RAPTORS SET EXAMPLE FOR LEAFS
NBA champs win and entertain fans while Buds fail to deliver on expectations
The Toronto Raptors seem to be everything you would want the Toronto Maple Leafs to be.
They play intense defence. They beat teams they’re not supposed to beat. They are more than the sum of their roster. They aren’t just well coached — the players clearly respond to the inspired guidance of Nick Nurse.
The Leafs don’t know how to play without the puck. They don’t have a regulation victory this season against an NHL team with a winning record. They are supposedly star laden and are playing well below expectations.
And about their coaching, well, we know this much: Mike Babcock has a great history of success in the NHL. But that’s not evident based on the way the Leafs have played through the first 20 games of this season of struggle.
Kawhi Leonard left the Raptors in free agency. That was supposed to tear the team apart. That was the dagger.
Danny Green left, as well, meaning two starters from the championship roster had to be replaced.
Then Kyle Lowry got hurt. Then Serge Ibaka got hurt. Then O.G. Anunoby got poked in the eye.
And what did the Raptors do against the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trailblazers in the two games without Lowry, Ibaka and eventually Anunoby? They almost beat the Clippers on a back to back — see Babcock on back to back games — but ran out of gas in the final minutes. They came back two nights later and beat the Trailblazers. Portland played for the Western Conference championship last year.
With only a portion of their starting roster in place, the Raptors are 3-1 on this West Coast swing. They’re not only the defending NBA champions, they’re also a contender to repeat, a team that can win the Eastern Conference. A team, maybe with the right addition and the right kind of health, that can play for a title again.
A team that you can’t help but love and admire.
The Leafs have played 20 games, almost a quarter of the season, and they’re on pace for a 90-point campaign. Translation: they’re on pace to miss the playoffs. Only Nashville scores at a higher pace. Only Detroit gives up goals at a higher pace. By itself, that’s a recipe for disaster.
The Leafs lack an identity, they don’t compete at a high enough level — reference the loss to the New York Islanders on Wednesday night. They don’t play, to use one of Babcock’s favourite expressions, the right way.
In the old statistical world, before analytics turned the Leafs into Stanley Cup contenders — oh, that didn’t happen? — there was a piece of math that was prominent throughout the NHL. It went this way: If you add up your penalty killing percentage and your power play percentage, the number for a successful team needs to be 100 or higher.
The thinking was, if you’re below, you’re going to struggle. When you add up the Leafs’ 24th-ranked penalty kill with their 20th-ranked power play, the number comes to 92.9. The number tells the story of this quarter of a season.
The Boston Bruins, tonight’s opponent, come in at 112.6. The Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues are at 106.9. The Leafs aren’t even close on special teams in an area that should be controlled by coaching.
The Raptors lost Lowry, their star point guard and glue man, for at least two weeks. They’ve lost Ibaka for longer than that. Somehow, they don’t seem to miss a beat. If you go back to the fourth quarter of Game 6 of the NBA Finals, the two difference makers in that period were Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam, an undrafted free agent and late first round pick, neither expected to become stars.
VanVleet and Siakam combined for 66 points on Wednesday night. Only seven players in the NBA are outscoring Siakam this season. VanVleet played against the giant backcourt of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum with the Blazers. He scored 30 points. Lillard and McCollum combined for 28.
In the Raptors’ last three games, they have shut down LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard and Lillard. All-World players. They have done it with a smothering defence and with players getting opportunities they’ve never been given before.
The Leafs added the highly regarded Tyson Barrie to the lineup this season. He doesn’t seem to fit. They added Cody Ceci on defence. He’s no Ron Hainsey. Morgan Rielly’s play has suffered with a new partner. They have Mitch Marner hurt instead of Lowry, had John Tavares, Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott hurt, and they’ve tripped all over themselves trying to get their lineup to work successfully.
Now, Toronto is still a hockey town. Some Torontonians thought they would celebrate the Raptors championship forever, with little faith in this season or expectations of anything significant. It’s that rare to win a championship in this city.
But you look at the Raptors today and love who and what they are. Then you look at the Leafs and wonder what the heck has gone wrong.