Improvement can be found even in longest of streaks
For all the fun the Raptors are having during their franchise-record 15-game win streak — including Serge Ibaka gifting teammates with artful scarves on the charter to New York on Tuesday, the latest act in a “Who wore it first?” battle with OG Anunoby — there’s always room for improvement.
The defending champions are receptive to constructive criticism, even as they’ve put their last loss — Jan. 12 against DeMar DeRozan and the San Antonio Spurs — further in the rear-view mirror.
“There’s always plenty of mistakes to (correct) out there, that’s for sure,” coach Nick Nurse said recently.
So, how does a 40-14 team riding the longest win streak in Canadian major pro sports history get better? It’s a question the Raptors continue to ask themselves in pursuit of a return trip to the NBA Finals.
A seemingly endless spate of injuries to key players makes it difficult to find the answer. It’s hard to tell exactly what you’ve got when regulars such as Marc Gasol (hamstring) and Norman Powell (broken finger) are sidelined for long stretches.
Rebounding, however, has been a weak spot regardless of the lineup options. The Raptors concede an average of 14.1 secondchance points a game, 26th in the 30-team league. It’s a trend Nurse would like to nip in the bud before the post-season rolls around. “Defensive rebounding hasn’t been as good as we would like it,” the coach said, “and that’s just a combination of making sure we’re blocking out a little better, but then chasing them down and trying to sense where the
long (rebounds) will fly to,” Nurse said.
“With all the (three-point attempts) there’s a lot more long rebounds, and we struggled with that early in the year. Kind of reared its head a bit again (lately).”
At 35.4 defensive rebounds per game, the Raptors rank 13th. When it comes to percentage of available rebounds grabbed on the defensive end, though, they rank ahead of just four teams at 71 per cent — the Portland Trail Blazers, Atlanta Hawks, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets, all of them out of the playoff picture at the moment. By comparison, last season they averaged 35.6 per game, but ranked in the middle of the pack in percentage at 76.2.
It’s a similar story on the offensive boards. The Raptors rank in the bottom third of the league with 9.9 offensive rebounds and 12.3 secondchance points per game — almost identical to last season’s numbers.
Missing big men Gasol and Ibaka for a combined 30 games this season because of injuries hasn’t helped. But for whoever Nurse has available on a given night, the solution could be as simple as a consistent effort for a full 48 minutes.
If this Raptors team has shown one thing over the course of the streak, it’s that they know how to win in different ways despite struggling to stay in top gear for an entire game — a luxury they won’t be afforded come playoff time.
The Oklahoma City Thunder chipped away at a Raptors lead that grew as big as 30 in the first game of the streak on Jan. 15, only to get within three points in the final two minutes.
The Minnesota Timberwolves scored 39 points in the Raptors’ worst first quarter of the season on Jan. 18.
A21-point lead against the Atlanta Hawks nearly evaporated in the fourth quarter two days later.
The Raptors fell behind by as many as 14 against the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 22 thanks to poor defence, trailed the New York Knicks by13 two days later thanks to a handful of sluggish stretches, and fell behind by 19 against the Indiana Pacers before rallying on Feb. 5 to keep the streak alive. Two of the last four wins have been by a single point, including Saturday at home to the Brooklyn Nets.
On Wednesday, the Raptors visit the Nets for their last game before the all-star break.
“The games have been up and down within the same game a lot,” Nurse said. “We’re just trying to play a little more consistent, possession to possession.”
Figuring that out now could go a long way when winning matters most in the post-season.