Change is tough. On the defensive end, it’s rarely been tougher for the Raptors than it was on Friday in Philadelphia, where a historic 76ers output handed Toronto a 121-111 loss, their ninth in the last 12 games.
It’s the third time the 76ers have beaten the Raptors this year. In fact, the Raptors are now an unsightly 0-8 against Atlantic Division opponents. And while the differences are quite obvious – Philadelphia is in the ultimate win-now mode with eyes on a title and the league’s best net rating – any matchup with a team you’ve played a lot, especially one coached by your former head coach, is a good game for reflection.
Over the last few seasons, the Toronto Raptors had an identity as an aggressive, oft-creative, and always annoying defence. With Nick Nurse at the helm, they used their length and aggression to trap, blitz, force turnovers, and, most importantly, try to limit stars. The results were up and down after the run-it-back 2019-20 season. The defensive system eventually had too many cracks, leading to arrays of corner 3-pointers and, eventually, not enough rim protection around those steals to make the scheme worth it.
It was time for a change, and new coach Darko Rajakovic has simplified and ratcheted back the prior principles. At first, it looked to be a fit. The Raptors defended well for the first month of the season, eschewing turnovers for more sound defence predicated on all of their individual talent at that end. Since Nov. 20, that has unravelled. It’s unravelled in the half-court, in transition, on second chances, and in any other micro-split you care to look up.
What was once a defence with an obvious identity is now one without a clear strength. On Friday, it became clear that reverting back to a more aggressive defensive approach is going to take more than just one game.
The Raptors threw everything at the Sixers defensively. In the first quarter, they sent an enormous amount of help toward actions involving Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia’s two biggest scoring threats. That worked to limit Embiid, who only scored two points in the first half and looked frustrated at the whistle and some of his more errant fadeaways.
Erasing Embiid comes at a cost, but the gamble that Tobias Harris, Marcus Morris, and Kelly Oubre wouldn’t take advantage was a reasonable one based on how little that group has played together. Instead, Harris turned in his best performance of the season. Given a ton of space to operate within, Harris knocked down threes, got into the paint, and fed teammates on his way to 33 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists.
With Embiid hobbled by a rolled ankle and Harris cooking on the second side, Toronto shifted back to a more traditional approach. In trying to make sure Harris was shut off, too, they faced more tough questions, especially as the 76ers changed their spacing around those Maxey-Embiid actions to confuse Toronto’s help principles. Harris slowed down, but Embiid got rolling, including a takeover stretch in the third quarter. Maxey then took over to start the fourth, burying the Raptors in non-Embiid minutes. Even the rare zone looks from the Raptors eventually got figured out.
The end result was Maxey, Embiid, and Harris all scoring 30 or more and combining for 97 points, 22 rebounds, and 26 assists. It is the first time since the 76ers were the Syracuse Nationals in 1961 that they’ve had three 30-point scorers in the same game. It is the first time it has ever happened to the Raptors.
Look, Toronto is nowhere near the team Philadelphia is. They’re in dramatically different stages. It would be disingenuous to boil these three meetings down to just a Nurse-or-Rajakovic conversation, especially given the underlying reasons for that change. It is, however, notable that what used to be an average defence that could turn the faucet off on star players is now a mediocre defence that couldn’t limit any of the three Sixers scorers by the end.
The Raptors’ defensive slide over the last month has been perplexing. If they can’t get back to making life difficult for opponents, let alone get back to believing they’re a top defence overall, there won’t be much more to talk about.
Here are some additional notes and takeaways from a game that dropped the Raptors to 11-17 overall.
Barnes and Siakam find ways when given help
Barnes had some very nice moments as a shot-blocker and playmaker in this one, and while he didn’t shoot particularly well (3-of-11), he was their largest driver of strong play. Siakam led the way as a scorer with 31 points on 23 used possessions, a very efficient night predicated on outrunning the Sixers back down the floor in transition and cutting to get himself open.
As has been the case for a while now, Siakam and Barnes can coexist, and even help each other. Toronto’s two best chunks of the game were their start out of the gate, and a window where Siakam and Barnes shared the floor without their space-limiting starting lineup pieces. On a night the Raptors lost by 10, they won Barnes’s minutes by one and only lost Siakam’s by four. Single-game plus-minus can be messy, but in this case it very much backed up the game’s story.
The Raptors still aren’t getting Barnes and Siakam enough complementary pieces around them. Maybe there just aren’t enough on the roster. Still, OG Anunoby, Gary Trent Jr., Otto Porter Jr., and Precious Achiuwa are all pieces that can help in different ways, ways that are more passive and less ball-oriented than the ways Dennis Schroder and Jakob Poeltl need to be utilized for help.
Assorted rotation notes
The starting lineup, by the way, was plus-1 in their 17 minutes together, almost completely erasing their strong start with a shaky end to the second quarter. One of the key reasons for the slide? They went away from Barnes and Siakam as the offensive hubs. You’ve heard this story before.
There were two other small changes to the rotations Friday. One was that Schroder didn’t close the game. Things were more or less decided by then, but Rajakovic going with Trent over Schroder, instead of Trent over Poeltl, has been rare. The other was that Porter was used in Chris Boucher’s rotation spot to add some additional spacing. Those minutes didn’t go particularly well, spanning some four-bench player units and a rough starter-heavy second-quarter transition lineup.
Poeltl, Anunoby, and Trent notes
After a couple of very rough games, Poeltl was much more assertive and effective early in this one. He outplayed Embiid in the first quarter, and teammates fed him often to get him in a groove. That Embiid eventually won the matchup decidedly shouldn’t be a surprise. Poeltl finished with 19 points and eight rebounds, and the Raptors have to hope the positives from the first quarter carry over to Saturday more than the decline later in the game.
Anunoby did not bounce back, however, once again struggling from three (0-of-4) and not having the defensive performance we’re used to seeing from him. Anunoby at least did a nice job attacking against space and making reads for others (five assists), it’s just too hard for this team to survive without him dominating within his two-way role.
Trent did step up to try to fill some of the starting lineup’s shooting void, hitting five triples. Non-Trent Raptors shot 4-of-25 (16 percent) from outside.
Recognizing mismatches with intention and speed
For the second game in a row, Toronto did a good job generating switches that would put one of Barnes or Siakam against a smaller defender. For the second game in a row, though, they had trouble leveraging that advantage.
A big part of that issue comes with how long it’s taking the ball-handler, usually Schroder or Trent, to get a pass to the forward who has the mismatch. Denver and Philadelphia were both swift in sending a “scram switch” in these situations, with Embiid or Nikola Jokic running over to cover for their respective guards and neutralizing the advantage. The ball-handler has to hit the screener immediately when that switch comes, otherwise, you’re generating switches just for the sake of it.
Double-digit deficits
This was the ninth consecutive game the Raptors have been down by 10 or more at some point. On the season, they’re 5-17 in such games. More concerning than losing so many of those games – obviously, you’re not going to win many games down double-digits – is that it’s happened 22 times in 28 games, the fourth-most in the entire NBA. Considering two of those comebacks were against San Antonio and Washington, “falling behind by 10-plus in three-quarters of our games” is probably a more telling stat than the 11-17 record.
A Pascal positive
Let’s end with a positive. A major positive. In the first half of this game, Siakam passed Alvin Williams for fifth on the Raptors’ all-time assists leaderboard. He now ranks in the top five in points, rebounds, assists, and several other categories. It’s something only Kyle Lowry shares with him and it really speaks to how well Siakam has played here for quite a long time. Whatever the near-term future might hold for Siakam and the Raptors, he’s a player that should be appreciated long after his tenure ends.
What’s next
The Raptors have a back-to-back, as they’ll host a banged-up Utah team in Toronto on Saturday. After that rest-disadvantaged home game against a roughly equal team, the Raptors will play nine of the next 10 on the road. While that schedule includes dates with Detroit (potential history) and Washington, it also includes Boston and a hellacious Western Conference portion.
Yeah, the Raptors’ toughest schedule is still ahead of them.
