Late in the third quarter of the Toronto Raptors’ Dec. 27 game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Scotiabank’s game ops ran a selfie cam feature. Fans scanned a gigantic QR code on the jumbotron and turned the cameras on their phones into a vast network of shaky-handed, up-close-and-personal feeds. Call it the Blair Witch Project for all the first-person camerawork, but on the scale of The Dark Knight.
Toronto’s fans weren’t the only ones being spooked at Scotiabank. The Clippers may not be populated by as many former Raptors as they once were, but it was still the ghosts of Raptors past who punished the Raptors in this contest.
The hauntings began in earnest in the second quarter.
The Raptors quadruple-teamed Kawhi Leonard, hunting and hacking and holding and scrabbling and slashing at the ball. He calmy pivoted (perhaps more than once) and darted a pass to Norman Powell, standing deep behind the arc only a few feet away, who splashed the triple. Just a possession or two later, Powell attacked a Fred VanVleet closeout, jab stepped baseline, juking VanVleet out of the way, and romped to the rim for a dunk. Powell stripped Pascal Siakam in the paint to create a Clippers’ runout and layup.
It was the type of moment to make your heart hurt: seeing an ex succeeding in just the same way you need from your current partn — err, players. The Raptors have missed a shooter and rim threat like Powell since the day they traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers. The shooting, yes, it would be nice. The attacking the rim and efficient finishing? A dream.
Asked about Powell before the game, Nick Nurse made explicit reference to those qualities in his answer: “He really did a lot of work to make himself a good catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter, and also got it to the rim quite a bit in transition and pindown plays and curling around and things like that, getting the high-efficiency-type shots.”
Missing Powell hurts in a vacuum, but watching him dominate you in the exact way you need is a whole different kind of feeling. He finished with 22 points, on, of course, an uber-efficient 14 shots. He has made himself into as professional a scorer as there comes in this league. Gary Trent jr. has made himself into quite a scorer in his own right, and though he wasn’t as efficient inside the arc in years past, he has added a nifty floater and push shot to score from the short midrange. It was even on display against the Clippers; however, he’s still not as threatening at the rim, nor does he force as severe rotations while driving, as Powell.
Nurse was asked after the game if he had a chance to speak with Powell or Leonard. “Did not,” he said. “Just said ‘hello’ to them both and ‘good job’ to Norm after the game.”
The fond memories go both ways. “When we landed here and we were driving to the city down to the hotel, you start to think about all the moments and the memories you had here, all the ups and downs and the fans and organization sticking with me through all of it. Post-game, it was just a great full-circle moment for me to be where it all started,” said Powell of his return to Toronto. (It’s easier for the winning side to wax poetic about the good ol’ days.)
“It makes you think back to all the practices you had, going against Fred, after-practice drills, and 1-on-1s… Definitely good to get the win.”
But more than Powell, it was Leonard who devastated Toronto. His stat line was more muted, but he was able to untie any and all knots Toronto’s defense hastened to wrap around the Clippers’ offense. He did it all without, shall we say, trying very hard.
Leonard hurt the Raptors in a specific, intentional, I-know-what-you-want-better-than-you-do way. In the third quarter Toronto started sending doubles at Leonard, and he punished them. He didn’t turn his back on post ups, knowingly able to watch the path of the double teams and the rotations behind them, and picked apart the defense by finding shooters in the corners. Or when the Raptors tried to scram switch Malachi Flynn away from Leonard, he fired a turnaround jumper the second he touched the ball, tossing in the shot before Scottie Barnes could come to replace the smaller player as Leonard’s would-be defender.
On the defensive end, Leonard read Siakam’s own reads as a passer, darting into passing lanes across the court for O.G. Anunoby-ian steals and finishes in transition.
He did it all without leaving first gear, doing only as much as he needed to and not an iota more (which really wasn’t a whole lot outside of a few bursts to build the lead).
The Raptors have a relative simulacrum of Leonard this season, not inasmuch style as in impact, in the form of Siakam. And given Leonard’s injuries this season, Siakam has undoubtedly had a superior season. That isn’t to say the Raptors couldn’t use him — they could, just like every other team in the NBA — but simply that the franchise has moved on. What else could the Raptors do?
“I think Kawhi’s a great player. He’s amazing at what he does,” said Siakam when I asked him if he’s filling Kawhi’s shoes. “I watch basketball, and I look at other players, and some of the things they do I try to implement in my game. But I’m my own person. I want to create my own path. My own journey. It’s not fair to try to compare.”
The Raptors, like Siakam, are on their own journey without Leonard guiding the ship.
The Raptors may have fixed what ailed them over the past week or two. (Well, some of what ails them — the defense remains inconsistent.) They’re no longer on a winning streak or a six-game losing streak, and perhaps the most consistent component is Siakam’s continuing to dominate the league. Things are good, in a way, or at least better than they were a week ago. But for one night at least, Leonard and Powell returned to remind the Raptors just how good things were not so recently.
The past is almost always remembered in a fond hue, the jagged edges slipping and blurring out of focus, nostalgia investing the heart of it all. But Toronto’s past is definitely rose-colored, especially the brief but eternal moments with both Leonard and Powell in the mix. Those woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
And yes, the franchise’s future is bright and rosy as well. Scottie Barnes, embodied ghost of Raptors’ future, finished with 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists. He was phenomenal, especially getting Siakam the ball in advantageous positions, helping shift the latter’s night from poor to miraculous. Barnes seems back on track. So for one night, the present faded into a thin gnarl, hemmed in by both sides, past and future, by thick swathes of memory and dream, wavering invisibly with another loss.
