Believe it or not the Toronto Raptors are now a quarter of the way through their season (OK, 23.6%, if you want to get technical). Only seven teams have fewer wins than Toronto, but the Raptors actually look more like a middle of the pack group if you look at most numbers and we still say they end up with about a .550 winning percentage before the regular season ends. Neither Toronto nor Miami will be at the bottom of the standings for long.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues to be worked out following a split against the Indiana Pacers for a depleted group of Raptors. Considering the past half-decade or so, it’s a bit odd to see a Raptors team that looks off effort-wise on so many nights. From Dwane Casey to Nick Nurse, you could count on Toronto teams playing harder than their opponent the vast majority of the time. Not as much this season. Plus, we got spoiled by watching a super-smart group of players executed defensively brilliantly over the last few years.
Most importantly, this team just needs to get healthy. Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry can’t be hobbled if this team is going to go anywhere. As important as Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby are, Siakam and Lowry are the all-stars and the keys.
Lowry’s clearly not himself. He’s dealing with a toe injury that seems to be hampering his play a bit, but there’s also the personal issue that kept him away recently and even his start to the year was strange as he was also absent early on. Obviously as Lowry goes, so go the Raptors, like every other year, so they need him to return to his usual level.
One thing that’s caught my eye is the low assist numbers so far this year for one of the NBA’s premier play-makers. Even with scoring and shooting numbers way up, Lowry’s averaging just 6.6 assists per game, his lowest since 2015-16. His assist percentage is his lowest since he was a 23-year-old in Houston and his turnover percentage is up.
Lowry only handed out one assist against the Pacers on Monday, just the third time over the last six seasons he’s had one or less in a game where he played at least 15 minutes. He also only had two assists a few weeks ago against Portland, which had been his fewest in a game since he did it twice last season.
Oddly, despite Lowry’s slippage as an assist man, Toronto is still sixth in the NBA in assist percentage. That speaks to the work of Siakam and VanVleet, in particular, as play-makers, as well as improvements from Anunoby (and some crafty work from Stanley Johnson, who continues to impress, along with a recent surge from Norman Powell).
Yuta Watanabe continues to impress off the bench. Watanabe is a sound defender, an excellent rebounder and a willing passer. He can’t shoot or create much of his own offence, but he seems to be solidifying himself as a nice role player who can help a lot defensively. Considering some of the team’s defensive struggles at times, that’s a nice option for Nick Nurse to have available.
Meanwhile Chris Boucher continues to revert back to the mean a bit, especially with his shooting. He remains a solid backup centre though, but a bit more Aron Baynes against the gigantic Myles Turner might be something Nurse and his staff are thinking about today after Turner had his way with Boucher down the stretch.
Boucher continues to be awesome at blocking three-pointers:
THREE STARS
1 — Malcolm Brogdon
2 — Myles Turner
3 — Fred VanVleet
THREE STARS for win over Indiana:
1 — OG Anunoby
2 — Fred VanVleet
3 — Myles Turner
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