Update: Kawhi Leonard is out tonight.
The top-heavy Raptors schedule serves us Washington tonight. I can’t remember the last time the first three games of the season were this statement heavy. After having brushed away Boston, the Raptors travel to DC to face the Wizards, a team they eliminated last year. The excitement watching the last six minutes of the Boston game was at par with the mini-comeback against Cleveland three years ago. It’s a shame there’s no day off to soak this in and to hear from people who had written the Raptors off last night, notably ESPN. I was watching their feed and the pre-game focused entirely on the Celtics, with interviews with Hayward and Irving. They even had a bit on they felt walking for the first time on the Boston home court. Ugh. There was little to no mention of the Raptors, which made last night’s win even sweeter. I know these things don’t matter…but I suppose they kind of do.
So, no day off, and instead, it’s the Wizards who lost at home to the Heat to start the season in dramatic fashion:
The Wizards have a stale stench to them. Much like how the Raptors contemplated whether Lowry and DeRozan were the ones to take them to the Finals, the Wizards perhaps need to do the same with Wall and Beal. They look to have the same team as the last 5 years, with little pieces being replaced by similar, possibly worse, or marginally better, pieces. The results at the end of the year are invariably the same. They still have Otto Porter Jr., Mahinmi, and Markieff Morris, and just for shits and giggles, they’ve picked up Austin Rivers. They’re also counting on Dwight Howard to become relevant again, and I’m sure when the parties signed that deal, neither of them deep in the hearts knew that that was going to happen. Maybe if they weren’t buoyed by LeBrexit, they could’ve at least considered a rebuild. That may sound harsh, but when you’re considered the sixth best team in this East, maybe it’s time to take a closer look at things.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing how easy life is for Bradley Beal now that we have some actual defenders at his position who will remember that he’s on the court. With Lowry, Leonard, Green, and Siakam on the floor, the Raptors are looking spicy on defense. The potential for growth is also high, especially once they figure out their defensive communication and positioning, which gave some clean looks to the Celtics.
Let’s quickly run through the matchups:
Wall/Lowry: Speed versus force. Always a fun matchup and I expect both to get theirs, as they usually do. When playing Wall, there’s always two things to keep in mind: 1) getting in an up-and-down game with him plays to his strength, and 2) if you prompt him to do it alone, he sure as hell will try. This gets me thinking how different it is when planning for a single game versus a series. In a series, you would have no issue with Wall trying to win the entire series by himself, but in the vacuum of one game, that may work out for them. The solution? Eliminate regular season games and go with a baseball style series structure where you play the same team three times. Yes, I’m joking. Or am I?
Beal/Green: Let’s just enjoy watching how well Green can chase Beal through/under screens. I feel the back-to-back may come into play here later in the game as chasing Beal requires some energy. On a side note, Marcin Gortat used to set some skiller screens on DeRozan and Lowry to get their guards open, and they’ll miss that this year. Green also happens to be a good defender in transition, which is where Beal often kills the Raptors.
Morris/Ibaka: Ibaka’s coming off a great showing against Boston, and he can more than handle his own in the post. If Morris tries to to take him outside and face him up, that would be something the Raptors should encourage as it means their two most dangerous players don’t have the ball. Boston did identify one Raptors weakness: defensive rebounding positioning, which is what kept them in the game. Ibaka stepping up and getting some in-traffic, difficult rebounds was one of the keys to the win. Assuming JV takes care of Mahinmi, Ibaka should have much less difficulty picking up Morris on the boards.
Porter Jr./Leonard: Kawhi has greater strength and will be able to muscle his way to where he wants to go. On the other end, Porter will camp out at three (44% 3FG last season), and Kawhi can’t afford to help too much. If Nurse wants Kawhi to roam on defense, he may have to cross switch on this one.
Mahinmi/JV: JV will kill him. End of.
It’s a solid first road test of the season against a team that will be highly motivated to, 1) exact some measure of “revenge”, 2) make their own early statement, and 3) not want to start off losing their first two home games. Two keys to the game (and to every game, really) will be late-game offensive execution and contesting shots, both of which the Raptors did in spades against Boston.
I don’t expect either team to blow anyone out, and this will be tight, providing a platform for our top players to perform yet again in the clutch. Defensively, I felt the Raptors did a superb job of contesting jumpers last night (part of the reason they were exposed on the glass). How they’re able to balance contesting jumpers and being glass-aware will have a directly influence on Washington’s fortunes.
The Raptors are a one point favorite, and should have been more if it weren’t for the back-to-back. Tip-off is at 7pm.
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