For the first time in nearly seven years the Toronto Raptors sit below .500.
Not that it’s anything to panic over as the defeat was just on the first game of their 2020-21 season, but Toronto did look uncharacteristically flat Wednesday night — particularly in the second half.
After a nice two-day holiday break, however, the Raptors will be back at it try to make a new long streak of staying above .500 when they take on the San Antonio Spurs Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. ET on Sportsnet.
It’s obviously still the early days of the season, but games are real now and a win Saturday evening will mean just as much as one will in April, when playoff implications will be in clearer perspective.
Here are three things to watch for as you take in Saturday’s game.
Raptors Newsletter
Hello again, old friend
Ever since the Raptors traded DeMar DeRozan to the Spurs back in the summer of 2018 for Kawhi Leonard, every time Toronto has played San Antonio this has been the biggest focus of the matchup between the two sides, and Saturday will be no different.
Despite this being his third season with the Spurs, the mark DeRozan left on the Raptors still makes him an honourary Raptor in many people’s minds and seeing him suit up against Toronto will always be a little strange.
Worst yet for the Raptors is the fact DeRozan just seems to keep getting better every season. Despite only shooting 35 three-pointers total last season, he was still among the league’s most efficient players, averaging 22.1 points while shooting 53.1 per cent from the field, getting to the free-throw line nearly seven times a game and continuing the maturation we saw from him in Toronto as an excellent playmaker.
And this season it looks like it’ll just be more of the same for DeRozan. In San Antonio’s season opener, he balled out, scoring 28 points on 50 per cent shooting, collecting nine rebounds and dropping nine dimes. And even more interesting, DeRozan did this damage while starting at power forward for San Antonio, instead of the traditional wing spot he’s slotted in at for all his career.
It’s an interesting experiment that Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has been trying since the restart in the bubble — and one that just may work out for the Spurs long-term. DeRozan will have an obvious advantage against most fours from a quickness and skills perspective, plus he’s strong enough to absorb the inevitable contact that will come his way by being matched up against traditional four men.
Of course, DeRozan isn’t the only former Raptor on San Antonio. Rudy Gay and Jakob Poeltl are also on the Spurs, but they don’t carry quite the emotional weight that DeRozan does, obviously.
Big breakout for Pascal incoming?
Sticking with the topic of DeRozan playing the four for just a little bit here, that’s got to be music to Pascal Siakam’s ears.
Look, for all of DeRozan’s strengths as an offensive player he’s never been known for his defensive prowess and should he be the man trying to keep Siakam in check Saturday, let’s just say it’s going to be a long night for the former Mr. Raptor.
In Toronto’s season opener, Siakam looked more like the player before the bubble than the one in it, scoring 20 points on 8-of-17 shooting, including a 3-for-7 mark from deep, while tallying six assists and rebounds. The confidence on his drives to the basket looked to be renewed, his outside stroke appeared pure and, as noted by the six assists, he looked to be a smarter and more willing passer than before.
This was all encouraging news for the Raptors Wednesday and is just the opposite if you’re the Spurs.
Even if San Antonio doesn’t opt to use DeRozan as Siakam’s primary defender it’s not like they have much in the way of options to take on the task. The best candidates, looking at the Spurs’ roster, looks like it would come down to Gay or Canadian Trey Lyles, but neither are great options as Gay has similar defensive deficiencies to DeRozan and, while Lyles might have the length to somewhat bother Siakam, he certainly doesn’t have the lateral quickness to stay with the Raptors star out on the perimeter.
Saturday has all the makings of a big offensive performance for Siakam.
Rotation watch
Lastly, as we are still in the early days here, keeping an eye on how Raptors coach Nick Nurse will manage his rotation is still something of interest.
On Wednesday, beyond garbage time, Nurse appeared to just go nine men deep with the starters of Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Siakam and Aron Baynes, and four bench pieces used in Norman Powell, Matt Thomas, Chris Boucher and DeAndre’ Bembry.
Coming into Saturday this group of nine likely won’t change with, perhaps, the exception of Alex Len slotting in for Boucher.
Nurse has indicated he wants role certainty at the No. 7 and 8 spots of his rotation, with Thomas slotted in as one of the guys there and a centre at the other spot. With the more physical Poeltl playing the backup centre role for San Antonio, utilizing a player like Len would make more sense than going with Boucher, but we’ll have to see how Nurse plays things out.
And one more note on Toronto’s rotation: Bembry only got about five-and-a-half minutes of playing time Wednesday. He had a nice pre-season and gives the Raptors some added defensive punch in the second unit, and is a player that looks like he can play with the starters as well. Nurse obviously has a challenge trying to find minutes for everyone, but the team could probably benefit from more Bembry rather than less.
