The quest for consistency gets real
With the NBA playoffs on the horizon, it’s time to minimize the mistakes
Kawhi Leonard has been unwavering on one point throughout the NBA regular season. He has said the season is about getting ready for an extended playoff run, about finding incremental growth and consistency of effort and execution.
Winning is great, and remaining healthy is paramount, but it’s about doing the right things at the most important time. And now that the post-season is coming into focus, the pursuit of consistent excellence goes on.
It’s all well and good to think about integrating two key new members of the Raptors’ rotation, but it is much bigger than just getting Marc Gasol and Jeremy Lin up to speed.
“It's for everybody, really,” Leonard said Monday of that pursuit over the last 21 games of the regular season. “You can't just think about two new guys on the team. It has to be the whole group. It has to be all16,17 players.”
Leonard’s attitude is much needed for a Raptors team that has had its eyes on playing for a championship since it got together last September in Vancouver. The seven-year veteran, who has played in two NBA finals, is dogged in chasing perfection, even though he knows it’s not attainable.
What is attainable is limiting silly mistakes and playing with consistency night to night.
“Little mistakes, big mistakes ... just defensive assignments and execution,” Leonard said, discussing what needs to be worked on. “Execution consists of doing the right thing, knowing what you're doing with a purpose. Just basically executing on offence, having the same energy every night.”
Leonard’s assertions could seem clichéd — “getting better every game” is as nebulous a goal as exists in sports because it really doesn’t mean anything specific — but they are appropriate to Toronto’s needs over the final quarter of the regular season.
The Raptors have never truly measured themselves against any other team in the league. They have measured themselves against themselves, confident that if they bring out the best in the group consistently, it doesn’t matter what the other guys do.
There will be ups and downs, without doubt. The Raptors will likely have at least a couple of games as bad as Sunday’s thrashing at the hands of the Orlando Magic, but they are also likely to have as many tense games like Friday’s against San Antonio. That’s where learning to minimize mistakes will be the most important. Sometimes winning or losing simply comes down to making or missing shots but effort, cohesion and execution are things that can be worked on constantly.
It’s what games are for, it’s what Monday’s practice was for, and it will be a common theme over the final six weeks of the regular season.
“Not only for the short term but the long term, we did a lot, a lot of film today on a lot, a lot of topics,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said Monday. “Some on (Sunday) night, some (on Tuesday’s game against Boston) and some ... relating to the long term.
“They’re good, super-locked in today, very good discussion, very good back and forth, very good intellect. So I think it was a good day today.”