It’s tough to watch your favorite team lose two consecutive playoff games, to see star players miss shots they should make, careless turnovers, and starters unable to contribute at a high level. But not everything is always about the results on the court. For a team as young and inexperienced as the Raptors, it’s also about the future and the process of evaluating the talent on the roster and how to fill any apparent gaps.
Darko Rajaković was sure to highlight that this series against the Cleveland Cavaliers is helping the Raptors in the big picture, no matter the outcome.
“Expecting us to be perfect right now would not be fair to our team and the young core that we have,” Rajaković said during a practice media availability. “But when you look at the big picture, how important those are and what we’re learning through this, I’m telling you, our team is so much better now than seven days ago.”
The Raptors have been far from perfect
Two games in, it’s fair to say that the Raptors are anything but perfect. They have struggled to play their brand of basketball—leading the charge with stifling defense and feeding off fastbreak opportunities—consistently, Donovan Mitchell and James Harden have been an offensive force the Raptors haven’t figured out yet, and they turn the ball over a ton.
Moreover, Brandon Ingram hasn’t looked like the go-to scorer the team needs, and Jakob Poeltl has struggled to contribute to the point that Rajaković benched him for all but nine minutes in Game 2.
Going into the playoffs with an inexperienced team and without your starting point guard isn’t easy, and it only gets more difficult when you’re facing a more veteran team that has been to the playoffs with three of its core players several years in a row.
But the Raptors are learning
Despite everything, there were some notable improvements between Game 1 and Game 2. The Raptors’ defensive intensity was higher, they got some fastbreak points, and they saw better performances from several players.
Scottie Barnes was a lot more aggressive offensively in Game 2 and added two steals and one block to a previously empty defensive stat sheet. Sandro Mamukelashvili crashed the boards for a team-high ten rebounds and was much more involved than in Game 1. Ja’Kobe Walter only made one 3-pointer in Game 1, but sank three in Game 2 on his way to 14 points.
Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles has been the biggest playoff revelation so far. He barely looked like he was taken aback by playing in the playoffs for the first time, recording 14 points on 7-8 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists in his first 20 minutes of postseason basketball in the NBA. He played 26 minutes in Game 2, recorded 17 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block, and gave the Raptors a more versatile option defensively than Jakob Poeltl.
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