Toronto Raptors: Game 1 loss still revealed squad’s true identity

We can get the elephant out of the room right away. Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors had their lowest-scoring game since April 20th, 2017. Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby shot a combined 8-37 from the field, and the Raptors are flat out not going to win games when that happens.

They don’t have enough offensive firepower to allow for any margin of error on that end.

The Raptors fell 98-83 to the Washington Wizards in a game that was somehow not as close as the final score indicated. Toronto almost topped 30 points in a quarter in the fourth, but the game had long since been decided by that point, as the offense couldn’t do anything right.

This looked more like the Toronto Raptors of 2020-21, not the perennial playoff team.

Nurse’s team looked like a squad where over half of the participants were 24 or younger, as this game was full of errant passes, general confusion, and unevenness on the offensive end.

Yeah, it was a bit of a rough game to watch, but when projecting for the long run, it was actually pretty enlightening. It revealed a lot about the team we’re likely to witness this season and the on-court philosophy going forward.

Thursday’s Toronto Raptors game revealed the team’s identity.

Nurse spent the season opener flexing his creativity. Just like the players, Nurse started off the game with a relaxed stance, falling back on the norms and the status quo. This began even before the opening tip.

The starting lineups were announced, with Nurse sending out the following for the jump ball.

PG)  Fred VanVleet

SG)  Goran Dragic

SF)  OG Anunoby

PF)  Scottie Barnes

C)  Precious Achiuwa

With Pascal Siakam out, we can say pretty comfortably that this is Nurse’s best five guys. Throw out the standard starting lineup for the season opener right? Wrong! This lineup got cooked in the first quarter on both ends.

Fred’s high screen and roll with Achiuwa wasn’t working, and Daniel Gafford was stopping everything at the rim. OG was unable to get anything going, and while VanVleet stayed aggressive, neither guy had it going.

Nurse made some quick adjustments, substituting Achuiwa for Khem Birch in the post. This matched size with size and slowed down the Wizards’ bigs on the offensive glass slightly.

Things got worse in the second quarter. The Raptors looked lost, like a ship without a captain. While VanVleet and Anunoby were trying their best to assume the position, they couldn’t hit the side of a barn.

The 4th quarter is where it all changed.

When the Raps went down 27 points, Nurse subbed in rookies Dalano Banton (who got a standing ovation from his hometown crowd) and Scottie Barnes for what seemed to be a head start on the garbage-time fun. What ended up happening instead was a bit shocking.

The Raptors immediately dropped into a full-court-press, hounding the Wizards ball handlers up and down the court. Sometimes Washington would break the press and get an open shot, but it didn’t matter. It’s a physically exhausting way to play basketball for both teams, only the Raptors were younger and more athletic.

Just like that, the team started clawing back. Achiuwa found his footing on the defensive end, Banton found his mojo, Barnes was out making plays, and suddenly, with four minutes to go, it was a ten-point game.

The Raptors ended up losing in the end, but for about six minutes there the team was really cooking.

So what happened? A few things.

1)  Defence

Nick Nurse subbed in a bunch of young, long, athletic guys into the full-court press. There wasn’t a lot of shooting, but there was a ton of defensive pressure. This created chaos on the floor which meant the experience and half-court offensive talent of the Wizards was nixed.

The whole thing became very egalitarian. With more defensive intensity, the Raptors got more stops and were able to start running the break for their points. Barnes, Achiuwa, and Banton are much better at that than trying to pick set defensive attacks apart.

2)  Offensive Strategy

The Raptors started using their non-shooters more as ball handlers. Scottie Barnes didn’t have a single assist through three quarters. Why? Because they were using him off-ball as a cutter and roller. Yeah, that’s part of his game, but what makes him special right now is his court vision at his size.

The problem with Barnes and Banton is that they’re not elite shooters. That’s ok! The fourth-quarter lineup that worked well used its non-shooters as drivers and ball handlers.

This allowed the likes of Gary Trent Jr. and Svi Mykhialiuk (two excellent shooters) to space the floor, while simultaneously leaving single coverage for Barnes and Achiuwa to score around the rim.

Contrast this to when VanVleet and Anunuoby were handling the ball, and you’ll see why those two were getting stuffed at the rim constantly. Barnes is not a floor-spacer. You can only afford to have one non-shooter off-ball on an NBA basketball court in the modern NBA.

3)  Hustle

It sounds trite, but it’s the truth.

Once Banton hit that half-court shot to end the third, the Scotiabank crowd had something to get loud over, and for a young team thriving on defence, that makes all the difference. It was like someone poked the entire arena with a taser.

This spark lit a fire in the belly of every Toronto Raptors player on the floor. Yes, they were switching up their strategies on both ends, but it was only effective because of how much this team cared. Scrambling for ludicrous deflections, defensive recoveries, three 6’8 guys running the fast break with each other, it was nutty.

This is this team’s identity!

The 2021-22 Toronto Raptors are not a  great half-court team. I’m sorry. I love Fred VanVleet. I love OG Anunoby. And I know that this is only Game 1 of a long season, but if Toronto tries to play the way they did against Washington, they’re just not going to win many games.

But when this team is playing their style, flying around on both ends of the court, they can make superior offensive teams uncomfortable in the full-court.