The Toronto Raptors could look very different in the coming week, with the NBA trade deadline looming, the Raptors sliding and Kyle Lowry and Norman Powell – the club’s longest serving players – each widely rumoured to be available.
But on Friday night against the Utah Jazz the Raptors finally looked familiar. All three members of their future core were available, with OG Anunoby, the last of them to join Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam in making it back after being out nearly three weeks due to health-and-safety protocols related to COVID.
And for long stretches the results looked familiar, too, as the Raptors showed elite flashes both offensively and defensively against one of the NBA’s best teams, before eventually falling 115-112.
They showed fight, too. The Raptors looked like they might be headed to another loss in a month full of them, as Utah broke open what had been a nip-and-tuck game with a 12-0 run midway through the fourth quarter that gave Utah a 10-point lead with 7:43 to play. But a late spurt by the Raptors, including consecutive threes by Powell and Lowry saw the Raptors gain a five-point lead with 1:36 to play. Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell (31 points) responded with an eight-point burst that saw Utah go up by three with 12 seconds on the clock. The Raptors got a quick lay-up from Siakam, but Utah’s Mike Conley iced the game with a pair of free throws.
That was fitting, given Utah was 35-of-41 at the line while Toronto only got to the line 14 times. A potentially game-tying three by Siakam at the buzzer rolled in and ultimately out, and the Raptors’ night was done.
The loss was Toronto’s seventh straight, and ninth in their past 10 games, dropping them to 17-24 as they try to dig out from 11th place in the East.
Still, there were plenty of positive signs against a Jazz team that improved to 30-11 to remain on top of the Western Conference. VanVleet, Siakam and Anunoby were each strong in all facets in their first game on the floor together. VanVleet finished with 17 points and nine assists; Siakam led the Raptors with 27 points and nine assists and Anunoby had 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting and was a big reason the Raptors turned in their best defensive performance in weeks against the potent Jazz.
But some of the Raptors’ problems remain. As has been the case all season, the Raptors were out-matched on the glass. Toronto came into the game ranked 29th in defensive rebounding and the Jazz – who still have the NBA’s best record despite going 5-6 over their previous 11 games – are fifth in offensive rebounding and second on the glass overall. Utah had nine offensive rebounds, compared to three for the, Raptors and enjoyed a 19-7 edge in second-chance points as they out-rebounded Toronto 48-31. Similarly, the Raptors getting left behind at the free-throw line is nothing new either.
It’s been a season-long theme, and it will be interesting to see this week if management sees enough in this group to keep it together or if they decide it’s time to punt on the season and change the shape of the franchise for years to come.
The pressure is real. You could sense the exasperation from Nurse prior to the game. All season long he’s been trying to find some consistency in the bottom half of rotation. Some of it is circumstantial – injuries and illness – but Nurse’s willingness to experiment with rotations means roles can be inconsistent and appear and disappear out of nowhere.
With some sense of normalcy having returned, Nurse said he wants to curb his own urge to mix and match and find the hot hand in favour of some steadiness.
“I feel like we’re back almost at square one, you know, in a lot of senses here,” he said before the game. “Listen, I’ve got my kind of main five guys that we know, that have been here for a while. We’re still searching with Baynes, we’re still searching with Boucher. They’ve gotta be better defensively. And after that, that’s why I feel like I’m back at square one, I couldn’t tell you who’s impacting the game positively and who isn’t. So, the search starts again tonight.”
“[So] my short-term thought is I need to pick a couple guys, and they need to know that they’re gonna get more than a three-minute chance or a five-minute chance or a one-game chance. I think I just need to pick a couple guys here for a couple weeks, give ’em their rotation, and hopefully that’ll either solidify us or give us some more answers,” said Nurse.
“It’s not our biggest problem, though. We’ve gotta get our main guys back in shape, too. I mean, there’s more. We’re getting our ass kicked at the rim at both ends, not rebounding, there’s all kinds, I mean, the ship has got holes all over the place we’re trying to patch up.”
It turns out getting good players back on the floor goes a long way towards doing that. Between a calf injury that kept him out of 10 games, and the most recent six-game absence due to health-and-safety protocols, Anunoby has played just six games since January 25. Prior to that he was playing the best basketball of his career, averaging nearly 16 points a game and shooting nearly 50 per cent from three for the month of January.
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The big wing made his presence felt early, knocking down a jumper and a triple, and more importantly forcing a turnover; swallowing up Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic on a three-point attempt and even teaming up with Boucher to block Jazz giant Rudy Gobert at the rim as the Raptors jumped out to a 13-10 lead early. It helped also that VanVleet looked more comfortable in his second game back from being out five games as he scored seven points to help the Raptors to a 27-23 first-quarter lead.
Nurse decided to go with second-year wing Paul Watson and rookie point guard Malachi Flynn as his next two off the bench after fixture Boucher, and they played into his desire for a better defensive effort, although Watson didn’t help his cause with four quick fouls.
But VanVleet kept rolling on his way to 15 first-half points and Boucher showed up, with a pair of threes over Gobert and a lovely left-handed finish on a pick-and-roll to keep the Raptors’ offence ticking over. Toronto was up seven before a three-minute drought at the end of the second quarter allowed Utah to have an 11-0 run and go up four before a VanVleet half-court heave at the buzzer cut the Jazz lead to 55-54 heading into the third quarter.
The load was shared, however. Siakam and VanVleet struggled mightily Wednesday in their first game back but in the third quarter it was Siakam’s turn to find his rhythm. He burst out of the half to knock down a pair of threes and put up 11 points in the first 6:29 of the period. Anunoby made his presence felt also, flashing the range defensively that few in the NBA can match. On the same possession he nearly stole the ball from Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson on the dribble while breaking up a lob to Gobert at the rim.
With contributions from the three members of the Raptors’ young core in their first game back together, Toronto was in striking distance, trailing just 79-77 heading into the fourth quarter.
They were close, but couldn’t close.
