Raptors’ bench losing its edge

Reserves struggling to produce offence

Hin Phoenix ow quickly can change NBA world. Toronto’s bench could seemingly do no wrong only a week ago and questions abounded about how the team would work point guard Delon Wright back into the rotation upon his return from injury since all of the reserves had been performing so well.

A group that had been one of the best in the league for much of the season has looked dreadful recently. Their defence has been passable, but the offence has completely dried up. While Toronto’s starters have averaged a stellar 115 points per 100 possessions over the past five games, the bench has mustered an anemic 94.7. The things in the bench has shot 23.5 per cent from beyond the three-point arc, better than only two other teams in that span.

Fred VanVleet, who figures to be most impacted by the looming return of Wright, is always even-keeled and says this stretch is nothing to worry about.

“It’s a long year. As good as we’ve been, we kind of set the standard high for ourselves,” VanVleet said of the bench.

“We’ve got to live up to that every night. But the past few games it’s been up and down, up and down. We’ve just got to be able to be consistent and contribute on a high level ... As long as we err on the side of being above the average line, I think we can live with that. We’ve got to pick it back up and be better than we’ve been. And it’s a culmination of things, a lot of things go into that. But each guy himself has just got to look at himself in the mirror and be better then next time out.”

VanVleet agreed that the way the bench had been torching opponents likely caught the attention of opposing coaches.

“I’m sure that’s a part of it. I’m sure we’re not sneaking up on anybody (anymore),” he said.

“But that’s a part of the NBA. Teams scout. We scout. I’m sure every team we play against have coaches that are paid to do that and players who are paid to know the game plan. That’s not an excuse. It’s a long year. And there’s going to be really good games and there’s going to be some below-average games. We’ve just got to try and limit those and get back to what we’ve been doing.”

Clippers reserves got to the free throw line 14 times on Monday in Los Angeles, Toronto’s backups didn’t attempt a single freebie. They also got outrebounded 25-11.

“Their bench came in and outworked us,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.

“All the way around, coaches and players, we just weren’t sharp, and we didn’t do anything to deserve a win.”

Besides being outworked, the Toronto offence also shot itself in the foot. The ball simply stopped moving.

“We were just moving the ball (early on) and somehow, some way, we stopped doing it,” Casey said. “We’ve got to be a ball movement team, because we held them to 37 per cent. That’s enough defence to win. We’ve just got to move the ball and make the open shots that we missed.”

Casey might have been on to something: The Raptors actually shot better on contested shots (41.1 per cent) than on uncontested ones (39.1 per cent). Kyle Lowry went 1-for-8 on uncontested attempts, a rarity for him.

A day after holding Sacramento to just 41 points in the second half of a win and only six assists against nine turnovers in the final two quarters. As Casey said, the defence was plenty good enough to win most nights. It was only the fifth time since the 2013-14 season that a Raptors team lost a game when holding the opposition under 40 per cent from the field (the Clippers shot 37.4 per cent, but had an absurd 14-3 edge on the offensive glass).