TAMPA, Fla. — The Raptors are in unfamiliar territory and, no, we’re not talking about playing in Tampa.
After losing their first three games of the season, the Raptors are off to their worst start in 15 years. And while the NBA season is just a week old, the Raptors arrive back in Tampa to host the New York Knicks on Thursday as a team that desperately needs to turn things around.
The Raptors haven’t had a start like this since 2005-06, when they lost their first nine games and a 1-15 start doomed their season in the first month. Last season, they didn’t lose their third game until the 10th game of the season.
“I think we don’t have time to waste,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said after the team’s 100-93 loss in Philadelphia. “We’re 0-3 and we need to win very, very, very bad. We’ve got to do everything we possibly can to win the next game.”
For the Raptors, this is extremely uncharacteristic.
“We’re letting our foot off the pedal, just not keeping the same urgency that we have when we’re on these runs getting these big leads,” Raptors forward OG Anunoby said.
“Sometimes we take bad shots, don’t play hard on defense. Just (need to) keep our focus for a whole 48 minutes.”
What’s gone wrong with the Raptors the first week of the season? Here’s a look:
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The Raptors had double-digit leads in each of their three losses. Against the Pelicans and 76ers, they held those leads in the second half. But down the stretch, the Raptors have gone cold. In their first three games, they’ve been outscored in the second half by a total of 38 points.
They’re only averaging 21.7 points in the fourth quarter, which ranks second to last in the league, so it’s clear shots aren’t falling late.
Some of that can be attributed to new players — like centers Aron Baynes and Alex Len — getting used to their roles in the Raptors’ pick-and-roll offense. But a lot of it has been returning players not getting to the rim or making their own shots later in games when defenses collapse. Overall, it’s made for some ugly basketball from the team down the stretch.
“I think we’re not being strong enough with the ball,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “It seems like we’re either having a late pass-handling issue, a finishing issue or even when we do go up without a pass, we’ve lost the ball out of bounds a few times just on our own.”
The team’s leading scorer last season, forward Pascal Siakam, who Nurse said is the team’s “finisher,” shot 46% from the field in the fourth quarter last season. So far this season, he’s 1 for 9.
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The way the Raptors play defense is the biggest part of their winning identity. The way the pressure the ball, challenge drives and protect the rim frustrates opposing offenses into bad shots and feeds into the Raptors’ transition game on offense. Last season, the Raptors allowed 106.5 points per game, the fewest in the league, and held opponents to 42.8% field-goal percentage, which ranked second in the NBA. This season, opponents are shooting 45.8% from the floor.
The Raptors are contesting fewer shots, especially from the perimeter, where opponents are shooting 38.3% from 3-point range (Their 33.7% opposing 3-point percentage last season lead the league).
They showed improvement in Tuesday’s game, holding the Sixers to 38.1% shooting and 25.8% from 3, and now must build on that showing.
“We kind of were a little bit more active in a sense of us being in the right spot to make them take a tough shot,” Lowry said after Tuesday’s game. “But at the same time, you know we got to be a little bit better.”
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Maybe the most dramatic difference statistically between this year’s team and last year’s is how seldom the Raptors are getting to the free-throw line. They are averaging just 13.7 free-three attempts a game, which is nearly 10 fewer a game last year. And it’s not as if their opponents aren’t getting there. On Wednesday night, Sixers center Joel Embiid went to the free-throw line 16 times, two more than the entire Raptors team.
While departed big men Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol were big presences inside, they didn’t get to the line that much, but their replacements, Aron Baynes and Alex Len, have gotten to the free-throw line just twice in three games.
Without saying as much, Lowry indicated that the Raptors aren’t getting calls when they’re drawing contact. Asked about the discrepancy, Lowry laughed and said, “I’m gonna save my money,” opting against criticizing officiating and getting fined.
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The Raptors only had three preseason games, which didn’t allow Nurse much time to audition players for his second-team rotation. Because of the losses of Ibaka and Gasol, the Raptors went into the season knowing they’d have to play a smaller lineup. But against such an interior presence like Embiid, the Raptors went big and gave the 7-foot-1 Len and big guard Stanley Johnson (6-foot-7) their first playing time of the season, and they provided a spark off the bench with 7 points and 8 rebounds.
That matchup worked for that particular night, but the rotation is still a work in progress. Nurse made it clear there are minutes to be won, and while wiry center Chris Boucher sat out most of the game against Philly, he’s done everything he can to get more playing time. Sixth man Norman Powell has struggled immensely, shooting just 17.4% from the floor. So Nurse has some decisions to make in the coming weeks about what combinations he wants on the floor, especially with his second team in the second half.
