STILL SEARCHING
Improving 3-point game is crucial, and a healthy lineup would be nice
To get to the next level, the Raptors have to sort some things out, including how to rotate their two big guns,
All things considered, the fact the Toronto Raptors came through their latest four-game foray to the Western Conference with a 2-2 record has to be seen as something of a positive, not to mention welcome, surprise.
They played four very good teams in tough road arenas, played two games without Kawhi Leonard, two without Kyle Lowry, 21⁄ without Jonas Valanciunas, one without either Pascal Siakam or Fred VanVleet and all four without Norm Powell, who might have added some much-needed depth in some of those games. So, all good? Well, sort of good. There are still issues to clean up, and troubling trends are developing. The Raptors are good — no question — but this is a season in which they want to be great, and they are being held to the highest of NBA standards.
The Raptors were never as good as a 12-1 start to the season would indicate, nor are they as bad as their recent 3-5 slide would suggest. It’s finding a middle ground, and being healthy and playing well in April, that matters most.
Here’s a look at four issues the team needs to address:
Can’t shoot well enough
The funny thing about the justcompleted trip is that the Raptors shot a respectable 39.6 per cent from three-point range despite some obvious failings.
Sunday in Denver, when they needed someone — anyone — to get hot from beyond the arc, C.J. Miles went 2-for-9 and OG Anunoby went 2-for-8.
Even an average night from either one would have made a difference. The absence of Lowry and VanVleet certainly plays into any three-point shooting failings, but 31 games into the season, the Raptors shoot 34.8 per cent from three as a team.
That’s good for 20th in the league going into Monday night play, and that just won’t cut it. Someone has to become more consistent from behind the arc or general manager Bobby Webster is going to have to do some serious trade-deadline shopping.
The rotation and the bench
Much of the confusion and disruption is the result of injuries and absences for a variety of reasons, but coach Nick Nurse is still doing a lot of experimenting with groupings at this point in the season.
They’ve yet to come up with a consistent rotation that staggers the playing time of key components like Leonard and Lowry to ensure one of them is on the court.
The days of five Toronto backups playing together and dominating are long gone, so it’s up to Nurse and his staff to figure out a rotation and give it time to develop some chemistry to see where it takes them.
There have been extenuating circumstances, and Nurse is playing the long game with one eye focused on the post-season and how things work in April, May and June.
But players like certainty, or at least consistency, in playing times and roles, and it’s about time to give it to them.
Getting healthy
It’s been death by a thousand cuts for the Raptors so far and it has to be infuriating.
The only real long-term debil- itating injuries have been to Powell, who hasn’t played since the first week of November and his talents might have come in handy some nights, and Valanciunas, who won’t play for months and whose absence will be sorely missed.
Other than those, it’s been a game here and a game there because of sore backs, tweaked muscles, bruised and bangedup thighs and the like; niggling little injuries that are more disruptive to a roster than debilitating in the long term.
It’s impressive Toronto has thrived considering all that’s gone on, but it would be nice to see what three weeks or a month with a consistent roster would be like.
Smooth sailing ahead
The big truism about the NBA, or any professional sport, is that teams are never “supposed” to win games, because everyone’s a professional and gets paid and tries their best.
But still ... the Raptors have come through by far the toughest one-third of their schedule pretty well and things turn for the better from now on.
They have just three road trips of three games left — one of them is interrupted by the Christmas break — and they don’t play west of Texas the rest of the season.
They, along with Philadelphia and New Orleans, have played more games than any another team heading into play Monday.
It’s not easy to win any game at any time against any opponent in the NBA, but schedule-makers have given the Raptors a bit of a leg up.