Raptors 93, Nuggets 112 | Quick Reaction | Box Score
There’s a reason Eric Koreen has taken to calling me and himself #TheReasonablists. It’s pretty rare that I find myself too high or too low after a win or a loss, instead staying somewhere in the middle and leaning on those Bayesian priors as my analysis and outlook make small shifts over the course of the season. (The exception, of course, being after the Game 7 loss to the Nets the day before my birthday during a serious breakup.)
Sometimes, this annoys people, which I understand. The entire nature of sports fandom suggests being reasonable shouldn’t be a part of the role description. It’s far more fun to buy in entirely, work the trade machine endlessly, dream on how major changes could shift the timeline, and so on, and just react however you instinctively react. Sports are an outlet first, and that entertainment should come in whatever damn form you choose. Just like someone calling for me to be more blindly optimistic or, I guess, supportive of the team in response to any negatives I might see isn’t going to change how I watch and analyze, me doing and thinking and saying those things probably won’t change anything for anyone else. That’s a terrible sentence, but it’s midnight and I’m disappointed and I might be a bit faded off the chocolate milk. You get what I’m saying, though: When it comes to sports, do you, and who am I to tell you how to be a fan?
On Monday night, the Raptors turned in what may have been their worst performance of the season.
To be blunt, they played like garbage. DeMar DeRozan scored well but was a zero defensively. T.J. Ross and Bismack Biyombo had a few good minutes and a few bad. Luis Scola was Luis Scola. Otherwise, it was almost entirely awful. The team shot 37.2 percent and allowed Denver to shoot 54.2 percent, including a parade of shots at the rim and clean outside looks (10-of-22). The Nuggets out-rebounded them by 14, more than doubled them in points in the paint, and moved the ball freely around a disengaged Raptors’ defense. Other than forcing turnovers, the Raptors offered little resistance. At the other end, they could do little damage anywhere but at the free-throw line, somewhere Denver was fine to send them fairly often if it means the paint was sealed off entirely and they were dribbling out the shot clock looking for seams and instead finding bad jumpers late.
It was a bad game. Kyle Lowry summed it up pretty well, borrowing from head coach Dwane Casey (courtesy Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun):
Coach described it best tonight. I’m going to take this stat-sheet and wipe our asses with it. I’m sorry, that describes the night for us, man. Tip your hat to the Nuggets, they played extremely well. We just didn’t have it tonight. They kicked our ass.
And that’s pretty much it, for me. That’s about all that needs to be said about Monday’s game. The Raptors came out dead flat in a notoriously difficult place to play on the first night of a road trip, and they got spanked. Embarrassed, really. And that’s not an OK thing for a good team that thinks it could be great to do.
And so I’m not going to tell anyone not to overreact to the loss. The comments in the quick reaction and our mentions had a lot of negativity, calls for Casey to be fired, I-told-you-sos about certain elements of the team or the loss, trade suggestions, and more. Nobody felt good about the game, and if that’s how you want to respond, I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t.
All I can do is offer why I’m mostly unmoved by the loss. I already know the reaction that the points will get. I’ll hilariously get called a homer or a blind supporter or “literally Dwane Casey,” even though before and during the game I was being called the opposite of those things for predicting a loss. Those who are still angry will say this is making excuses for an inexcusable performance, which is only half right. There are reasons the team’s worst loss of the season doesn’t move the needle much for me, and I think they’re reasonable.
- This looked like a loss coming in. The Raptors were five-point favorites but I called a loss beforehand. It’s the first game of a trip after a long home-stand, always a tough one to get up for. It’s in Denver, a notoriously difficult place to play. This Nuggets team is notably spry with several marquee victories despite a mediocre record overall.
- The Raptors had also been gassing their key players during the winning streak. Not only was this a mental hurdle, but possibly a physical one. Kyle Lowry, in particular, looks either fatigued or mildly injured.
- To that point, the Raptors were able to get Lowry and DeRozan some unusual rest on the first night of a back-to-back. if they were going to lose, it’s almost better they lost big for that reason.
- On a related note, they got a long look at some of the prospects. The results were mixed, but Norman Powell, Lucas Nogueira, Anthony Bennett, and Delon Wright all got far more NBA run than they had in some time. There’s some value in that.
- The Raptors rarely turn in games like this. It’s only the sixth time they’ve lost by double-digits and the only game I’d venture they played even close to this poorly was the 20-point Miami loss early in the year. It was a complete aberration. This isn’t them.
- The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak. There were concerns during the streak, ones people got irritated that I would point out, but for the most part the team played well and took care of business against a reasonably easy chunk of the schedule. They probably exerted too much energy in that stretch and may be a little worn out from it, and that started to manifest late in the Detroit near-collapse on Saturday. For the most part, though, Monday didn’t affirm any specific earlier concerns. The reality is, winning streaks take a toll. It’s incredibly difficult to be on your game night-in, night-out for such a long stretch, and while we’d like to think that’s the “mark of a champion” or something like that, even the Warriors admitted to their long winning streak eventually taking them off their game some. It’s mentally and psychologically exhausting, and a loss, probably one like this, was bound to happen.
Things are fine. More than fine, even. The Raptors are still second in the East, those 11 wins still provided a nice cushion in the standings, and everything good about the team you liked Monday morning still exists now. It’s one game, and everything is fine. Now, that doesn’t mean I enjoyed Monday’s game. Nor does it mean that turning in a wholly terrible game is acceptable. “Trap games” exist but they’re still avoidable, and the Raptors seemed to admit they just didn’t have it after the game.
For that and my reasons for letting it slide to hold, the Raptors have to come out Tuesday and get things done against the Phoenix Suns. The Suns are a tire fire, but it’s the second night of a travel back-to-back and the Suns just fired their coach, meaning they could have the usual first-game boost for E-Shorty, Earl Watson in this first game behind the bench.
Monday doesn’t really tell us much other than that being perfect is hard. How the team responds Tuesday will be more telling about what might have gone into that loss.
Now, whether your author can bounce back from this piss-poor recap with a better Tuesday is another thing entirely.
