Raptors: 3 adjustments needed to take down Portland

The Toronto Raptors have a tough game against Portland next on the schedule.

Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors gave us a spirited performance against the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco last night, but a solid performance from Pascal Siakam and Chris Boucher inside was naught but ash in the hands of Steph Curry, who broke out of his haze to nail a clutch three late and help lead Golden State to victory.

The Raptors don’t get a ton of reprieve, as they have to refocus and prepare for a matchup against Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, and the red-hot Portland Trail Blazers.

With a 2-8 start staring them in the face, Nurse needs to make these three adjustments if he wants to leave Oregon with a win.

The Raptors need to tweak their style of play in order to upset the Trail Blazers.

1. Try to get OG Anunoby on the perimeter as often as possible on defense

In Toronto’s new-look lineup that worked well on this West Coast road trip, the Raptors put Siakam at the center position, rotating him with Boucher, while OG Anunoby moved into a power forward spot given his muscle and long wingspan. Unfortunately, Nurse might need to shuffle his lineup after just two games, as the Blazers are a team that will live and die by Lillard and McCollum, who are averaging 21 three-point attempts per game, raining down three-balls all game long. Nurse needs to put Anunoby, his best defensive stopper, out on one of these two for the entire game.

With Fred VanVleet merely an average defender and former conference Defensive Player of the Year Malachi Flynn still working his way into the rotation, Anunoby remains the only player on the roster that Toronto should feel comfortable asking to lock horns with either of those two for large chunks of the game. Terry Stotts wants to get teams to leave the paint with solid deep shooting before going to work on the interior for uncontested shots at the rim. They only way to keep this Ferrari of an offense in first gear is to force Anunoby to slow down that dynamic duo on the perimeter.

2. Put Aron Baynes in the rotation to slow down Jusuf Nurkic

Baynes has taken his fair share of body blows from Raptors fans, and it’s hard to disagree with their reasoning. His defense has been above-average, but he has offered them almost nothing on the offensive end, which contributed to their slump early in the season. While the Raptors had some success with Baynes on the bench, he might need to be called back into action against the Blazers. Hanging out in the middle in Portland’s offense is Jusuf Nurkic, one of the game’s few remaining back-to-the-basket centers that can dominate a game on the offensive end.

Siakam gives you excellent offense, and Boucher is a former G League defensive player of the year, but Nurkic is almost 100 pounds heavier than Boucher and would have minimal difficulty withstanding physical challenges from the slight Siakam. Baynes will have the muscle mass to withstand a Nurkic bullrush, and doing so could help a much-maligned defense of late avoid giving up easy baskets inside. If Nurkic starts off hot inside, this game could be over in a hurry, and getting Baynes on the court with the express purpose of slowing down Nurkic could help turn the tide.

3. Try to play fast and shoot tons of threes to keep pace with Portland

Stotts’ Blazers have both a Top 10 offense in terms of a points per game and a top-five pace rating in the league, given how quickly they like to get up shots. While that high-octane strategy can work well against porous defenses, it can backfire just as easily. Outside of the Lillard-McCollum tag team, two of Portland’s most vital pieces on offense are a 300-pounder in Nurkic and what’s left of Carmelo Anthony, who was a defensive liability even in his prime. The only way for Kyle Lowry and the offense to match up is to beat Portland at their own game and speed up the tempo.

While the wins haven’t been piling up of late, Nurse has clearly made the switch to a more offensive-centric style of play, and that has at least made Toronto a more watchable and competitive team. If Nurse is going to go toe-to-toe with Portland, he needs his backcourt of Lowry and VanVleet to turn back the clock to 2018-19 and hit some clutch shots just when it looks like Lillard is on the verge of going supernova. Portland is tough, but a win is not out of the question tonight.

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