Since the Toronto Raptors acquired Jakob Poeltl, it’s felt at times like they’re riding the sacred golden rays again. Like they’re the team of destiny once more. How else should the Raptors feel when Poeltl scores 30 points — one off a career high — in only 17 shots in his first week in town? Then a career high in rebounds, with 18, only a few days later? Yes, the Raptors faced poor competition. But they very quickly built a season-long winning streak, and everything started working all at once. The defense was solved, the offense potent, and the playoffs within sight. The whiplash was staggering. The on-court performance spoke with a sacred tongue, almost immediately, after Toronto found a starting center.
That optimism crashed into the brick wall of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Feb. 26. There was nothing sacred about that spanking. And without the sheer weight of “everything is fixed, all at once,” the Raptors had no power in the engine. The sacred fuel is always the first to flee at the first sight of competition.
But against the Chicago Bulls on Feb. 28, the Raptors found a new fuel. It wasn’t the sacred fuel of the sun, of fate. It was instead something a little gnarlier, a little more common, a little less potent. It was the power of the profane rather than the sacred, the success of the workmanlike and the everyday.
O.G. Anunoby’s definitive play of the game came not on his two triples — both needed! — but on a defensive rebound, falling down, that he hurled towards Fred VanVleet to keep possession with just over a minute left in the game and the Raptors’ claws desperately holding onto a lead. The Raptors played hard and smart, and that was just enough, even if they weren’t always rewarded with made shots and other such luxuries.
It’s almost easier to list the things that went wrong against Chicago than the ones that went right. Shots didn’t go down. Precious Achiuwa couldn’t protect the rim. Even when Toronto found magic in a bottle in the form of a Chris Boucher corner triple, Chicago answered with a triple made in Boucher’s face on the next possession down. There was simply no magic to be found. Virtually every Raptor struggled from the field other than Poeltl, who subsisted on eminently makeable shots like flip-ins and hooks around the rim. Pascal Siakam couldn’t dust his primary defender with the dribble. VanVleet shot 1-of-9 from deep returning to play after the birth of his third child. Gary Trent jr., it should be mentioned, carried the offense with his shot-making.
It wasn’t the rainbow triples that fell for VanVleet, but rather the simple putback from Achiuwa that put points on the board. Toronto slowly and intentionally worked its way to 23 extra field goal attempts, doing work on missed shots before they hit the rim. That’s not exciting, though; the most animated moment of the game was when a trailing Barnes romped down the lane and finished a layup plus the foul. The game was low on highlights and high on professionalism.
Barnes most of all defined Toronto’s reliance on the profane rather than the sacred. His finishing was off for the majority of the night, so instead he made the majority of his impact on the defensive end. He was a shark all night, hunting the ball, and the Raptors frequently switched Barnes and O.G. Anunoby to clog Chicago’s offense. Barnes had multiple pin-the-ball-on-the-backboard blocks, as well as a chasedown block on a DeMar DeRozan’s step-through (all of which are trending a little too close to the sacred for comfort), but perhaps his most definitive play came in the form of a closeout. He defended two players alone, and he made the heady play of splitting the difference, lunging first this way then that, forcing Patrick Beverly with the ball to pause and consider whether his shot or his pass would be challenged. Barnes’ happy feet and lunch-pail attitude forced the missed jumper.
“The best thing about it all was he was really competing, right?,” said Nurse after the game. “He was really digging in to try to get stops and competing and you could just see that and you could see that picking up as the game went on, especially in the fourth he was really, I thought, inspirational to the other guys… He’s big enough and strong enough to hold off Vucevic, and he’s laterally good enough to stay with the perimeter guys. So that’s good versatility.”
VanVleet, also, spoke about how Barnes led the team in the fourth, starting with his defensive effort. He looked like prime Dwight Howard at times, blocking out the rim with his length and timing. Barnes and the Raptors taught an important lesson: If you can’t do it the easy way, then do it the hard way.
The Raptors didn’t find easy points all night. Instead of finding open jumpers and driving lanes, they tried to force passes through busy windows to Poeltl; a large number ended up as turnovers. Poeltl didn’t even close the game for Toronto, as Nick Nurse liked the defensive gameplan from the small five. It’s good to be able to use the small five as a coaching option rather than having to depend on it. Poeltl, for his part, churned out 14 points in 26 minutes.
The Raptors were decidedly not inspired against the Bulls. It was not a pretty game full of highlights. It was a game where Toronto found just enough, in just enough places, to drag its sorry ass across the finish line. But those games, just as much as the sacred ones — perhaps more so — are ones that good teams will win. For most of the season, Toronto lost such games. But for one night at least, it ended up with a win. The Raptors may not be powered by fate and fun; however, they have a weapon even more impactful in the scabbard: trying hard even when things don’t go their way.
