https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNTPC0eiA50
https://www.instagram.com/p/CI1kz1bn78g/
The Raptors’ new home in Tampa will require getting used to – The Athletic
And maybe that’s what the Raptors are in for in the next little while. When they fell behind in the third quarter thanks to a ridiculous shooting barrage from the Pelicans, it was the closest the crowd felt to being in their corner. They’d fallen behind and were fighting from underneath, no longer the longtime playoff regular holding down the league’s most exciting young star. There was an audible groan when Aron Baynes missed a potential momentum-shifting 3 as the trailer in transition, one of 10 misses from long range for the Raptors in that decisive frame. To be clear, nobody on the Raptors’ side hung anything on the crowd, but there was a notable lack of “juice,” as head coach Nick Nurse likes to call it, at the point in the game when the Raptors have become notorious for fighting back.
“It sure looked like it. It zapped our energy pretty big time,” Nurse said of the poor shooting in the quarter. “That’s tough to deal with, but it still wasn’t a million miles away. … We did seem to lose a little energy and ran out of a little gas, too.”
By the fourth, with the Pelicans wrestling control away — figuratively, and literally in Steven Adams’ case — the crowd was firmly neutral, cheering fun plays like JJ Redick’s game-sealing 3-and-one right in front of the Raptors’ bench. (I did hear one, “Dammit, seriously?” A benefit of the spaced-out crowd is being able to hear more specific reactions instead of everything being lost in a loud roar.)
It is completely understandable; a new fan base is not built over one exhibition and a somewhat dispiriting opener. Just as the Raptors have to grow roots in the city, the city might take some time for the team to shift from short-term novelty to their team. In the interim, even 3,800 fans cheering both ways was a nice slice of normalcy.
“I think it was cool,” Pascal Siakam said. “Obviously, I don’t know if it’s just, like, fans from every team. I don’t know if it’s all Raptors fans or what the case might be. But I thought it was cool, just having people around it. … Obviously, we’re blessed that we have some people, some type of energy in the crowd to make the atmosphere a little better.”
The Raptors are doing what they can to turn Amalie into Scotiabank extended, just as one fan’s “We the North in the South” sign suggested. Strizzzy and Herbie Kuhn, stalwarts of the in-game experience in Toronto, pre-recorded some of their parts to be piped in, which was especially helpful during player introductions. The Raptor himself is here (wearing a mask!), as are multiple sizes of the beloved inflatable Raptor. Videos of the North Side Crew doing timeout and halftime segments from the past were played at breaks since in-game entertainment is limited by protocol. (There was an anthem singer, stationed in the 300 level where the Raptor, DJ CJ and host Jamia Erban are stationed.) And the Raptors know how to pander, working Tampa into their pregame video with comments from the players about their new home.
It’s all going to take some getting used to. What isn’t, really?
10 things: Raptors collapse on opening night against Pelicans despite promising start – Yahoo
Three — Frustration: Shot variation is always bound to happen over the course of the game, but that was not why the Raptors lost. The disappointment comes from their lack of cohesiveness which kept them from mounting the comeback. Toronto’s guards forced its shots, specifically with Powell, Kyle Lowry, and Fred VanVleet, instead of trusting the offense that earned the lead in the first half. There were also breakdowns defensively, with Powell and Lowry both losing J.J. Redick on the three-point line, while Aron Baynes was caught between two minds on pressuring the perimeter, which then left the paint vacant for Steven Adams to roll in uncontested. Lowry threw a chair during a timeout, was visibly annoyed at Siakam over a botched inbound pass, and checked out early. That lack of poise is jarring since it was the Raptors’ calling card last season.
In improving NBA, Raptors need some internal growth – The Athletic
There is a desire to put extra focus on Anunoby because of what happened a few days ago. Anunoby signed a four-year, $72 million extension Monday, a deal that kicks in next year. Regardless of that, it comes with expectations. As Pascal Siakam felt a bit more pressure last year to help replace Kawhi Leonard (and DeMar DeRozan before him) in the role of a primary scorer, Anunoby bears some of the responsibility to grow as a bit more of their institutional knowledge left for California. No, Anunoby is not a positional replacement for Marc Gasol or Serge Ibaka, but he needs to help the Raptors continue to hum. Frankly, that is necessary because the Raptors just aren’t talented enough to beat many teams if they aren’t in sync.
There were spurts of it. With the Raptors down 11 points in the fourth, Anunoby caught the ball on the move and swung it to Matt Thomas, open in the corner. (He might have travelled, but he made the right read regardless. Given the call above when he might have gotten away with a walk, things evened out.) It was the type of play Gasol could make on autopilot, and one Ibaka got much better at as his Raptors career continued.
However, you have to do that every time. On the next possession, Anunoby looked for Thomas again but saw Redick shading toward him to close the passing lane. By the time he looked for the opposite corner, which had been wide open at first, Zion Williamson had shut that window.
“I definitely think I’m capable of more than I’ve shown,” Anunoby said Tuesday of his offence. “I work really hard at this stuff. Especially with what my role’s been, I think I’m definitely capable of more, for sure.”
The Raptors, famously, compete at a high level despite a lack of high-pedigree players. This year, Alex Len (the No. 5 draft pick in 2013) fills the role of “deep bench player who is somehow the highest-drafted player on the roster.” Obviously, a draft slot doesn’t determine a player’s career, but it gives you insight into where a player is starting from. Lowry might be the quote-unquote best player on the floor in many games, but rarely is he the most talented. The Pelicans boast Williamson (No. 1 in 2019), whom the Raptors held in check but who nonetheless drew double teams with frequency, and Brandon Ingram (No. 2 in 2016), who adjusted beautifully to how the Raptors were defending him and his team in the second half, using his length and height to pass around and over the Raptors defence.
To be clear, this was far from the Raptors’ best defensive performance. What started off as pretty good gave way to allowing Ingram and the other Pelicans a bit too much cushion. Eric Bledsoe and Lonzo Ball won’t hit half of their 16 3-point attempts every night — hell, the Raptors won a title, in part, because they made the same bet with Bledsoe as they did Wednesday — but most of those looks were clean. In the second half, the Raptors were far off their collapse/recover/contest best. Some fatigue was evident.
After a short offseason and a short preseason that included just three exhibition games, you can understand why that was. It just cannot continue to be an excuse. Each time a member of the Raptors’ title team walks away, the team’s advantage in the cracks of the game shrinks. Their margin for error gets smaller. It is why, even when the culture fit might be abhorrent, you have to take a good long look at every meaningful talent upgrade that comes along. You can say a lot of nice things about the Raptors, but rarely do they make it look easy. They play in a way that lets you see how hard they have to try.
Raptors, NBA should expect more COVID-19 inconveniences – Sportsnet
And the Toronto Raptors, temporarily representing the lovely city of Tampa? They were kicking off their year hosting the New Orleans Pelicans and their potential second-year superstar, Zion Williamson. The lightning-quick, 280-pounder out of Duke missed the Raptors last season due to injury, and he’s the kind of talent even those who have spent their life in the game get excited to see.
“Lots of things go into making the game exciting,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “But this is one of ’em that’s at the top of the list is when you gotta try to game plan and prepare and figure out what you can do with these guys.
“It’s the first time with [Williamson], so we do a lot of studying and looking and throwing ideas up there and taking some down and putting other ones up and trying to figure out what we think may work. Then you go to B and C and D and E, usually, with guys like this. It’s really fun and an awesome part of what I do for a living, for me.”
The Raptors didn’t get overwhelmed by Williamson and largely avoided letting the barrel-chested high-flyer add to his already considerable highlight reel, but the rest of their game plan didn’t quite come to fruition as the Pelicans dropped the Raptors 113-99 as Toronto started off at 0-1 at Amalie Arena, dropping their first “home” opener in eight years and dropping below .500 for the first time since January of 2014.
The Raptors led 57-50 at the half but lost control of the game in the third quarter when they missed all ten triples they took. The streak eventually reached 12 early in the fourth quarter and the Raptors were trailing by 10 at that point. Meanwhile the Pelicans were getting great production throughout their lineup. Williamson finished with just 15 points on just nine shot attempts while being bothered into six turnovers, but he got plenty of support from another emerging young player in Brandon Ingram (24 points and 11) while 36-year-old JJ Redick came off the bench with 23 points in 28 minutes.
The Raptors got a 20-point outing from Pascal Siakam while Lowry put up 18 points and 10 assists, but Toronto shot just 14-of-46 from deep, turned it over 20 times and only got the free-throw line 12 times – not a winning formula.
In case it slipped your minds just how wild of a ride a single 48-minute game can be watching a young, talented squad, the Pelicans jogged memories across New Orleans of their vast potential in their opening contest of the 2020-21 season — but only after getting off to the most inauspicious of starts.
The Pelicans dramatic 113-99 victory over the Toronto Raptors ended in sweet fashion; however, that result was downright unimaginable in the third quarter.
Three minutes into the second half, the Pelicans trailed 67-56. Every time they had cut into their deficit in the first half, the Raptors answered. To be fair though, New Orleans was beating themselves nearly as much as Toronto was on the official scorer’s sheet. Through 27 minutes of action, the Pelicans had accumulated 16 turnovers, missed 9 of 14 free throws and allowed their opponent far too many wide open three-point looks.
But following an angry Stan Van Gundy timeout, the team’s defense tightened up significantly and then Brandon Ingram went to work, receiving worlds of support from his teammates. Once the dust settled, New Orleans sat on the positive side of a lopsided 38-22 third quarter, thanks in large part to knocking down seven of eight three-pointers in the frame while Toronto missed all ten of their long-range attempts.
The Pelicans continued to stymie a very good playoff-caliber opponent throughout the fourth quarter, not allowing Toronto to claw their way out of a double-digit hole inside the game’s final 5:47.
“I would say we fought very hard in a game that was very, very frustrating,” Van Gundy said to postgame media. “We were turning the ball over. We were in foul trouble. Not a lot was going right for us, but we hung in there and kept fighting. And then we made enough plays and shots to pull away. I was happy with our resilience in the game.”
A dominant 57-32 run to close-out a victory by a winning team that posted 27 turnovers. You won’t see that very often in an NBA game, but incredibly, the new head coach of the Pelicans has previous success on his resume in mistake-riddled games.
Recap: Raptors fall apart in home opener to the Pelicans, lose 113-99 – Raptors HQ
Welcome to Tampa.
I suppose that’s where we should start: the Raptors played this home opener in a sparsely attended arena in Tampa, Florida. (From my vantage point, the arena should be empty, but that’s neither hear nor there.) Technically, they still haven’t lost a game on Canadian soil for this season. It’s a slim thing to hold onto right now, but we do indeed have to start somewhere. Let’s run through what else the Raptors managed to do tonight.
Carrying over from his superlative one-off in the preseason, Kyle Lowry led the way for the Raptors with an 18-point, 10-assist night to go along with his 7-for-15 shooting line (and 4-of-9 from three). In his 38 minutes, Lowry almost managed to draw a charge and get testy with the refs more than once. He also coughed up six turnovers, however, which offset some of the goodwill he earned on the night. Of course, the Raptors had 20 turnovers on the evening, so it wasn’t like Lowry was the only one giving it away. The wider perspective here is even worse, though: the Pelicans somehow had even more turnovers (24), yet still won in an eventual walk.
That’s largely because, aside from Lowry’s steady three-point line, some early 3s from Pascal Siakam, and a couple of late-breakers from Matt Thomas, the Raptors could not buy a bucket from deep in the third. The team went 0-for-10 from three in that frame, while the Pelicans went for 7-of-8. Now, some of that was dumb chance — emerging star Brandon Ingram (24 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds on the evening) threw up a couple that looked like miracles to me — but kudos to New Orleans for generating their shots and actually hitting them. Meanwhile, if not for Siakam’s laborious 8-point effort in the third, things would have been even worse for Toronto.
In his efforts, Siakam led the Raptors in scoring with 20 points (in just seven more seconds of court time than Lowry). Pascal also looked to be finding his play-making skills, dishing six assists along the way. His 3-of-7 from three-point range was much-needed too, but like Lowry, he couldn’t find his shot when Toronto truly needed it. Siakam also had four turnovers — including one brutal one in the fourth — and while he got to the free throw line (unlike Lowry), Siakam only took two shots from the charity strip, making one of them. His new frontcourt mate Aron Baynes, meanwhile, tried his hand at busting through the Pelicans frontline, chipping in 11 points and nine rebounds. But his reads were often a second slow, his play-making absent, his newness to the team still very much apparent.
This underline once again what may turn into a real issue for the Raptors this year: a struggle to generate efficient offense. Yes, when the threes are going in it all looks so easy. But when they’re not, the Raptors often look stuck with no place else to turn. For example, Fred VanVleet was the only other Toronto starter who got to the line on the night (he also went 1-for-2), which suggests in ability to even touch the paint. If not for Norman Powell’s 7-of-8 evening from the line, the Raptors would have looked even less aggressive going to the rim. Of course, despite those efforts, Norm did more harm than good on the night, shooting a hapless 2-of-11 from the field. Likewise, while OG Anunoby’s defense was solid (e.g. Zion Williamson shot 7-of-9 from the field, but didn’t blow the game up by himself), the Raptors’ newly signed forward couldn’t quite buy a bucket either — especially from deep.
Toronto Raptors open unusual season with uncharacteristic loss – TSN.ca
Lowry was in mid-season form, hitting four of his six three-point attempts in the first half, and doing all the little things you’ve come to expect from the 15-year vet.
Even in uncertain times, you can count on Lowry drawing a charge or two each night, and he didn’t disappoint – getting in front of Pelicans guard early in the second quarter, setting his feet, and absorbing the contact, like we’ve seen him do so many times before.
The bench came in, gave the team a lift and a double-digit lead, and Toronto went into the halftime break with a seven-point cushion.
It looked as if the Raptors we’ve come to know were back. Then, like just about everything else in 2020, things went off the rails. They shot an abysmal 3-for-22 from long range over the final 24 minutes, while New Orleans went 11-for-20. They committed 21 turnovers, many of them a result of some “early-season misgivings”, as head coach Nick Nurse put it afterwards. Their lead evaporated, and while it’s not entirely unusual to see them give up a lead, they rarely surrender as quickly as or as easily as they did on Wednesday. This time there was no late-game run, no comeback bid.
It was the first time they dropped their season opener since 2012 and the first time they fell below .500 since they were 16-17 on January 7, 2014 – the year that launched this current era of Raptors basketball.
“It got tough for us,” said , who scored 12 points off the bench but shot just 2-of-11 in his team’s 113-99 loss to the Zion Williamson and -led Pelicans. “They were aggressive and were able to hit shots. Our defence was kind of lax, and our offence wasn’t really there to carry us. We missed a lot of open shots. I missed a lot of open shots.”
Any semblance of normalcy will be hard to come by this season, as Powell and the Raptors – as well as the rest of the league’s teams – were reminded before most clubs even kicked off the new campaign.
Powell spent the past few days going through the league’s COVID-19 protocols after somebody in his inner circle returned an inconclusive test. He wasn’t cleared to play until Wednesday afternoon, roughly two hours prior to game time, having been forced to miss a couple of practices in the days leading up to it.
“I did everything right in terms of following the protocol, making sure that I was good, I was safe, people around me were safe, but still, you can get caught up in inconclusive tests and whatnot,” said the 27-year-old guard. “It was kind of frustrating, you know, to sit out the important days leading up to the game. Just being at home, hoping, wishing, praying that you get cleared [in time] to be able to get a workout in before [the game]. It was tough.”
Raptors run out of gas against Pelicans in season opener | The Star
Making. And missing: While the Pelicans were going 7-for-8 from three-point range in the decisive third quarter, the Raptors were missing all 10 long-distance shots they took.
And for a team without a true inside scoring threat, and one that doesn’t get to the free-throw line with an consistency, that’s a recipe for disaster.
“Obviously, we have to knock them down as a team and then we just can’t go through times like that when we don’t make shots and we don’t stop them either,” Siakam said. “So that’s the problem. I think, at the end of the day, those shots are going to be there and we need to take them.”
The galling part for the Raptors was that a vast majority of their long-distance looks were good ones. OG Anunoby missed three open shots and Powell missed both of his tries.
“Every shot that I took, you guys see me knock those down,” Powell said. “I just got to continue to find the rhythm, take them with confidence and continue to play the game of basketball the right way. Tonight they didn’t go in, but I’m going to continue to take them with confidence, continue to play through the offence, and hopefully next game they’re going in.”
Raptors look homesick in NBA opener loss to Pelicans in Tampa | Toronto Sun
Lowry wasn’t just setting up his teammates for success, but was draining threes like he was in the prime of his career, and not about to turn 35 in the next few months.
But the New Orleans Pelicans have their own cache of elite talent in a young and upcoming NBA monster in Zion Williamson and an under-the-radar, smooth-as-silk shooter in Brandon Ingram and that duo, while quiet though the first two quarters were anything but in the third.
Led by Ingram in particular and some red-hot shooting from beyond the arc, the Pelicans flipped momentum in a hurry in this one, hitting seven of their eight three-point attempts in the third quarter while the Raptors went an uncharacteristic 0-for-10 from deep despite manufacturing what looked to be some good looks.
With JJ Redick coming off the bench and filling up the basket from behind the arc and the backcourt tandem of Eric Bledsoe and Lonzo Ball actually outscoring Toronto’s duo of Lowry and Fred VanVleet, the Pelicans simply took the game over in the third quarter and rode that momentum the rest of the night to a 113-99 win in what was the season opener for both teams.
It was the first loss in a season opener for the Raptors in eight seasons.
It also marked the first regular-season home game for the Raptors playing out of Amalie Arena in Tampa, where they will remain until North America gets a handle on this pandemic.
Ingram, who won the league’s award last season for the most improved player, showed a solid all-round game in the opener, finishing with 24 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.
The Raptors were not pleased with their defence on him in particular, or on the night as a whole.
“We weren’t pressed up, we weren’t physical enough,” veteran Norm Powell said. “Brandon was able to come down and just pull up in our face. Especially, he had one on me at the end of the quarter. I’ve got to be more physical and make them drive to the line. But that’s top to bottom. We weren’t physical enough on the ball, we weren’t physical enough rebounding. You can just pick apart the game, see how throughout the game we had too many lapses, and we weren’t able to make up for them.”
Raptors guard Fred VanVleet has shown he can be a winner and a leader, too | The Star
The Raptors have gravitated to VanVleet as he has emerged into a central role. His work ethic is lauded, a rookie like Malachi Flynn has stuck to him like glue since training camp opened a couple of weeks ago, and the Raptors take their cue from VanVleet as much as they do Kyle Lowry.
And given his position in the structure of the team — the Raptors have committed tons of money and years and are ready to hand him the keys — head coach Nick Nurse can see VanVleet becoming a more vocal presence.
“I hear him a lot more, coaching from the side when he’s not in a play or when the second unit’s in and he’s directing them on some new stuff we’re learning,” Nurse said. “He’s very vocal, a real coach on the sideline a little bit now. He’s a coach on the floor when he’s playing, obviously, but he’s also a coach on the sideline when he’s out.”
The cachet VanVleet has is that his team wins. It always wins. He was on a Wichita State team that went 35-0 to reach the NCAA Final Four in 2013, and he has been central to four seasons of constant winning with the Raptors.
Teammates and opponents notice that. And are led by it.
“Every team he’s been on has been successful and I think that’s an infectious leadership type of thing,” Nurse said. “When you’re looking at people’s pedigree or resumé … you scratch your head. That guy’s always on a winning team, whether it was high school or college or pro or whatever. And it’s really evident with him.”
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