As season opener proves, the Raptors’ experiment is going to take a long while – The Athletic
The Raptors think they have some talent on theirs, but they know the talent that has to be shaped over more practices than NBA teams generally have these days. Fred VanVleet said this training camp featured the most work, by far, of any of the six he has been a part of from a team perspective. Any experiment requires rigorous testing.
If this is an experiment, well, Toronto broke more than a month’s worth of beakers on the first day in the lab. The closest players the Raptors have to traditional centres, Precious Achiuwa and Khem Birch, both had embarrassing turnovers as they took the ball up the court, as they have been empowered to do. Raul Neto stripped Birch, while Achiuwa double dribbled as his handle got loose. Their extra fleetness for the size they have did not make up for the strength they do not have, as Montrezl Harrell feasted inside off the bench.
Barnes, bless him, air-balled a 3-pointer and threw a no-look pass in transition that looked like it had been thrown with his eyes closed. Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby were overmatched as top offensive options, combining to shoot 8-for-37, with both having to try to finish very difficult attempts. The offensive machine was not generating anything on its own.
“We weren’t really executing much of anything at either end. And then when there was plays to be made, we weren’t finishing them off,” Nurse said. “I thought there wasn’t much pace. We seemed to be in thinking mode a lot (for most of the night).
“(We) didn’t handle the moment very well.”
“There are different lights out there,” VanVleet added, noting how different training camp and the preseason is from the regular season.
About the only part that went according to plan was how good the Raptors looked in the desperation-induced full-court press in the fourth quarter, sparked by Dalano Banton, the second-round draft pick who played ahead of second-year point guard Malachi Flynn. That decision, while a small one, gives you another example of the Raptors’ commitment to the experiment: Flynn’s a point guard who has grown up with the ball in his hands, while Banton is a 6-foot-9 collection of spindly limbs whose body type serves to push the pace on both ends.
Raptors lose to Wizards but return to Toronto still important win – Sportsnet
It wasn’t just that a young team’s weaknesses were exposed, it was that all of them were exposed at once, and none of the anticipated strengths were evident until too late. The Raptors were expected to struggle in a half-court game, and they were dreadful. They were supposed to be able to force teams to play in transition and at a high tempo and they couldn’t. They were supposed to lack perimeter shooting and were 7-of-34 from deep.
Highly touted rookie Scottie Barnes (12 points, eight rebounds) had some moments, but as a group they had many more where they looked out of place and overmatched. In the early going the Raptors’ best player might have been Goran Dragic, the 34-year-old point guard who was thrown into the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade as salary cap ballast — not a good sign. Gary Trent Jr. celebrated the first day of his three-year, $54-million contract by shooting 2-of-9 from the floor.
This was not the pre-season, where the Raptors went 3-2 and looked like they could control the tempo of games.
“I’ve been telling them for a month now, a month and a half. Like, it’s different,” said VanVleet. “You can get all the pats on the back and all the hype and everything that you want. Pre-season was great, training camp was great. It does not matter. There’s different lights out there. These guys are coming to beat us, they don’t care. You know what I mean?”
The peak moment of the game might have been — no, it most certainly was — when Banton made his NBA debut late in the third quarter and immediately hit a running three-pointer from centre. Unfortunately, it only cut the Wizards lead to 81-59. Banton kept trying though. In the game’s best sequence early in the fourth quarter he found Chris Boucher on a gorgeous no-look pass in transition; scored himself on a coast-to-coast run off a turnover and set up a Khem Birch slam off penetration.
“It’s definitely a great learning experience,” said Banton, who said he was “grateful” his half-court heave went in. “I feel like any time you’re out there, whether you’re down or up, is a time to learn and a time to build on what you’ve been building on. But I feel like just kind of understanding that in this league, you’ll never be out of the game. We have a lot of talented guys. So whether we’re down 30 or 20, it’s kind of next possession, keep playing, keep fighting. At any point the game could change, and with a fan base like we have, momentum shifts. Just to stay in the game and play to the finish and play until the game’s done.”
They tried. With the Toronto-born rookie and two other Canadians on the floor, along with rookie Barnes, the Raptors briefly played like head coach Nick Nurse hopes they can. Their flurry cut the Wizards’ lead to 15 with eight minutes to play, but the Wizards pushed back — aided by a couple of Raptors turnovers — and the game was decided.
The Raptors — who lost that last game they played in Toronto to Charlotte way back on Feb. 28, 2020 — now have a home losing streak at Scotiabank Arena that stands at two.
Some of the early issues were to be anticipated. The first game of a season is always a bit charged, this one more than most.
“I thought there wasn’t much pace, we seemed to be in thinking mode a lot until you see that one little stretch there, the way we played in the pre-season. Up the floor, guys are moving, cutting, flying, getting back cuts, getting better shots and all that kind stuff,” Nurse said after the game.
“(We) didn’t handle the moment very well, I don’t think, in lots of areas.”
NBA Recap: Wizards win regular season debut vs. Raptors, 98-83 – Bullets Forever
The Washington Wizards may have had a poor preseason. But there was no sign of it on Wednesday night as they defeated the Toronto Raptors, 98-83 on the road.
This was a special game for the Raptors, given that it was their first regular season game in their hometown since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. Unfortunately for the fans, but fortunately for the Wizards, this game was not the start the Raptors were looking for.
But for the Wizards, this was a special game of their own, since it was the official head coaching debut of Wes Unseld, Jr., not only in his capacity for Washington, but in general.
Washington took advantage of a big run in the second quarter to take a commanding 57-37 lead at halftime. The Wizards didn’t get there by shooting lights out from three. Rather, they were making the right passes at the right time with Montrezl Harrell finishing when needed.
Harrell scored 22 points off the bench, seemingly dunking every time he could as the Wizards were able to extend their lead up to as many as 29 points at various points in the third quarter, finishing the period with a 81-59 lead, holding Toronto to just 29.2 percent shooting to that point.
While this was a big win, the Raptors did make their inevitable run in the fourth quarter to drop the deficit down to 10 points. But thankfully, the Wizards were able to answer with a late run of their own to get the much-needed win. And as for the Raptors’ shooting at the end of the day? It was only 30.9 percent once the final buzzer sounded.
In addition to Harrell, Bradley Beal scored 23 points to lead Washington, while Kyle Kuzma scored 11 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, . Fred VanVleet and Scottie Barnes co-led the Raptors with 12 points each.
Raptors toy with late comeback, but fall to Wizards in home opener – Raptors HQ
Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby might never again combine for a shooting line (8-of-30, 3-of-18 from three) as ugly as this one; Khem Birch’s weary sea legs should grow steadier the further removed from COVID he gets, giving Toronto a calming foil at center next to Precious Achiuwa’s erratic swings; Nick Nurse’s incredibly complex defense will either become easier for his players to process, or it’ll get scaled back by necessity. The team’s best player will also come back in the next month or so, which is important.
That’s not to say everything that went against the Raptors in what should have been a triumphant return home is fixable. Flaws that were pinpointable in the summer and preseason are very much there now that the games matter, with the half court offense the most glaring. Any preseason hopes of a surprise leap into the home court half of the playoff bracket were misguided anyway, but can probably be chucked in the bin after night one.
But that’s OK, because this isn’t one that’ll be judged on the team’s final record or playoff status, or at least it shouldn’t be. This is a seedling year. What it’s really about is the crazy shit we saw go down in the fourth quarter — and on the final play of the third.
The fourth quarter against Washington was everything Raptors fans should be hoping to see from this weirdo crew of players this season. Banton’s life-giving buzzer-beater sent the Raptors into the final frame on a high. With a lineup of Banton, Scottie Barnes, Chris Boucher, Khem Birch and Gary Trent Jr. tasked with leading a patented Raptors fake comeback, you could see why the Raptors are going all in on length and fungibility. Banton’s slithery, heads-up drives, Barnes’ grace/power combo on the run, and Boucher’s bouncy shot-blocking shone brightly as Toronto made it interesting, cutting the lead to as little as 10 in the closing minutes. Barnes ended tied for the team lead with 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting; his fellow draft classmate Banton (7 points, 4 rebounds on 3-of-4 shooting) might have played himself out of immediate 905 duty when the G-League season begins. There’s an argument to be made that Rexdale’s own should be with the big club all season just in case the Raptors need to incite an impromptu rocking ovation.
“What you’re doing a lot of times there is trying to ignite some energy and some speed and some hard play,” said Nurse when asked about his last-ditch lineup, adding that he thought that group did just what he was hoping.
You kinda knew in the pit of your stomach that the comeback effort was a little too late-developing for the Raptors to steal the win and move to 1-0. But at the feverish height of the attempt, it was indistinguishable in the building which team was winning or losing. That’s gonna be the charm of these Raptors and their arc of development. Moments of destitution will be offset by stints where the long, athletic and utterly ecstatic Raptors will look like world-beaters, the final results of most games fading to memory while the meaningful instances of progress stick in the mind for good.
Scottie Barnes’ Raptors debut provides enticing base to build upon – Sportsnet
The Barnes era has begun in Toronto and it started with a solid performance with equal parts hiccups and highlights, but more importantly, an enticing base that the Raptors will be able to build upon.
For the contest, Barnes finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and one assist while turning the ball over six times, committing five personal fouls and shooting 5-of-13 from the field.
An NBA debut that was, in his coach’s words, “OK.”
“He was OK. I think he got his feet wet,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse after the game. “I think we see a really good player there. He did make some good plays. He rebounded the ball. I thought he did push the ball pretty good, did some things like that. I see he only had one assist which is kind of low for him. I thought he had a few more passes than that that led to buckets, but maybe we didn’t make them.”
The fairweather assessment of Barnes’ night from Nurse is fair, but it doesn’t speak to some of the flashes of brilliance the No. 4 overall pick from this year’s draft showed in his first official NBA game.
There was the lefty sky hook he made in the first quarter for his first two NBA points, for one, the sequence in the second quarter when he collected a rebound and went coast-to-coast for a tough, contested layup, the perfect bounce pass he delivered to a cutting Chris Boucher during the fourth quarter and, of course, that and-one sequence late in the final period that cut Washington’s lead down to 10.
Yes, the turnovers and fouls he committed looked rough, but on a lot of those fouls called against him, let’s just say the rookie was getting something of a “welcome to the NBA” from the officials as he appeared to have been getting the short end of the stick on at least three calls against him.
And while Nurse was understandably understated in his appraisal of Barnes on Wednesday given how the game went for his team, you need only look at one stat, in particular, to know what the Raptors coach probably really thought of Barnes’ night.
Nurse has said during the pre-season that the most important stat to watch for in regards to Barnes is the minutes played, because if he’s getting a lot of burn that probably means Barnes is having a good game.
For all his enthusiasm and versatility, all the hype and all the obvious potential, the most refreshing thing about Scottie Barnes is that he knows he doesn’t have nearly all the answers.
The Raptors rookie, who became just the seventh player in franchise history to start his first game with the franchise, has come to understand that success in the NBA is about work and talent and meshing the two every night.
“One thing I noticed, players in this league are really damn good,” said Barnes, who started Wednesday as the Raptors opened the season with a 98-83 loss to Washington Wizards at the Scotiabank Arena. “Everybody can make shots, you’ve got to execute the game plan to its finest and you can’t take plays off at all.”
If Barnes didn’t entirely believe that before he made his NBA debut, he certainly will after a rather dubious showing before an announced sellout crowd of 19,800 for the first regular-season game in Toronto in 600 days.
Barnes did not have a glittering debut but neither did a young team touted as one that would use its length, athleticism and versatility to carry it.
The six-foot-seven rookie had five turnovers and four fouls in his first 20 minutes. But he had a couple of nice no-look passes in transition, hit a running left-handed hook shot for his first NBA basket and matched Fred VanVleet with a team-high 12 points. But Barnes and the rest of the team looked off for most of the night.
“He wasn’t alone there, it was kind of going on (everywhere),” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said after the game. “He’ll figure out where some of those plays are. He made some really good passes, made a couple that weren’t so good as well.
“(We’ll) just keep the ball in hands, I think he’s a playmaker, got to get him a little more aggressive to just go in there and use his size at the rim and finish them. He’s got to finish over some of those that he thought was getting hit on. He’s got to score ’em.”
Whether he and the Raptors got caught up in the emotion and excitement of the night is impossible to say for sure but the staff tried to fill minds with basketball-specific instructions so the sense of the moment wouldn’t be overwhelming.
Rough start for young Raptors in their return to Toronto | Toronto Sun
This version of the Raptors — as young and as long and versatile as it is — is going to hang its hat on its defence and opening night wasn’t terribly inspiring in that regard.
The Wizards have a bonafide all-star in Bradley Beal, but they aren’t exactly an offensive juggernaut. They’ve added some veteran pieces who know what to do in Kyle Kuzma, Spencer Dinwiddie and Montrezl Harrell, but this is not a team that is going to torch you.
Still, the Wizards were able to shoot almost 50% against Toronto’s defence for the first three quarters.
While an early struggle was not unexpected, nobody can say they foresaw the Raptors getting dominated as much as they were at both ends of the floor.
And, yes the Raptors are young. The average age on the team is 25.6, making them the seventh youngest team in the NBA. Take 14-year vet Goran Dragic out of the equation — which could happen by the trade deadline — and Toronto is the fourth youngest team in the league.
Starting your youngsters such as Scottie Barnes and Precious Achiuwa is obviously the right thing to do, given where this team is in its development arc, but there are going to be moments when those decisions come with a cost and there were plenty of those on Wednesday night.
Barnes, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, is going to be an excellent player in this league, but that is going to come with time. The same applies to Achiuwa.
As exciting a player as Barnes is right now, though, this was his first experience in a regular-season pro game and nothing in the five exhibitions he played in was close to it.
Barnes guarded Beal in the final pre-season tuneup. But as head coach Nick Nurse pointed out before Wednesday’s opening tip, the energy level from Beal was going to be substantially higher now that the games actually count.
The only real highlight of the night for the home side came just before the end of the third quarter when Rexdale rookie Dalano Banton checked in — just the 10th player Nurse used.
With the clock running down, Banton stepped over centre court and let fly with a heave that found the mark just as the buzzer sounded.
