Raptors bear their soul against Phoenix, and they survive the test

There are games in the NBA that matter more than others. Some because of the standings. Some because of individual matchups. But some matter more because they reveal truths about the teams that play in them. The Toronto Raptors have been floundering, losing four of their last five. Before the slide, they were losing to good teams and beating bad ones. Then they lost to a bad ones, too, and the floodgates opened. As a result, the Raptors entered their game against the Phoenix Suns with a gash in their exterior, allowing the crowd to see the truths buried deep below the surface.

This game, not for the first time this season, would reveal the soul of this team.

The Raptors weren’t just beaten in their previous contest against the New Orleans Pelicans; they were humiliated. Even Darko Rajakovic acknowledged that before Toronto’s contest against the Suns:

“I thought that we did not handle that situation the way we want, the way we were supposed to… Players know that’s not the true image and picture of our team, and it’s never gonna happen again,” said Rajakovic before Toronto’s game against the Phoenix Suns.

The team needed redemption in more ways than one. Rajakovic opted for gentle love in his coaching rather than tough love. He acknowledged before the game that coaches only have so many bullets to fire when it comes to yelling at his team, and he just used one a few weeks previous as he tore into his team at halftime against the Washington Wizards.

“The sky is not falling,” said Rajakovic before the game. “It’s just snow, guys.”

Thought he was ultimately proved right by the time the final buzzer sounded, the Raptors didn’t make things easy for themselves. That, perhaps more than anything else, made the eventual win all the sweeter.

As we sat in the media room waiting for Rajakovic to join us, we could hear him yelling as he entered the locker room: “Let’s fucking go!”

It was the loudest, clearest yell I’ve ever heard emanate from that locker room. But it wasn’t an easy or a straight road that led to that moment.

It took the Raptors five minutes to lose their focus against the Suns. They opened strong, defensively precise, offensively adequate. But after Scottie Barnes went to the bench after only two minutes — still sick — the Raptors failed to find Jalen Green behind the arc on two consecutive possessions, giving up six easy points.

But the first time a Raptor received any sort of contact that was slightly beyond the realm of ordinary, the Raptors as a collective saw a chance to right their past wrongs. Grayson Allen committed a flagrant foul on RJ Barrett on his drive, and multiple Raptors stormed to him to say a few words — to him, and their own ghosts embodied by Dejounte Murray. Immanuel Quickley converged on the scene. Jakob Poelt and Ja’Kobe Walter, too. It didn’t turn into a scrum, and Barrett and Allen even hugged it out (both are Duke players), but the Raptors clearly got the message that they needed to protect their teammates.

The problem was that the deeper issue — Toronto’s poor basketball performance — remained largely untreated. Poeltl threw a pass to Phoenix out of delay action on the possession following Allen’s foul, and the Raptors lost a cutter on the next defensive possession. When Toronto’s offence ground to a customary halt later in the quarter, Sandro Mamukelashvili picked up an offensive foul chasing a loose ball, giving the in-the-bonus Suns free points at the line. That overphysicality was followed by an absence of it moments later, as the Suns rebounded their own miss at the line. Toronto couldn’t find its way into the flow of the game.

But Jamal Shead was able to farm some sustainable agriculture on the offensive end. He drove and hit the paint, drew defenders, and found open shooters. That’s normal NBA offence, but it’s something of a rarity in the underdeveloped north. Shead drives led to a Walter corner triple, a Mamukelashvili above-the-break bomb. He split a double and found Jamison Battle in the weak corner, though Battle missed the triple.

He drove for an and-1, hit an answering triple after Devin Booker hit a step-in three in transition. With Shead on the court, the Raptors were competitive.

Is it a good thing that for long stretches the Raptors relied on Shead? It depends on your point of view. The Raptors are supposed to be a playoff team, and they were in the midst of a soul-defining game. It wasn’t from an obvious place, but the Raptors found an answer, somewhere.

Then: an awakening. After getting erased at the rim twice by a rookie, Ingram closed the half with a running triple to beat the clock and a layup in a crowd. Barnes added a transition two-handed T-Rex dunk. A leaning Ingram jumper that drew free throws. A windmill gather from Ingram for a layup. Quickley pre-switched off the ball to guard the screener in the pick and roll, switched onto Booker, forced a bad miss. Signs of life in a game that shouldn’t have needed continual reminders to compete. But signs of life nonetheless.

The Suns did not need to search for offensive hierarchy. Green and Booker handled the reins, and they found success across the spectrum of sets. They combined for 36 first-half points, and the desperate Raptors found themselves in a customary position — down three points at half against a good team. Competitive, sure, with moments of excellence. But overall, just adequate. Altogether uninspiring.

Alas — they made me write alas! — the awakening did not last. Toronto gave up an open triple to start the third, then had to foul in transition. Quickley snaked a number of picks with Poeltl, leading to mid-range looks. Barrett threw a pass away in transition. Meanwhile, the Suns simply went to work in the mines and found the shots they wanted. A Green driving dunk pushed the lead to eight and forced a timeout.

Again: Shead to the rescue. He assisted an Ingram triple (who continued scoring with aplomb). He assisted a rolling Mamukelashvili in the pick and roll, then found him again after driving another pick. Toronto cut Phoenix’s lead to three … before Shead played perfect defence for 23 seconds only to foul Allen at the end of the clock. The pendulum swung. Shead drove the baseline, found the corner, and a swing ended up in Ingram’s hands. A made triple.

As long as Shead was initiating possessions and Ingram finishing them, things were competitive in Raptors-land.

“He can touch the paint easily. It was not isolation [we were playing with him], we were creating a lot of slip-out screens, ghost screens, and that was creating an angle for him to touch the paint. When he can touch the paint, he’s an elite playmaker there… He’s the guy that can touch the paint anytime he wants,” said Rajakovic after the game.

Phoenix pulled away, of course. Green and Booker continued scoring, even if Quickley had moments of defensive brilliance against Booker. The game crept into the final five minutes with Toronto down a respectable, competitive four points. And Toronto’s offence withered on the vine in the glaring confines of crunch time. But. But! Their defence retained just enough signs of life for the Raptors to pull through. Barnes, especially, found his early-season clutch defence return to save the day.

Sometimes the Raptors have been at a talent deficit. Sometimes they have not looked particularly interested. But recently far too frequently the Raptors have had one deficit or another. I’ll repeat what I wrote the other night:

This is who the Raptors are. They lose games if there’s any legitimate reason to lose.

There was enough of a reason against Phoenix. Barnes was sick, perhaps very sick. And the Suns are good, with a slightly better record than the Raptors entering the game. There were excuses aplenty, which in recent games would have guaranteed a loss.

Not in this one.

“He’s going through pain, he’s going through sickness at this time,” said Rajakovic of Barnes after the game. “But he showed up big. He showed up to the game… and he completely emptied the tank today.”

So the Raptors saved their soul in this soul-defining game. It took heroics, it took Shead, and it took defence. But it happened. A microcosm: Barnes fumbled away an uncontested dunk with seconds left, but Quickley gathered a rebound moments later, pushed, and dunked with one second left.

For the first time in what feels like weeks, the Raptors managed to face difficulty and overcome it. They had been outplayed for much of the night. They had seen Green get hot and hit some outrageous jumpers. But they didn’t fall apart. They didn’t settle for competitiveness.

An Ingram isolation worked. Barrett drew an offensive foul on Booker, then hit a corner triple. (What was going through your head after that shot? he was asked. “A lot of profanity.”) Their defence clamped down upon Phoenix. Ingram found another bucket. He finished with 36 points, all vital. The Raptors scratched and clawed rather than hit home runs, but their fingernails were just sharp enough.

The Raptors pushed their demise down the road. A challenge met, and a challenge overcome. It wasn’t pretty, but it was the best thing that has happened to the Raptors in weeks. And perhaps, just perhaps, it can constitute a turning point right when the Raptors are in desperate search of one.