The Raptors, their management, and fans everywhere, are going to need to face some harsh truths about the team’s core group if these postseason defeats continue.
Following the deeply disappointing result of Game One, the Toronto Raptors find themselves in a dark tunnel with no visible escape route. The team has managed to lose its last seven playoff games since taking a 3-2 lead over the Brooklyn Nets on April 30 of 2014.
This woeful lack of success threatens to damage the Raptors’ future. A group of players which performs well in the regular season but flops in the playoffs will be broken up by management. This statement is true regardless of sport.
Putting my finger on the source of the Raptors Sisyphean struggles in post-season play is becoming ever more difficult. The usual flimsy excuses like “Our guys aren’t familiar with the pressure of post-season” or “We picked the wrong time to go into a slump” don’t cut it anymore, if they ever did.
For me, the biggest letdown is the failure of the offense to rise to the challenge. That’s also the most worrisome issue, because it’s possible to fix defensive shortcomings. In this last off-season, Dwane Casey prevailed upon his General Manager, Masai Ujiri, to bring in players who were already wired to defense. That also entailed dumping scoring-first players like Lou Williams. The result was a significant improvement in the Raptors team defense statistics, and a franchise-record win count of 56.
This is all well and good, but hasn’t helped win any playoff games. The Raptors didn’t lose game one to Indiana because the defense broke down. Yes, Paul George had a brilliant game with 33 points, but he hit a number of shots with a defender in his grill. There’s only so much you can do. The Pacers’ second highest scorer was Monte Ellis with 15 points. We can live with that.
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combined for 25 points, which is about half of what we might reasonably expect.
The pattern wasn’t established in this one game. In last season’s playoff flameout, the Raptors scored a century or more in one game of four. The prior year – three of seven.
Kyle, DeMar and Jonas Valanciunas are the current Raptors core. If they can’t score when it matters, they need to be broken up. I don’t want to see it occur, but Ujiri won’t have much choice. Toronto can’t tolerate a third straight bellyflop. We’ll be a laughingstock.
Move Kyle for a rebounder and some draft picks, while turning over the point guard tasks to Cory Joseph and Delon Wright? Check. Do a sign-&-trade with DeMar? Check. Find a new home for Jonas, then re-inking Bismack Biyombo to a long-term deal? Check.
I really don’t enjoy writing a post like this, and I hope I’m dead wrong about all of it. But it’s a foolish person who leaves the house without an umbrella when rain threatens. If the Raptors drop game two at home, there will be a host of black clouds on the horizon.