It’s all well and good to talk about a promising young core and developing for the future, and seeing good things for this group of Raptors on the distant horizon.
But they need to start winning games to give themselves tangible proof that they can.
And given an opportunity against the woefully short-handed Memphis Grizzlies, they failed miserably.
Again lacking any sustained cohesion and with a defence that was insufficient most of the night, the Raptors coughed up a 108-100 decision to Memphis at Scotiabank Arena on Monday night.
It was their seventh loss in its last eight games, dropped the Raptors to 16-28 on the season and was as bad a game as they’ve played since the roster shape-shifting trades began piling up in late December.
They didn’t move the ball particularly well, the interior defence wasn’t physical enough and they never put together a stretch of stops that would have allowed them to play at the pace they like. It started when Memphis put up a 30-point first quarter and never got much better.
“We were not connected offensively or defensively. Everybody was kind of like walking on eggshells,” coach Darko Rajakovic said after the game.
“Start of the game, all the turnovers that we had (eight in the first eight minutes) is a question of focus, and a question of bringing that effort to the game. That was lacking from the start of the game.”
It was as it’s been for a couple of weeks and if the future is bright, the present is bleak.
This is a new team — only Chris Boucher and Gary Trent Jr. remain from the squad that spent 2020-21 in the purgatory of Tampa — and one that the Raptors feel confident will grow into something special. Some day, that is.
Today, it is a team of unfamiliar pieces that needs to hang together and win together to know what that feels like.
A glaring case in point Monday was point guard Immanuel Quickley, who has had an otherwise solid start to his Toronto tenure. But a couple of hours after Rajakovic said he needed the newly minted starter to be more assertive, Quickley had his most passive game.
He got up only 13 shots — six three-pointers — and while he had nine assists, he also committed four turnovers.
“It’s a learning process for him, for sure. Just finding that balance,” Rajakovic said of Quickley.
“He needs to be aggressive, we need him to be aggressive. We need him to take threes. We need him to take more threes. He’s one of the best three-point shooters in the league above the break and we need to get him to take eight, nine, 10 threes a game.”
It’s a team thing as well.
“I felt that he had a couple of opportunities to get them up (and) he did not take them, and also I think the team needs to do for him more as well,” the coach said. “Guys got to be more aware.”
It wasn’t like Quickley was the only Raptor struggling to find his way. Scottie Barnes, on whom the future is so pinned now, was all right but never took over the game for even short spurts, and Trent never got in a groove. RJ Barrett led the Raptors with 29 points, and Barnes finished with 22.
It’s not to say the Raptors won’t figure it out with time, though. It’s just that losing sometimes begets losing and can fracture a team. With a six-game road trip coming after a Friday home game against the Los Angeles Clippers, it’s a dangerous time.
“It’s a completely brand new team, and the only way in the middle of a season that you can continue to improve and get better is through the support of each other,” Rajakovic said before the game. “You’re going to have really bright moments. You’re going to have ups and downs, and all of that is part of the game. Being able to have honest and good conversations in a positive and uplifting way is very important.”
The Grizzlies were missing every significant piece of their rotation save Jaren Jackson Jr., who lit up Toronto with 27 points and six steals.
Ja Morant, Desmond Bane, Marcus Smart and Steven Adams were all out, yet the Grizzlies shot 46 per cent from the field.
The Raptors once again split centre duties between starter Jontay Porter and Thad Young (coming off the bench) as they try to stay afloat in the frontcourt without the injured Jakob Poeltl. Porter lasted less than three minutes before he left for the locker room, and played just three more first-half minutes. That left Young and a small Raptors lineup with either Barnes or Bruce Brown as the nominal centre.
Rajakovic said before the game that Poeltl is progressing well from a sprained ankle, but there’s no indication when the seven-footer will be back.
“He has started to work on the court,” the coach said. “He’s according to plan, progressing with the loads and what he’s allowed to do. We are hoping to see him playing very, very soon.”
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