The Toronto Raptors headed into the United Center last night to face off against the Chicago Bulls, and potentially keep their win streak going. With Chicago finding some sort of groove as a team in March, and With their best player Cob White receiving player of the month honors after averaging 27 in March, the Bulls had plenty of momentum. Chicago was a change of pace when it pertains to the other opponents that Toronto has defeated on this win streak such as the Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets. SImply put, Toronto got outpaced last night, and despite a good offensive showing from Toronto, their defense played the poorest we’ve seen from them in months.
Toronto allowed three Bulls players to score 20 plus points, with Talen Horton-Tucker scoring 27, Nikola Vucevic scoring 22, and Coby White scoring 28. Josh Giddey also poured in 17 points and 12 assists of his own, and he and Vucevic’s two man game really tore Toronto’s defense apart. Vucevic was dominant as a paint scorer in last night’s game, and he put in endless push shots throughout the game. White was getting to the cup at will, as Toronto had no perimeter defender that could stay in front of him and impede his trips to the basket. White also knocked down 3 threes, many of which were the result of great ball movement by Chicago. Due to the point-of-attack defense being poor from Toronto, Chicago was able to generate clean looks from outside all game long. Their ball movement was beautiful at times and they always seemed to generate the best shot possible after a breakdown by Toronto.
Another thing that plagued Toronto was the excessive fouling that they did. Toronto had 20 personal fouls as a team last night, which generated 27 free throws for Chicago, of which they made 23. Handing an already rolling offense an extra 23 points is a recipe for disaster and disaster is what Toronto got. At times it also just seemed like Chicago’s pace just got the better of Toronto, as they were sprinting out on fast breaks for easy looks all game.
As previously mentioned, Toronto’s offense did not perform poorly as a whole, they shot 45 percent from the field, 44 percent from three with 20 made threes, had 35 assists as a team, all marks of a strong offensive night, the only issue was they let Chicago have an even better night. But in end of season games like these, you have to draw out the positives that you can, like highlighting when a young player performs well. Ja’Kobe Walter finished with 17 points last night, shooting 5/5 from behind the arc in what was an extremely encouraging performance. Walter frequently relocated as a spacer, moving into areas that would make it easier to deliver the ball to him, showing a true understanding of spacing. Most importantly though, he knocked the shots down as well.
Scottie Barnes’ offensive struggles continued last night as he was only able to put in 9 points on 28 percent shooting last night. Barnes could not seem to finish around the basket much, and his shooting touch was also nonexistent as well. It’s tough to win many games when your best player has such a rough night.
Even with all these things that happened, the game was still fairly close in the second half. But then in the middle of the third quarter, the Bulls went on a 10-0 run and never looked back. The 10-0 run got the lead to 18, and the moments later a powerful Horton-Tucker dunk extended the lead the 20. This lead proved too insurmountable for the Dinos, and they ultimately went on to lose the game.
Next up for Toronto are the Portland Trail Blazers, another team that could potentially give them some trouble, if they’re healthy that is.
