dominokirke

breaking news

Sports 

The Raptors face a massive January for their future, and it started badly

admin islam 0 Comments

January 2023 is one of the biggest regular season months of the last decade.

If he raptors To string together some wins and begin to deliver on promise that has been largely missed this season, team president Masai Ujiri will have to think long and hard before trading someone from the core of the team. When given the choice, Ujiri is generally a conservative dealer. If the Raptors continue to struggle, Ujiri will be pushed back into “seller” status, a place they haven’t been in a while, with the notable exception of Tampa Tank’s 2020-21 season. Ujiri doesn’t want his team to fight for mediocrity and, short of having a decent shot at making the playoffs, Ujiri has said that he doesn’t want to invest in a team doomed to the bottom of the Play-In Tournament ( or worse).

The Raptors are playing for their continued existence, like this, this month. With the returns of Fred VanVleet Y Precious Achiuwa for the lineup, they’re as healthy as they’ve been in a long time. They have a schedule that should allow them to thrive, if they can start playing good defense consistently. They couldn’t do that Monday, beginning the crucial month with a 122-114 loss at Indiana.

In the kind of contest they will have to win most of the time during this stretch, the Raptors let go of the rope momentarily in the second quarter of a competitive game. After winning against Phoenix, Nick Nurse said he wanted his players to just focus on controllable effort, basically, on their day off, and then they fell apart in transition in a second quarter they lost by 13 points. Missed shots from him started many of the Pacers’ transition opportunities, but many of the looks could have been avoided by coming back quicker or rushing the ball after missing. The pacemaker he grabbed 15 offensive rebounds to the Raptors’ 12 and scored 23 fast-break points to Toronto’s 12.

The Raptors came back into the game with excellent defense, only to fail to execute down the stretch when Indiana got the better of them. The Pacers, who have far exceeded expectations this season, seemed like the deepest and best team. Period.

It was the beginning of a streak of games that will determine the course of the Raptors’ season. Despite the presence of a seven-game trip to the Western Conference on their pre-deadline schedule, it’s not particularly hellish. They have only one in a row on that trip and face just two of the six teams in playoff spots: memphis Y sacrament. (It is true that clashes on the road in golden state and Phoenix, assuming reasonable health for those teams, are not gimmicks).

That way, the schedule is more favorable for the Raptors: They play 14 of their 20 games before the trade deadline against teams in Play-In or lottery placement. They have more rest advantages than disadvantages. They have only three back-to-backs.

Raptors schedule ahead of trade deadline

House Outside Total

total games

9

eleven

twenty

vs playoff team

2

4

6

against the Play-In team

4

5

9

vs team lottery

3

2

5

back to back

1

2

3

with rest advantage

3

4

7

with rest handicap

1

3

4

(Teams ranked based on standings before Monday night games.)

When you’ve performed as one of the eight or ten worst teams in the league, not many games will feel like automatic wins. Still, if the Raptors can muster more than five weeks of good play, it very well could come this stretch.

You’re going to have to. The Raptors entered Monday’s game ranked 12th, just percentage points shy of last place in the Tournament Entry. If they haven’t been able to improve their position between now and the February 9 trade deadline, they should seriously consider trading potential free agents VanVleet and Gary Trent Jr. It would be irresponsible not to. They can’t just be baby steps, either. They will have to show a remarkable upward trajectory and a path to a top six seed in the Eastern Conference.

Coincidentally, Indiana entered the game in that sixth spot, 3 1/2 games ahead of the Raptors. It is now 4 1/2. We’re only days away from 2023, but the Raptors are playing for their season.

Observations

• I hate bench points as a statistic. Reserves have different roles, and not all bench units are designed to score a lot of points. I prefer bank minutes because it allows you to better understand contributions. Indiana got 97. The Raptors got 44. (Benchmarks? The Pacers won 54-7.)

• When he’s feeling it, Trent makes watching the Raptors so much easier. Not that his shots create much more space for the Raptors playmakers, but he gives the team much-needed shots at the end of a possession that goes nowhere.

• Another bad shooting night for VanVleet, who returned after missing two games with back spasms. He made a defensive decision, trying to get the ball away from Aaron Nesmith instead of moving to stay in front of him, that was disastrous.

• Nurse gave Achiuwa short runs in the forward’s first game since he sprained and tore ligaments in his ankle on Nov. 9. scotch barnes he was throwing some weird passes to try and get him going, but other than that Achiuwa looked nice and bouncy. He had a big block in traffic and finished off one of those Barnes passes. Achiuwa was on the court for a few possessions as the Raptors defended fiercely around the rim. He had a great individual defense in Tyrese Haliburton to end your evening. Achiuwa had three points and three blocks in 12 minutes.

• With Barnes playing de facto center, he was putting up a lot of drop screens in coverage. Indiana miles turner it was hanging as close to the edge as possible. Throughout his career, Barnes hasn’t shied away from taking long 2s, but he wasn’t looking to shoot against coverage at all. It worked, as the Raptors were rained down in about 3 seconds, but there’s likely a happy middle ground involving Turner at least dribbling in the paint to get Turner to move a bit. Barnes doesn’t necessarily need to shoot on those sets, but he can’t just look to pass the ball either. At times, it seemed as if Barnes was paying tribute to Raptors-era Marc Gasol.

• On the other hand, that’s a very impressive capture and a very good effort to try to finish off a dunk on Turner. He does not receive the foul call if he tries to field the ball. He also had a good advice from a lost 3 from Trent to OG Anunoby for a replacement. That should be a help. Barnes was great in front of the raptors in transition, also. Barnes had 23 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in a fascinating game for him.

• I have no idea how officials reviewed the minor skirmish between Anunoby and Benedict Mathurin and decided that only Anunoby should get a technician. Anunoby held up the Montreal-bred rookie and Mathurin shoved Anunoby, who shoved him back. That’s either nothing or technical fouls for both players.

• That was a tough run from Malachi Flynn to end the first quarter. he was hit by T.J. McConnell one by one twice, then shot what should have been the frame’s last possession. Knowing Nurse, the former will stand out more than the latter. He was also at fault for the first two baskets of the second quarter, earning him a spot on the bench. His poor play was part of those amazing bench numbers.

(Gary Trent Jr. and Buddy Hield Photo: Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *