Much of the conversation prior to this game centered around Trae Young. That makes sense, because he is, full stop, one of the best offensive engines in the NBA. There are very few players who can continue to create good shots against as many different forms and shapes of defenses as Young can. Nate McMillan continued to urge pre-game that this Raptors defense was of course capable of many things, but something that Young has seen before. Especially, in regards to the O.G. Anunoby matchup.
“I mean we’ve seen that. Bigger guys guarding Trae, box and one on Trae.” McMillan said before the game. “With DJ (Murray) playing with us this year we’ll still flow right into our offensive sets. That’s something that we did last year, but we’re doing even more this year. Either one of those guys can initiate the offense. We should be able to execute if we see that style of defense, but Trae has seen that many times – bigger defenders, guards, defenders face guarding him and you know, basically trying to take the ball out of his hands.”
To be fair, the Raptors did take the ball out of Young’s hands – for 10 turnovers. For those keeping score at home, that is the first time Young has ever reached double digits in turnovers. Hell, the last time he had 9 turnovers he tagged on 25 points and 14 assists; against the Raptors he put out a measly 14 points and 10 assists. The Raptors, at least for this game, figured him out. This outcome makes Precious Achiuwa look like he can see the future, because at practice a few days ago he said this:
“You know, I’m not really worried about when we play guys like that. We just kind of use our size and athleticism to stop them.”
Precious Achiuwa
Well, damn. Not only was that overwhelmingly correct, but Achiuwa himself got to lineup across from the star guard for a handful of possessions and did quite well.
With a handful of defensive matchups to throw at Young, and a whole bunch of defensive wrinkles in the chamber the Raptors fired a few effective bullets – but certainly not all of them. The length at the point of attack helped inform the passing angles that presented themselves to Young and forced him into uncomfortable situations. However, the overwhelming appeal of these Raptors is that length isn’t just in certain places of the defense, it’s everywhere. If Anunoby was marking Young, good, but if the matchup had moved elsewhere Anunoby was able to lurk off-ball. Everyone on the Raptors was to some degree.
Scottie Barnes and Precious Achiuwa switch a screening action and Young wants no part of Achiuwa in isolation. So, he looks to his rolling big who appears to be open, only he isn’t. A steal for Barnes, and the Raptors roar up the court for an Achiuwa dunk. Young thinks the defense is asleep on the weak-side and attempts a skip pass that Anunoby springs into the air space of. Siakam is at the point of attack, and Young thinks he can slip a pass to his rolling big, only Birch shoots the gap with his arm and intercepts it. Young has the ball baseline where Siakam’s arms cut off any chance at a skip pass down the line, so he opts to go up the court and through the paint where Boucher juts out his arm. This is repetitive to read, so you can probably imagine how frustrated Young was to see his typically, brilliant reads turn to dust over and over. And the thing is, the Raptors didn’t even have to get that complex on defense. Young made mistakes over and over, the Hawks were less creative than they should have been, and the Raptors bought into those rotations and contested as much air space as they could.
“They have a pretty large package, as far as defensively, what they are able to put out on the floor. They show triangle and 2, box and one, zone, 3-2, 2-3, full court press, switching 1-5, and so with a team changing defenses like that you have to just be patient. You need proper spacing, and it can’t become a stop sign. You have to run your offense and not get caught up in the changing of the defenses. Our offense should work against whatever they are running. We just need to make sure we have the proper spacing so that we can see where opportunities are.”
Nate McMillan prior to the game
The Raptors must have looked like a bunch of crossing guards to McMillan out there, because they held up that stop sign repeatedly. And with Anunoby playing such a huge part of this defensive performance — and most good things the Raptors have done defensively this season — Siakam heaped praise on his teammate.
“I think OG was special tonight, defensively. And I think that when he has that energy he can be one of those guys that, like, defensive player of the year kinda guy.” Siakam said of his teammate after the game. “I think he has that ability. It’s just a matter of him doing it, to be honest. And I always try to encourage him, like his IQ on defense, his reads, when he’s locked in you can see it. Every deflection, he always feels like he can get the ball. The ball just finds him. I try to just tell him like: ‘man, you’re special, in that sense. And if you really apply yourself every single night’ he can definitely be a nightmare on opposite players in the league.”
With Anunoby carrying such a heavy load defensively every night — he is setting career highs in block-percentage, steal-percentage, DRBS-percentage (also career highs in the counting numbers) — I was reminded of a great answer he gave me in the preseason on making reads as a defender:
You have a few elite skills at the NBA level, what are you most often trying to impart or teach to your teammates?
O.G.: I’ll say defense, I guess, guarding one-on-one, or anticipating for steals and blocks. But, that also comes from knowing the defense and knowing the rotations and stuff.
If you don’t mind, could you elaborate on that?
O.G.: Yeah. Reading the other side. If you’re on the weak side, reading the top of the key, the ball-handler, reading his eyes, trying to guess where the next pass will go. If you’re wrong, trying to guess where it’s going to go the next time, get into the scramble defense. Just learning from it. Watching film, watching other teams’ tendencies, stuff like that.
It would be silly to credit the great passing lane defense of the team at large to Anunoby, but after a game where the Raptors presence in passing lanes not only fueled their destruction of an offensive supernova, but supplied them with heaps of offense? I’m happy to think about that quote, and at the very least Anunoby nabbed 6 of those turnovers himself.
Historically, the Raptors struggle with little, burst-y guards. We just saw Maxey pour in over 70 points in only two games. However, the Raptors length operated as seen and unseen at the most advantageous points last night. How fitting that on Halloween, the Raptors had Young seeing ghosts.
Have a blessed day.
