The Charlotte Hornets handed Toronto their worst loss of the season on Friday night, beating them 113-78.
From the moment the line-ups were official, it was easy to predict how this game would play out. The Toronto Raptors were without Lucas Nogueira and Patrick Patterson, forcing Jonas Valanciunas — a bad pick and roll defender — to play big minutes against one of the most dynamic pick and roll players in the league. Kemba Walker would feast and Toronto would struggle on the boards.
And here’s how things went: Kemba Walker was incredible, scoring 32 points on 11-16 shooting, including six threes. He also had eight assists and four boards. If Dwane Casey wasn’t going to vote for Kemba Walker to make the All-Star game, this performance will probably changed his mind. Toronto also lost the rebounding battle 51-33.
To start the game, there was some reason for excitement. The Raptors rolled out a dream line-up: Lowry-DeRozan-Powell-Carroll-Valanciunas. Any enthusiasm died off quickly as Toronto was in a 14-6 hole through the opening five minutes. Defensively, the group struggled to rebound, losing the quarter battle 13-7. Kemba Walker feasted in the pick and roll. Skeptics of the Raptors going small movement were proven right, at least for the first six minutes of the opening quarter.
The offence was particularly ugly; DeMarre Carroll missed a wide-open lay-up and DeRozan turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions. JV picked up two fouls, forcing head coach Dwane Casey to roll out a Jared Sullinger-Pascal Siakam front court. The story remained the same despite the substitution, though Sully set some great screens.
Down 26-18 and looking asleep at the wheel, Toronto went to the Lowry+bench unit to start the second quarter. Though it took a few minutes for them to get comfortable, the Raptors clawed back into the game through improved defence and a Valanciunas’ presence on the offensive glass. Roy Hibbert — who takes two hours to get ready for a game or practice, according to Matt Devlin — struggled to box out and JV’s effort on that end gave the lethargic Raptors a much-needed boost of energy in a nearly-unwatchable half of basketball.
Things got interesting when Lowry got popped by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist but no call was made. The should-be All-Star scored seven straight to buoy a struggling offence in response, and the Raptors brought it within one. But the defensive issues remained, the questionable calls continued and Lowry picked up a technical while on the bench. The Raptors headed to the locker room down seven.
The game ended in the third quarter. At the the half-time interview, assistant coach Jama Mahlalela told the TSN broadcast the Raptors needed to give Kemba different looks defensively and then move the ball side to side on offence. Toronto came out and promptly did neither of those things. They gave up four points in transition, forcing Casey to take a timeout. Nothing changed though; the Raptors turned it over, Valanciunas could not contain the pick and roll and missed the few open shots they got. It was perhaps the worst quarter of the Raptors season; they lost the frame 33-15 and every point they scored felt fluky.
Breaking down the fourth quarter is pretty pointless because the team pulled chute with six and a half minutes left in the game. Long-term, I would not put a ton of stock into the result. Charlotte is an average team that exploited Toronto’s defensive weakness that was already sore because of the injuries to Bebe and Patterson. It was concerning to see the Raptors struggling to attack the rim against the Hornets’ pack-the-paint defence, but they did miss a bunch of open threes. Carroll, Norm Powell and Terrence Ross combined to go 1-9 from three. Should those fall at a normal rate, it’s a different story.
Toronto did win one area though: the country we call home didn’t elect Donald Trump. You have to take little victories matter after watching the Raptors lose by 30, right?
