Toronto Raptors: 3 takeaways from loss against Blazers, including JV’s absence

Jonas Valanciunas’ absence is already felt

After a rough attempt to strip the ball from JV two nights ago, Draymond Green‘s swipe, unfortunately, dislocated the big man’s thumb. JV is expected to take upwards of a month to fully recover. As the Raptor’s go-to interior defense juggernaut, losing Valanciunas will undoubtedly be a big blow to the team’s defensive strategy.

JV’s absence was exposed last night as Portland scored almost half of their 128 points in the paint. Portland’s guards were unafraid of driving into the paint and making plays; similarly, their bigs were also often on the advantageous side of a mismatch, leading to clean post-up looks.

There were multiple times where Jusuf Nurkic found himself backing down a much smaller Fred VanVleet, allowing him to bully his way into the low post for easy buckets. Furthermore, without a 7-footer  to deter players from the post, there seemed to be a barrage of dunks from Moe Harkless and Zach Collins, Portland’s athletic forwards, throughout the game.

Without an anchor in the paint putting a body on players on a box out, the Blazers found themselves rewarded with multiple second-chance opportunities to burn the Raptors. As it stands, the Blazers are already ranked eighth in the league in offensive rebounds. However, lacking a significant presence in the paint certainly doesn’t hurt either.

Nurkic and Al-Farouq Aminu set the precedent early in the first quarter by securing some early offensive rebounds, with Nurkic ultimately securing a game-high 6 offensive boards.