Boston – With their ring ceremony behind them, a number of the Toronto Raptors respectfully expressed the idea that they were eager to get on with the business of the regular season.
Winning the NBA title was great. Celebrating it might have been even better and those rings are forever.
But it is time to go to work.
Friday night in Boston, the Raptors got their first taste of what projects to be an unpredictable Eastern Conference, the Celtics are just one team among several with big expectations despite having shifted key pieces from their core.
It wasn’t entirely encouraging. The Raptors came into Boston — a team they will probably be battling with for home-court advantage in the playoffs if things go well this season — and frittered away a winnable game with a tortured final few minutes in a 112-106 loss that dropped them to 1-1 on the season.
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Toronto couldn’t muster a field goal in the final 3:41 of the game and trailing by four with under three minutes turned the ball over three times and gave up two critical offensive rebounds while scoring just two points.
They head to Chicago on Saturday for the second game of the two-game, two-night road trip after starters Fred VanVleet clocked in for 42 minutes, Kyle Lowry for 40, OG Anunoby 38 and Pascal Siakam 36, even after playing just 14 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble.
It should be interesting given how Raptors head coach Nick Nurse has yet to show faith in anyone past the top seven players on his depth chart.
Boston, led by Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown who had 25 points apiece, looked like the more polished group even with all its off-season changes and coming off a blowout loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in its season opener Wednesday.
In theory, all the Celtics’ changes should have played into the Raptors’ hands as they make their way through the conference — meeting the Celtics before they get a feel for each other and all of that.
The Celtics said farewell to starters Al Horford and Kyrie Irving and key reserve Aron Baynes in the off-season while adding point guard Kemba Walker in free agency. Part of the hope in adding the popular Walker was that he would help mend a locker room that was widely understood to be divided in part by the enigmatic Irving.
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Instead, it was the Raptors who looked discombobulated, coughing up 23 turnovers (Boston had nine) and surrendering 21 offensive rebounds while grabbing only five themselves.
That it was a one-possession game while the Celtics took 31 more shots than the Raptors did (due to the turnovers and offensive rebounds) was oddly a sign of encouragement afterward.
“We have to be better. I thought they had a little more juice than us down the stretch,” said VanVleet. “… It’s a learning experience for us. If you told me we had 23 turnovers and gave up 21 offensive rebounds, I would have thought we had lost by 40.”
The Raptors are hopeful that having 10 returning players – even in the absence of Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green – can be a built-in advantage. They felt like it did down the stretch against the New Orleans Pelicans in the opener, for example.
“We still have some carryover with Freddie, Norm, Pascal, myself. Having that continuity helps a lot, honestly,” said Lowry, who looked his old self after missing most of training camp as he popped off for 29 points on a combination of deep threes and drives to the paint.
“You need as much chemistry as you can get and if you can bring the chemistry in quicker, it’s awesome. …It’s nothing you can measure or pinpoint and say, ‘oh, that’s chemistry.’ It’s just a feel for each other and understanding what each other wants to do and being able to have those conversations about this or that.”
But chemistry without execution won’t get you very far, it’s safe to say.
“We just have to be more aggressive,” said Lowry after the game. “We turned the ball over too much tonight, we gave up 109 shots. The (final few) minutes had nothing to do with it. We just gotta play way better.”
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Making shots helps. The Raptors started the game shooting 3-of-10 from deep and had made 14 of their next 24 when Lowry hit his sixth triple in nine tries to give Toronto an 89-92 lead two minutes into the fourth quarter.
They shot 18-of-36 from deep overall – the primary reason they were in the game at all.
Siakam led the way in this regard as he hit his first five threes – all of them above the break and a new element to his game. After missing a long stretch of the first quarter with foul trouble, Siakam didn’t score until there was 4:25 left in the half en route to 33 points on 22 shots. But he was a primary culprit in the Raptors’ carelessness with the ball as his five turnovers are a sign he’s still figuring out being a primary option in life after Leonard. He had four giveaways in the Raptors’ opening night win over New Orleans.
“I’ve got to be better making decisions with the ball knowing there’s more attention and there’s help coming,” said Siakam, who has now scored 67 points in two games.
“I’ve got to anticipate that. But also not be passive. So I’ve got to find my balance on that and not be in a hurry. If there’s an opportunity to go quick, I can go quick. If not, I’ll just relax, see how the defence plays it and make plays. I’ve gotta be better. I’ve gotta be better for sure. I can’t have five turnovers.”
And while Marc Gasol returning for a full season after being added at the trade deadline is thought to be a big plus in terms of the Raptors’ chemistry and continuity, it won’t be if his offensive struggles in the playoffs last year carry over. He was a miserable 0-of-8 from the floor against Boston, and the Raptors lost their momentum when he checked into the game late in the fourth and the Celtics scored in transition off a pair of his misses.
“Obviously you want to make every shot that you can and try to get good looks and get rhythm offensively,” said Gasol who has started the season in a 2-of-17 funk. “At the same time, you’ve got to help the team in other ways when you don’t have the ball falling in for you.”
Nurse’s take?
“He’ll be fine. Will probably score 20 tomorrow night.”
Both teams got off to desultory starts as Boston led 22-21 after the first quarter, the most notable details other than them combining to shoot 15-of-48 from the floor was that Stanley Johnson became the ninth Raptors player to see the floor this season. He got in late in the quarter after both Siakam and Anunoby picked up two quick fouls, and the Raptors had some rebounding issues as the Celtics pulled down seven offensive rebounds in the period. But Johnson and Terrence Davis combined to play just 14 minutes in Nurse’s top-heavy rotation.
Things picked up somewhat in the second. Pascal Siakam shook off a slow start to score 10 points in the final 4:28 of the half. Siakam’s burst helped the Raptors put together a 13-2 run and helped make up for 13 first-half turnovers – three by Siakam who looked a bit confused at first by the Celtics’ defensive attention.
The Raptors looked like they would have a chance to go into the half with the lead after Gasol was apparently fouled attempting a corner three with 1.5 seconds remaining, but the Celtics had the call reversed via the newly instituted coach’s challenge – each team is allowed one per game, providing they have a timeout which they lose if the review is unsuccessful. But trailing 50-49 after giving up all those turnovers and 13 offensive rebounds was likely considered a bonus within the Raptors room.
A win on the road would have been a bigger bonus given the way the game unfolded on the whole, but the loss was a reminder that they can’t win on chemistry alone and championship pedigree can only take you so far.
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October 26, 2019 at 09:20AM
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