If this were the beginning of the Tampa season, where the Raptors obstacles were more abstract to fans and analysts alike as they found inventive and depressing ways to lose, then I think the silver linings approach would be tough to sell. Last night’s match vs. the Hawks though, was a war of attrition that the Raptors lost with a great deal of their rotation never touching the floor. It was a winnable game to be sure. Scottie Barnes’ layup rolled lazily off the rim in the dying seconds of regulation, sending us into an overtime that would see a layup from Adrian Griffin Jr. find the bottom of the cup as time expired.
Those layups fell the wrong way for the Raptors, but the loss was far more emblematic of a team that had a behemoth of a creator in Trae Young vs. Toronto’s fledgling stars who are taking every wave of new defensive assignments as a learning opportunity. Sometimes you learn when you win, sometimes you learn when you lose.
“Well, you know, I thought we played really well, really hard, gave ourselves a chance, you know had pretty good control of the game.” Coach Nurse said after the loss. “And you know, there was some kind of wild plays at the end – both ways. And we just came out on the unfortunate end of a lot of breaks, to be honest with you.”
The worst break? Barnes, who was meant to contain at half-court, floating 15-feet too deep towards the inbound, inexplicably screening himself on Clint Capela and leaving O.G. Anunoby in a 2-on-1 that would eventually lose the Raptors the game. Anunoby forced the ball out of Young’s hands before he got deep, but the pass was on target, Griffin Jr. was controlled on the receiving end, and the layup was made. If Young wasn’t so damn good to release the pass that early, and perfectly on target, maybe he wouldn’t have been able to run up to the Raptors bench and wave goodbye — a bench that had far less players on it than usual do to injuries and illnesses.
“When you put yourself in position to win, and we had the last play in regulation – two point-blankers that just don’t go in. Right? One of those rolls in and we’re feeling exactly the opposite of what we do now, it’s just kind of the ball bounces that way sometimes.”
Nick Nurse
It’s extremely unfortunate that Barnes, who in the last 5 seconds of the first, second, and third quarters outscored the Hawks 7-0, was as far as I can tell, the main culprit of the Raptors failures at the end of the 4th quarter and overtime. He did however, have his best game as a primary initiator so far this season.
It’s no small feat to command an offense in the NBA, and that’s why Barnes’ struggles haven’t made me reconsider any type of stance on his game. He’s struggled largely at what he did last season, and the early part of this one saw him happy to play Robin to Pascal Siakam’s Batman when it suited him. Despite the loss and the late mistakes, Barnes hit a threshold and pushed past it last night. 28 points on 29 shots doesn’t scream efficiency whatsoever, but as has been the case with other nights without Siakam and where VanVleet isn’t at his best, you need volume. Middling efficiency, low efficiency, give me volume.
VanVleet shot 4-18 from the floor, 1-11 from downtown, and the Raptors starting lineup as a whole shot 5-30 from downtown and Barnes made 4 of those. That’s right! 1-22 outside of Barnes. This was the offensive context that Barnes had to try and thrive in. His handle is workable for his size, his pull-up jumper has a long way to go, and he’s historically had a lot of trouble reading the second level of the defense. The 28 points on 29 shots starts to look like an achievement at that point, and then you can toss in 9 assists on top of that. A poster over John Collins, clever little laydowns to bigs, and a lot of value pushing pace in transition. Barnes was inventive and tenacious in the pursuit of his game despite the late mistakes and some ill-advised pull-up jumpers.
Malachi Flynn found space to produce in this vacuum as well. The Raptors find themselves sorely lacking in creators and ball handlers, so who better to step into a role of that sort than Flynn? Everyone has been waiting for some of his obvious NBA skill to start translating into the box score. He’s absolutely been given the short end of the development stick by the Raptors, but even the simpler plug-and-play aspects of his game have short-circuited at times. The last four times he’s touched the floor he’s made it to double-digit minutes and he’s averaging over 12 points-per-game in that time while shooting nearly 50-percent from downtown. Maybe as the Raptors struggle with health, Flynn will finally produce NBA shooting impact with his obvious NBA shooting talent.
One of the dominant storylines of last season was the Raptors short bench and incredibly high workloads for their main guys. Through sheer bad luck — flu bugs going through a team, wet spots on the floor etc. — the Raptors and Coach Nurse have been forced into a situation where they start looking down the bench. People hypothesize about the talent towards the back end of the Raptors roster all the time, and it’s because we hardly see it. Jeff Dowtin Jr.’s late stop on Jaden Ivey, Thad Young’s roller-coaster of a season, Christian Koloko’s highs and lows, Dalano Banton’s 27-point outburst. There is stuff happening towards the back end, and one can only hope that it stops being piecemeal and someone emerges as a consistent positive. If you had to pick who that might be, you’re probably going with Young, who’s been fantastic.
With Pascal Siakam, Precious Achiuwa, Gary Trent Jr., Dalano Banton, Otto Porter Jr., Chris Boucher, and Justin Champagnie unavailable for this game the Raptors weren’t supposed to be close. They were, and we got to see a lot of positive progression at the same time. Maybe the decisions made will be better next time.
Have a blessed day.
