Steady march to being playoff-ready
Defence and effort can eliminate any steps back as season winds down
With less than 20 per cent of the NBA regular season remaining, and with the Raptors positioned to enter the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s second seed, the players and the team’s brain trust recognize that progress to this point hasn’t been linear.
Some nights the Raptors remind you of the club that held the NBA’s best record through mid-December, witness their 118-95 thumping of the Boston Celtics in a high-stakes home game that aired nationwide in the U.S. But they enter a threegame road trip, starting Friday in New Orleans, with three losses in their last five games. The Raptors allowed the Houston Rockets to erupt for 38 fourthquarter points in a 107-95 loss on Tuesday.
Still, head coach Nick Nurse is confident progress will win out, and that the Raptors are still poised to play cohesive, winning basketball over the final phase of the regular season.
“I can really see ... big leaps forward, and then a step back,” Nurse said Thursday. “We’ve got to get to that point where it’s just steady steps going forward, and not that step back.”
The team’s consistency has suffered since a thumb injury sidelined point guard Fred VanVleet, who directed a second unit that normally is an asset for the Raptors. But Tuesday against Houston every Raptors non-starter finished with a plus-minus rating of minus-15 or worse.
Some Raptors thought it came back to the consistent effort required to beat playoff teams.
“We have to play harder as a group and continue to get better,” said starting point guard Kyle Lowry after Tuesday’s loss. “Nothing’s going to be given to you on any given night.”
Beyond that, Lowry said, the team’s coaches could decide which lineup permutations would yield the most consistent results.
Nurse told reporters Thursday that a heightened focus on defence would lead to baskets, and rhymed off a list of players — such as Norman Powell, Patrick McCaw and OG Anunoby — who could ignite the offence by being more “disruptive on defence.”
And even as the club works to regain its upward trajectory, Nurse sounded confident the day before the weekend road trip.
“If the playoffs were starting this weekend, I’d be ready to go and excited about where our team is,” he told reporters.
The playoff-bound Raptors are still privileged compared with the Pelicans. Where the Raptors are a second-place team looking to harmonize new parts and optimize performance ahead of the post-season, New Orleans confronted deep-seated dysfunction midseason and emerged a changed club.
Star forward Anthony Davis hasn’t hidden his wish to leave New Orleans for a contender. He doesn’t become a free agent until next summer, but he’s made clear he’d prefer not to wait. Earlier this season he and buddy LeBron James teamed up in a power play they hoped would force New Orleans to trade Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Instead the move prompted still more drama, including a nine-game stretch in which the Pelicans made a healthy Davis inactive.
Davis has since returned to the lineup, but with severely diminished minutes. He’s averaging 34.2 minutes per game, but has logged more than 30 minutes just once since rejoining the team Feb. 8.
In Wednesday’s 114-104 loss against Utah, Davis logged few- er than 21 minutes, while his team committed 17 turnovers that led to 28 Utah points.
Afterward head coach Alvin Gentry acknowledged his club’s carelessness made the difference against the Jazz.
“If you give up almost 30 points in a game off turnovers, then that changes everything,” Gentry told reporters.