Raptors revert to bad habits in agonizing loss to Warriors
It was close, but not quite, yet again in Oakland for the Raptors. Oracle is one of the toughest buildings in the entire NBA to play in, but the Raptors were right there. In fact, Toronto had a late lead and a real shot ... before Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Co. lowered the boom.
It was truly unfortunate that Jakob Poeltl, who is having a heck of a run in Season 2, couldn’t finish a great feed from DeMar DeRozan late. It was a huge momentum swing of a play, with the Warriors rallying to seize control.
Poeltl was fantastic, he dominated the boards, covered tons of ground on defence and generally was again one of the best players on the floor (he even got a shoutout from Kevin Durant post-game).
The pass from DeRozan was one of the good decisions made by DeRozan and Kyle Lowry in the latter half of the fourth quarter. However, too often, they reverted to what they know and do best isolation ball. Weaning themselves off of that style is going to be a seasonlong process.
They don’t need to go away from it entirely, DeRozan made a great shot over Curry and drew a foul on Green at key points, they just need to mix things up. Want to ISO? Sure, go for it, but make sure you run some plays in the preceding possessions to at least create some doubt in the minds of your opponents. Otherwise, it’s back to what doesn’t work against the highest caliber of opponents.
So, it’s a .500 record after four games with a chance to go below that mark for the first time since Jan. 7, 2014. if the Lakers win on Friday (the Lakers just beat Washington, about the same caliber of team as the Raptors). Still very early, but that’s a run the franchise takes pride in.
You have to be impressed with Pascal Siakam. It’s not easy to step in as a starter after barely playing for the first three games. Siakam scored a career-best 20 points, using his ability to run the floor to generate easy points. He also hit two of three three-point attempts on another night where the Raptors struggled from deep (1-for-8 for Lowry, 1-for-6 for Ibaka, 0-for-4 for Delon Wright, who can’t take that many at this point and made a really bad shot decision late).
Lowry took some defensive steps forward in this one, but his shooting remains puzzlingly off. What made the late change in style stand out more was the fact DeRozan and Lowry moved the ball well for much of the game, combining for 15 assists and just five turnovers. DeRozan’s also been more active defensively this year (maybe it’s the slightly lowered offensive load he is carrying?). He had six steals, though some of that was sloppy Golden State play.
Didn’t Green get away with carrying the ball during the decisive Warriors run? Sure looked like it. Ended up resulting in a huge threepointer.
More good work from OG Anunoby and another Norman Powell outing that didn’t stand out (though his advanced metrics were some of the best on the team in this one).
Might we see the rookie in the starting lineup before too long, or is it way too early for that?