The Toronto Raptors flew to Portland to do battle with the Trail Blazers, and potentially extend their winning-streak. It was a somewhat hard-fought 105-102 loss, that could have been a win had the best players not been pulled in the fourth quarter. Toronto has its priorities in order clearly, but what it’s doing to the on court product can’t be good.
Toronto got off to a roaring start in the game, to the surprise of everyone in the building, Toronto opened up the game with a corner three from Jakob Poeltl, which bounced around the rim and eventually fell in. This was only Poeltl’s 7th three point attempt in his career, and just his third make in that same span. Toronto’s defense continued their dominance, forcing a couple of early turnovers, leading to multiple fast break baskets, multiple of them through the air. Poetl’s touch was not limited to behind the three point line, as he got multiple of his patented push shots to go early.
Toronto jumped out to an early 22-6 lead, their defense suffocating the young Trail Blazers. Jamal Shead who got the start in place of the testing Immanuel Quickley had his fingerprints all over this game to begin. Hard closeouts, full sprints out to would be shooters, just endless activity from the Houston product.
Portland was able to somewhat stay in the game due to their offensive rebounding gaining them many second chance points. Shaedon Sharpe showed off his usual brand of alien athleticism with some thunderous leaps toward the basket for some of his points. Anfernee Simons, who was a late addition to this game showed off his shot creating ability in the first half, cashing in multiple triples.
As the first half came to a close, Toronto’s offense stalled, poor mid range shots were taken, the three ball was no longer falling, some ugly turnovers enabled Portland to generate good looks as well. Toumani Camara, more known for his skills on the defensive end of the floor, burned Toronto multiple times with corner threes en route to Portland closing the gap. Shead knocked down an above the break three on Toronto’s final possession of the first half, which extended Toronto’s lead to three, only for Deni Avdija to knock down a fully contested fadeaway triple to tie the game headed into halftime. With the imposing presence of Donovan Clingan looking around the basket combined with Camara’d activity on the defensive end, Toronto found itself stifled many times in the second quarter, leading to Portland being able to climb back into the game.
The third quarter began like the first quarter began, Toronto was able to get some separation by forcing turnovers, and most of all, converting in transition. Portland’s attempts to score at the rim were often halted by the outstretched hand of Poeltl threatening to send their attempt into the cheap seats. Portland also remained cold from outside to start the second half, missing many good looks from behind the arc, while Toronto did good work in the paint offensively in order to grow the lead.
Darko Rajakovic’s defensive scheme was being run well, ball handlers were being pressured, the rim was being protected fiercely. Even reliable veteran Garrett Temple was sliding his feet with the young guns in Portland, running the opposition off the line and doing his best to stay in front. Portland went nearly 4 minutes of game time without recording a field goal in the third quarter, due to the vicious defense of the Raptors.
In what may be best described as a tanking move, Rajakovic put out an all bench lineup of AJ Lawson, Temple, Colin Castleton, Jamison Battle, and Orlando Robinson. This unit is not one that you would think would do well on the floor, but keeping with the winning spirit Toronto has shown in recent games, they managed to keep Toronto’s lead. The next minutes were disastrous for Toronto as a 10-0 run by Portland dwindled their lead down to 5 headed into the 4th quarter. Scoot Henderson had Temple in isolation, he gave him a bump using that broad frame of his and knocked down a mid range shot before the quarter ended. Toronto was going to have to work for this win if they wanted it.
To open the final quarter, Scottie Barnes showed off some of his wizardry. Portland blitzed him on a pick n’ roll and after taking a moment to read the floor, he fired a bullet pass to Castleton under the rim for an easy finish. It wasn’t all sunshine for the Dinos in this period, as Simons put in multiple triples in the early minutes of the fourth, and cut the lead to three. Poeltl took it upon himself to keep the lead safe with two baskets back to back, which included a coast to coast monstrous dunk, which gave the Raptors a big jolt of energy.
To no one’s surprise, Toronto once again sabotaged their own team and pulled Barnes and Poeltl in the closing minutes of a winnable game, and went back to the aforementioned tanking lineup. As the game was coming to an end, Toronto’s lead dwindled and dwindled, until finally, Portland overtook them for the lead. After they got the lead, Avdija called for an inverse pick n’ roll with Simons as the screener, drove past Battle with a sweeping gather move, and then rose up and posterized Robinson, getting the bucket and the foul. This play swung the momentum permanently in Portland’s favor. Despite a late three from Battle to keep Toronto in the game, Portland would ultimately go on to win the game.
Tanking in the NBA is no secret, teams have been jockeying for a better draft position for decades now, but the way Toronto has gone about it recently has been fairly indefensible. It’s one thing to hold players out of games in the name of tanking, but actively pulling your best players in the middle of crunch time sends a poor message and builds a poor culture. Toronto’s young guys have thwarted multiple tanking attempts by the Raptors, but this time they could not finish the job.
