The Raptors have a golden opportunity to restart their winning ways with Brooklyn at the Air Canada Centre.
The Toronto Raptors are in serious need of shaking off the bad memories associated with Sunday night’s defeat to the Houston Rockets. A visit from the Brooklyn Nets should be a tonic.
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A few off-seasons ago, Brooklyn owner Mikhail Prokhorov thought he could purchase an NBA championship. He brought a few battle-hardened veterans, like Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, and turned them loose. Prokhorov’s attempt at a fast rebuild was a disaster, like so many of them are, and the current group of Nets are the remnants of the folly. Brooklyn’s 18-45 record looks like a blueprint of where they will be for the next few years at least.
There’s not a lot to talk about with this team. The Nets have two quality starters, centre Brook Lopez and sort-of power forward Thaddeus Young. Lopez is an increasingly rare beast in the modern NBA, a high-scoring centre. His jump-shooting range extends almost to the 3-point line, or he can put the ball on the floor and bull his way to the hoop. He isn’t the rebounder the Nets need, but he’s respectable on the glass. Young is going to waste in Brooklyn. He’s a consistent scorer with an array of moves near the basket, and a decent pull-up jumper. He crashes the boards well enough for someone undersized for his position.
The other starters are Donald Sloan at point guard, shooting guard Wayne Ellington and their remaining Euro, Bojan Bogdanovic. Sloan wouldn’t be in the rotation on our team. Ellington is something of a threat from beyond the arc, as is Bogdanovic.
The Nets bench wasn’t much to write home when healthy, and they’ve lost Jarrett Jack and rookie Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to long-term injuries. As a result, their backup guards include Markel Brown and Shane Larkin. Up front there’s some reason to hope that Thomas Robinson will one day display the production expected when he was drafted #5 in 2012. For now he’s a warm body.
The Nets are minus_6.6 so far, bad enough for fourth-worst. They attempt a paltry 17.7 3-balls per game, the third-fewest, which gives you an idea of how little production they get from the guard positions.
The Raptors should be in a foul mood after having their home winning streak snapped. There’s no excuse to lose to this team, and Toronto will win if they…:
- …go right at Lopez. He’s committed 20 fouls in his last five games. Make him sit down early.
- …don’t forget about the long ball. Neither the Nets nor the Raptors are any great shakes at defending beyond the arc, but at least we take a bunch of shots. While the temptation to pound away at the Nets’ non-existent interior defense (see point 1.) will be huge, some drive and dish action from DeMar DeRozan should prove effective.
- …concentrate on defending Thaddeus Young. He should be easier to shut down than Lopez; if one of those two is neutralized, they don’t have a lot of options remaining. At that point we can double-team the ball and generate some turnovers and runouts.
After several shabby defensive efforts, our guys will shut these people down. Toronto 105-Brooklyn 82.