’t see any of that kind of lulling separation that we’ve seen sometimes through adversity with these guys. I thought we were there, we just weren’t able to make enough plays down the stretch to get a win with a team like that.”
The offensive execution was certainly found a bit wanting in the game’s final moments, but the team mostly made good decisions throughout, finishing 12-of-25 from the floor in the quarter. A late drive by Norman Powell highlighted the good and bad of the game, with Powell making the right call to dump one off to Bruno Caboclo instead of forcing a tough shot, only for Caboclo to miss the look. Powell’s been focusing on improving his playmaking off the bounce and made the right call, but the result wasn’t there.
Powell played well overall scoring, 28 points on 9-of-20 shooting, dishing three dimes, and getting to the line nine times. He was nonplussed with his outing because the team didn’t get a win – “Numbers don’t really matter,” he said after the game – but he’s made noticeable strides in just four games with the junior club. Caboclo wasn’t quite as good, scoring 17 points on 6-of-18 shooting, failing to log an assist, and making a pretty poor decision to let fly with a bad look on a late possession.
But the offense wasn’t really the issue, especially late. After a decent first half, the 905 surrendered 63 second-half points and 36 in the fourth, when the D-Fenders shot 13-of-23 and went turnover-free.
L.A. opted to go five-out with two shooting bigs on the court late in Justin Hawkins and Justin Harper, which stretched the 905 out on defense, opening up more driving lanes for Vander Blue. Blue finished with 37 points and five assists, scoring 10 in the final frame as the 905 had to get more conservative with their help off of Hawkins and Harper, who were a combined 7-of-14 from outside. That’s something Mermuys thought was an intentional strategy – get the bigs going early do the 905 had to respect them late – and Mermuys’ only lineup counter wasn’t ideal.
“I didn’t want to take Ronald off the court. I wanted to win it with Ron on the court, I think he deserves that,” Mermuys said.
Roberts is generally undersized for the five but found himself as the most natural big on the floor late. He was able to use that edge on the boards without Robert Upshaw opposite him, and he had seven points and four rebounds in the fourth. He wasn’t the problem, but roaming the perimeter is a suboptimal use of Roberts’ skills, and the team’s general inability to help off the perimeter bigs on Blue put too much pressure on the defenders at the initial point of attack.
It wasn’t dissimilar from an earlier narrow loss to Delaware, when Jordan McRae and Sean Kilpatrick worked a two-man show to break the defense down. In that game, the 905 coughed up a 20-point lead to lose by double-digits and were able to avenge the loss later in the season. Again this time they lead more or less bell-to-bell, but lost the handle more slowly and were right there in the game’s closing possessions. Maybe a new way of losing presents a new chance to grow.
“This is a great opportunity, again, for us to go back to the drawing board and show them this was another way to lose,” Mermuys said. “And it’s frustrating. It’s super frustrating. I want them to have success because they’re giving a lot of effort and they’re trying extremely hard and they’re staying with the process. And we don’t have any negativity, we’ve got guys that are completely bought in and doing what they’re supposed to do. We’re just not winning because we just don’t know how to win. And we’ve gotta get there at some point.”
There’s no real immediacy for the 905 to right the ship in a season that probably won’t see them make the playoffs, save for keeping everyone sane and engaged and bought-in. They may want to find a footing quickly, however, as the annual D-League Showcase begins Jan. 6, with scouts from all 30 NBA teams expected. That’s a huge day on the calendar around both the NBA and the D-League, and the 905 can bet they’ll run into opponents looking to make statements on a big stage. The intensity will be ratcheted up, which the 905 should be able to match at the individual level. The individuals may stand out more in wins, though.
“Absolutely we’ve talked about it,” Mermuys said before the game. “I want these guys to be playing their best basketball going into the showcase and going into an opportunity where everybody in the NBA is watching them. So yeah, of course, they want to display what they can do. And to do that, we have to be playing at a high level.”
That’s a nice short-term goal for the team, to correct some of these late-game mistakes over the next week. The fact that they’re playing in a fair number of tight games is an encouraging sign about their overall level of play despite their 5-12 record, and you can see the makings of a defense that can close an opponent out when it’s hitting on all points.
“We’re getting closer but we’re not there yet,” Mermuys said.
There’s value in the journey itself.
