We should be worried as Raptors lose to Bulls again

The Raptors dropped their 8th straight to the Bulls taking some shine off of that 35-18 record.

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / USA TODAY SPORTS

Early lead. Bulls come back in the second half. Raptors offense has no answer in the fourth. That’s 8 straight losses to the Bulls, and they’re a team that are dangerously close to facing us in the playoffs if current standings hold. This loss isn’t surprising at all, even if Las Vegas had the Raptors -7 at tip-off. Apparently outsiders have a general belief that the Raptors are “for real” and that this game against a struggling Chicago squad would be no more than routine work on a plodding NBA schedule. Turns out that, when it counts, the Bulls simply know how to read the Raptors and that crunch time offense remains a big problem for Toronto when facing teams that aren’t trash.

The Bulls are not trash. Their record is trashy but we know that regular season records don’t mean anything. What matters is whether you score when it counts, and can you do it consistently. The Bulls have an offensive-minded coach that values ball-movement, transition play, and passing. The Raptors entire offense pivots around DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry drives into the paint, and then figuring out where to go from there. Sometimes you kick it back out to Patrick Patterson for a three, or Cory Joseph for a drive and it works out, but if those outlet passes are cut off or aren’t made, now you got your two stars going up against a set defense who will take their chances with body-contorted shots. End result? DeMar DeRozan shooting 6-21. Lowry fared better with 27 on 9-18 shooting because unlike DeRozan, he can operate at different speeds which throws the defense off, and can go either way.

As this game was winding down and the Raptors trailed, my only hope was Kyle Lowry. Whether he could pull something out of his hat, hit some crazy threes, drop some floaters for And1s and surge the Raptors back in it. That was Plan A, B, and C. The Bulls, without Jimmy Butler mind you, had no problem getting theirs. Bobby McDermott’s 30 made the highlight reel, but you may as well have Cristiano Felicio, Taj Gibson, E’Twaun Moore, or Bobby Portis, since the Bulls shot 52% and missed a bunch of fairly easy looks. Their offense is diverse. Ours is predictable, and that matters. It really matters, and I want people to understand that our offense, as good as it has been, has glaring weaknesses that are easy to exploit in a playoff series. The fourth quarter tonight may as well have been a playoff game and you saw how it turned out. Oh, did I mention Jimmy Butler didn’t even play? The Bulls offense is ranked 25th in the league whereas the Raptors is 5th, and watching this game, you wouldn’t have guessed it.

Leaving predictable offense aside, the Raptors also did some silly things. I didn’t have any issue with Terrence Ross’ shot selection or offensive approach, even if he did go 1-6, it’s his defense that was so not there. Whether it be guarding McDermott or picking up a man in transition, or pressuring the ball, he may as well have not been there. His laziness on defense is captured perfectly by this ridiculous foul he picked up when asked to negotiate a screen:

What in the world is he thinking? Does he actually think the ref won’t call that? It wasn’t limited to Ross, Bismack Biyombo who I was screaming to get off the floor in the fourth because the Bulls were, as usual, ignoring him on offense, tried to take out someone with the ball out of bounds:

What is that even? It’s this kind of unfocused play that adds up and buoys the other team.

Then you had this key play late on where, coming back on defense, the Raptors had Patrick Patterson checking Derrick Rose who scored easily – screencap below:

patrickpattersonderrickrose

These are small breakdowns that make a large difference, and the Raptors have to clean this play up, because you will get away with it against Milwaukee, but there’s no way you’re not going to get punished for it against a half-decent team.

There were some positives here today, and most notable of them was Jonas Valanciunas, who was having a dominant first half against Pau Gasol, essentially taking the Spaniard to school every time with post-ups, hooks, and even jumpers. He was 5-7 for 15 points in the first half, and 4-7 for 10 points in the second. Pau Gasol probably should’ve picked up a fourth foul early in the third, but it was Valanciunas who was called for a ticky-tacky foul which sent him to the bench. Given the efficiency of his game, and the fact that nobody on the Bulls could stay with him, you would have to say that he should have had more touches.

The other notable was Patrick Patterson, who put the ball on the deck from the three-point line and finished on some key plays. He was 5-10 for 12 points including two threes, but did get pushed around a lot against Taj Gibson and even Bobby Portis. He was nowhere close to being as bad on defense as Luis Scola, who is essentially unplayable with Valanciunas on the court. All it took is one of them to slightly fall for a gentle fake and the possession was over. Scola is a part-time player who has been playing above his pay grade because he’s been afforded the minutes.

However, teams are more than willing to live with Scola being any part of your offense because it’s not sustainable, as we saw today. He gives up too much on defense, and does too little on offense to justify inclusion. He’s essentially a glorified Chuck Hayes, who should be playing limited minutes but isn’t because of the lack of depth at the position. Don’t get me wrong, I advocated for Scola being here as a locker-room guy and a situational player, not as a starter!

When Scola got in foul trouble in the first half, Dwane Casey got Anthony Bennett off the bench which surprised everyone. He ended up having a nice impact, where he (for reasons unknown) was stretching the Bulls defense and creating lanes for Cory Joseph to drive. The Chicago announcers couldn’t believe how much respect the Bulls were showing Bennett, and when he did this on the pick ‘n roll, I damn near lost my mind:

In the fourth quarter when the Bulls were ignoring Biyombo, I thought calling on Bennett might’ve been a decent idea, since he did have a good first stint. It’s odd, isn’t it? Your young players gives you good minutes and you reward him by benching him for the rest of the game even though the matchup calls for it.

To sum it up, it was a 49-28 bench advantage for the Bulls, a 32-22 assists advantage, and the Bulls shot 55% in the fourth quarter. That last bit is the most important one. When we needed a stop to cut it down to a manageable deficit and swing momentum on our side, we had too many breakdowns where either McDermott, Gasol, or Gibson burned us.

The good news is that regular season domination means nothing. Just ask the Raptors.

Quick trade deadline thoughts: this is two years in a row where Masai Ujiri stood pat at the deadline. Last year he failed to address the need for a big and it hurt us in the playoffs (though we did get crushed so maybe it didn’t matter), and this year he explored a PF and came up empty. The Raptors chance of a first-round win is, 1) very much matchup dependent because they have weaknesses at 3/4, 2) relies on point production from Patrick Patterson who has been inconsistent, 3) counts on DeMarre Carroll being fully fit. Of course, this is in addition to Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan’s health (37 and 40 minutes played, respectively). From what I could tell, there wasn’t much out there for the Raptors, but when I see the price Washington paid for Markieff Morris, I have to wonder why Ujiri didn’t even call Phoenix.

I’ll leave you on a positive note and this Patterson dunk on Portis:

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