Raptors struggle to find form on sporadic defence
Six days into this fivegame, nine-day trip and the same question asked about the Toronto Raptors at the beginning of the trip remains unanswered.
What has happened to the defence?
It shows up in spurts, but so do the 35-plus-point quarters that have been killing this team of late.
Through three games, the Raptors are 1-2 on the trip and could easily be 0-3. In Denver, they gave up 38 points in the second quarter, but rallied to steal a win. In Sacramento, it was a 36-point first quarter. And Monday in Los Angeles against the league-leading Clippers, it was a 34-point third and 35-point fourth quarter.
“I don’t know what it is right now,” Patrick Patterson said following the 123-115 loss to the Clippers. “I wish I knew. We are scoring at will right now, but we just can’t seem to get stops, can’t seem to finish plays with rebounds. We have been a defensive-minded team for the past couple of years now, but it just seems we are getting away from that. We have to find a way to get back to that.”
There are all kinds of excuses the Raptors can use right now, but those shouldn’t matter to a team that returns with its core players seasoned enough to know how to handle these stretches.
Patterson certainly had no interest in making excuses.
“We are basically the same team as last year,” he said. “We are just a few more pieces.” DeMar DeRozan, off to the hottest start of his eight-year NBA career from an individual offensive standpoint, sees the same things as Patterson on defence.
A lack of team cohesion, lack of communication, but most of all an inability to close out quarters.
“We don’t catch rhythm,” DeRozan said. “We let teams finish off quarters well. We let them score too much in quarters.
“We have to have a conscious effort of trying to win every quarter on both ends of the floor. We kind of played an outscore them game too many quarters and things like that we have to limit.”
Communication or lack thereof seems to be a common theme brought up by the Raptors when asked about their defensive regression.
“It’s all about communication out there on the court, whether it’s pick-and-roll or screens or pin downs,” Patterson said. “Whether it’s chasing the man or help-side defence, it all relies on communication, on us talking to each other and we just have to figure out a way to be better at that.“
If there is a light at the end of this tunnel, it comes with the knowledge that the toughest part of this segment of the schedule is behind them. They got much-needed rest Tuesday in Houston and after the game there Wednesday should get in a practice Thursday in Milwaukee on American Thanksgiving.
“We’ve still got Houston, a very offensive-minded team; Milwaukee’s a tough team in Milwaukee. It doesn’t get any easier. But again, we’ve got to get our mindset (on) more defence,” head coach Dwane Casey said.