Eventually, things would have to break differently. Not that the Toronto Raptors‘ recent woes can be put down to bad luck, exactly, just that at some point, an old face would find their game, someone new would light a spark. The fog would lift just enough.
Not yet. Not tonight.
The Raptors have lost in all manner of ways in their current slide, which has reached four straight and seven of their last eight, but they haven’t lost a heartbreaker at the horn yet.
Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets fixed that as the mercurial point guard hit a dagger over Fred VanVleet with time expiring for the 119-116 win.
The Raptors fell to 13-16 as the Nets won their fifth straight and for the fourth time this season over Toronto, improving to 18-12 on the season. VanVleet scored 39 points for the second time in as many starts, and Scottie Barnes had 26 but the Raptors couldn’t contain Brooklyn who shot 60.5 per cent from the floor and got 28 points from Kevin Durant.
At the very least it was entertaining, with the fourth quarter full of ebbs and flows and the final minutes featuring enough lead changes and mini-dramas to make a novella.
It briefly looked like the Nets were going to run away with it, as an Irving triple over Barnes put Brooklyn up by eight midway through the fourth. But Barnes began to hone in on the rim and wouldn’t allow anything to stop him from getting there. He kept driving, kept finding his way to the bucket and the foul line. After Yuta Watanabe hit a corner three with 14 seconds left, set up by Irving to cap off a near-perfect night for the one-time Raptor – he was 6-of-7 from the floor, 3-of-4 from three and finished with 17 points in 21 minutes – the Nets led by two. But Barnes drove the lane again, drew a foul from Irving and made both free throws to tie – his ninth and 10th freebies of the game.
But then it was Irving’s time. He’s an odd, sometimes troubling figure off the court, but on it, he’s never been anything but a genius. He showed why as he drove hard into VanVleet after receiving the inbounds and stepped back behind the line to make his game-winning triple. The joyous mob around him formed in front of the Raptors’ bench, who could only stare on, collectively stunned.
In fairness, it all might have been expected. The Raptors are wobbling and the Nets seemed like the last team you’d want to play when you’re struggling. Not only had Brooklyn won all three games against Toronto so far this season, but the Nets also arrived at Scotiabank Arena having won eight of their past nine and having moved up to fourth in the Eastern Conference. All of which seemed unlikely after a tumultuous off-season and a 2-5 start that cost Steve Nash his job. But talent is talent and the Nets are loaded with it.
“They’re rolling. They’re really playing well,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse before the game. “They’re defensively much better as they continue to play. They’ve obviously got premiere scorers, and a lot of shooting surrounding those guys. It’s kind of pick your poison with how you’re gonna stop them because those guys aren’t afraid to get off the ball and get all those other guys involved.”
The Raptors have done reasonably well against the Nets’ big guns – Durant and Irving – so far, but they’ve been victimized by some of their secondary players: Royce O’Neal’s dagger in the first meeting when VanVleet overhelped on Durant; Joe Harris and TJ Warren in the third meeting, come to mind, but all along Nic Claxton has been a problem. The rangy centre has averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds on 78 per cent shooting as he’s had a parade of dunks, putbacks and fastbreak baskets against Toronto. It’s the price the Raptors pay for trying to keep a lid on other team’s stars.
“We’ve probably freed him up because of double teaming a lot of KD, Kyrie stuff,“ said Nurse. “[Claxton] is getting out of those things pretty fast. That’s one thing. He’s a good screen setter, but he gets out fast. He’s also a good finisher. They’ve hung on to the ball long enough to get him cooking toward the rim and get it to him late. That’s been a big thing. He’s been out in transition. He’s been out on the glass. He’s just been more active, more athletic than us in the couple games, for sure.”
Only solution? Fight harder defensively. Play well enough straight up that an additional defender isn’t always necessary, or that they’re not rotating over to put out a fire.
“The challenge for us right now is we have to do a little better job of not giving direct, straight-line drives to the rim,” said Nurse. “It doesn’t really give your help a chance to get there. Keeping the ball in front, sitting down and guarding and at least making that so it’s not as direct line drives [there’s] a lot of us who have to do a better job of guarding the ball.”
The first quarter went about well as it could on both sides of the ball. Toronto held Durant and Irving to a combined 11 points on nine shots, and none of Brooklyn’s supporting actors were able to step up. The Raptors got a lightning-quick start from VanVleet who picked up from his 39-point outing on Wednesday with a 12-point first quarter featuring a pair of threes, an area he and the Raptors have been struggling.
Toronto led 29-19 after the opening 12 minutes, but things got a little looser in the second quarter as Durant began hunting shots a little more determinedly and Irving, Warren and former Raptor Yuta Watanabe each hit threes. But Toronto got a nice burst of offense as VanVleet followed up his 12-point opening quarter with 13 in the second and Malachi Flynn – freed from Nurse’s bench — hit two threes and a pull-up jumper as the Raptors lead swelled to as much as 18 with 1:17 left in the half. However, the Nets would finish the first half strong, and trimmed Toronto’s lead to 62-52 with an 8-0 run to close out the quarter.
Unfortunately for the Raptors, desperate to change their luck, the Nets were just getting started. A four-point play by Durant and a triple from Irving in rapid success trimmed the Raptors’ lead to three early in the third quarter before Durant completed the comeback with a jumper with 3:25 left in the period. And just as the Raptors lost their edge defensively – the Nets scored 36 in the third on 69 per cent shooting – their offense dried up. Far too many possessions seemed to start or end in post-ups leading to tough, contested shots, with Scottie Barnes – 1-of-5 in the quarter and 3-of-13 in the game to that point — the worst offender. The end result was Brooklyn starting the fourth with a 95-92 lead.
The fireworks were only getting started at that point, and once more the Raptors ended up holding the wrong end of the stick.
