Transcription
Hello Raptors fans and welcome back to Raptors Report. Today we'll be discussing the Toronto Raptors game against the Philadelphia 76ers. But before we do that, I am going to tell you why the Toronto Raptors at the end of 20 games, about one quarter through the season, are going to have a top 10 ranked defense. That sounds pretty unbelievable if you were watching the Toronto Raptors even just a couple of games ago when defense was clearly the biggest issue with the team. They were really struggling to keep teams in front of them. They were really having a tough time keeping teams out of the paint, uh, scoring inside. They were fouling way too much. There were a whole bunch of problems and issues with the team. It seemed like they were not going to live up to the hype. Um, and I was just sort of baffled at uh where all of that sort of defensive potential that I saw in the preseason kind of uh evaporate into thin air.
Well, after 10 games, the Toronto Raptors are five and five and the defense has picked up considerably, especially since uh Yaka Purle has returned from injury and uh is back to kind of his old self. Uh looking mobile and sharp on that end. Uh that's really helped the Toronto Raptors. They've also gotten some uh luck with the schedule uh playing against some of the teams that they've played against over the past five games or so who have been missing uh a lot of their star power, a lot of their offensive players. So, they played against the uh Memphis Grizzlies without Jaw. They played against the Atlanta Hawks without Trey Young. Uh they played against the Cavs without Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland and on and on. uh they have had some serious luck in that regard which has really helped their defense sort of pick up and look better. Uh but prior to this past 76ers game uh the Toronto Raptors were only 0.2 points per 100 possessions out of having a top 10 defense in the league, which is pretty remarkable considering they were looking so bad earlier on in the season. Um, and while obviously you can point to some of the things that have been happening like um, playing against teams that don't have their lead creators, which definitely helps, I have found that their defense has not been as haphazard and out of control as it looked earlier in the season where they were helping so much that other teams would only have to pass the ball a couple of times to get a wide-open shot. Um, they've looked a lot more under control over the past couple of games, even against the Sixers. um overhelping and being chaotic on defense wasn't really the problem. The problem was more about uh them being unable to keep, you know, people out of the paint. Uh especially wing players being able to stay in front of their man. They are also still number six in the league in turnovers forced, which is obviously quite good. Uh it wasn't where they were. I think they were top three in the league in turnovers for forced uh recently, but I will take the trade-off of not turning other teams over as much uh with not allowing as many blow-bys. I think it's just you're a lot harder to play against if you're not giving up these like gimme baskets. Uh other teams, you know, I think will take turning the ball over a little bit more if they're going to be getting these really good shot opportunities at the basket. I think that they've improved quite a bit there.
Um, they have just been very good at limiting teams three-point shooting. Uh, they are eighth in opponent three-point attempts. Uh, I'm mused earlier in the season. There's probably still some carryover. There's probably still some of that um in the data where teams weren't shooting as many threes because they were just getting, you know, free uh sort of looks inside and you're not going to take a three-point attempt if you're getting a layup. Like that just doesn't make much sense. So, there's still some of that baked in, but they are actually, you know, I think um doing a good job still there. Uh they're limiting teams from three uh in terms of attempts and teams are only shooting about 33% uh from three against them, which is fifth best. And I think a lot of the time, like clearly teams are not getting great looks there, but I still think that that is probably unsustainable. That will probably creep back up into, you know, the 35ish range. Uh as will probably all of the teams who have a a record better than the Raptors in terms of opponent three-point field goal percentage. Um, a lot of the time that is just noise and um that will creep back up again.
Um, they have improved. Uh, so they were dead last uh, in opponent two-point field goal percentage. Uh, that uh, is obviously not good. uh a while ago, like I think about five games or so ago when they were 1 and four, they were dead last in terms of two-point uh field goal percentage. And now they are only fifth worst. And I mean, if you're starting at worst and you've creeped back up to fifth worst in opponent two-point field goal percentage, that's still an improvement. Um it's obviously, you know, uh they haven't gone from, you know, worst to middle of the pack. It's only a minor improvement, but it's still something that you want to see. Uh they've also improved their uh rebounding. So they were also uh dead last in uh total rebounds and they've gone to fifth worst and clearly getting Yaka Purle back has helped. Uh they are um you know Yaka Purle is one of the best defensive rebounders in the league. He is a really good uh you know good at boxing out. It's not only the rebounds that he gets, he also boxes out and pushes out the opposing center and the opposing you know forwards so that other people can get the rebound as well. Uh so that is good. I think also um I mentioned this on the podcast uh at the beginning of this week that if you are a team that turns opponents over a lot and the Raptors also turn the ball over uh quite a bit as well, those are possessions that are not going to end in any type of rebound uh for the opponent or for you um because when you turn the ball over, no shot went up and therefore no rebound can be collected. So that will be the end of a possession uh that doesn't involve a rebound. And when that happens um that just organically will lower your rebound rate. Even if you're a good rebounding team, you may artificially look like a worse rebounding team just because you aren't getting a rebound on a significant portion of your uh possessions. So that should be mentioned. Although I still think that when Jakob Purle was was hurt and when he was injured, the Raptors were a poor rebounding team. So, now that he uh is back and he's looking right, he was not back yesterday because they're load managing him. His back uh and it was a back-to-back game and so he didn't play and the Raptors did get sort of shellacked in that department. So, you know, when he is playing and I think that he will be playing uh the majority of the games, knock on wood, coming up, I think that they will be a better team on the defensive boards and just the boards in general.
Now, with all of that out of the way, uh, so after 10 games, the Toronto Raptors, uh, have a D-rating. Somehow, when you bake everything in, they are still 14th in D-rating. Uh, and they are fourth 14th in O rating. So, they are slightly above average in both categories with a plus 2.2 net rating. That is good. Uh, they are 13th in the league in uh, net rating. If you were to tell me uh after, you know, the first five games when they went 1 and four that the Toronto Raptors would be 14th in D-rating, I would just be over the moon. I'd be like, "Okay, well, they must have improved significantly."
Um, now I'm going to tell you why at the quarter season mark, so game 20, why the Toronto Raptors are going to have a top 10 defense. Okay? And so this requires looking at the schedule and seeing the games that are coming up. So, the next 10 games, the Toronto Raptors have a lot of games against some of the worst offenses in the league. So, the Toronto Raptors face the Charlotte Hornets twice coming up. They are 23rd in offensive rating. They are going to be facing the uh Indiana Pacers twice. The Indiana Pacers are 29th in offensive rating, although they just did get um uh Andrew Nemhart back. He's going to help them out in that regard. But still 29th in O rating. They are going to be facing the Brooklyn Nets twice. The Brooklyn Nets are 25th in O rating. They are going to be facing the Wizards once and the Wizards are 28th in offensive rating. Okay. So, if you've been keeping count, that is seven games against uh bottom 10 offenses. So, seven of the games that they're going to be playing are against some of the worst offensive teams in the association. Now, they do play three uh games against good offensive teams. So, they will be playing uh the Cavs twice. And the Cavs are seventh in uh offensive rating, but they have been missing um Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland for a considerable portion of the season, and they are still seventh in O rating. Uh Donovan Mitchell is one of the best offensive players in the league. Ditto, Darius Garland, those guys have been missing. So they're artificially low. They're probably, you know, a top five offense uh in the league. They faced them twice. And the Toronto Raptors already faced the Sixers who are, you know, really good with Tyrese Maxi and uh Joel Embiid is looking like really good and even in limited minutes. So those uh they faced three teams. So the Cavaliers twice, Sixers once. Uh those are uh three games against top 10 offenses. So it's kind of like um you know all or nothing. There are no mediocre offensive teams to sprinkle in here. It's seven games against the worst offenses in the league and three games against some of the best offenses in the league. But they're already 14th. If they can really shut down those seven teams and, you know, tread water against uh the uh Cavs and the 76ers, I think that the Toronto Raptors will improve to a top 10 defense. I think that that is not out of the question. After 20 games, I think that the Toronto Raptors, knock on wood, if they're healthy and Yaka Purle is playing in those games, they will have a top 10 defense, which is really good. I'm I am excited to see the Toronto Raptors uh get back to where I thought they would be before the season started, which is having a strong defensive squad. Um I think that they, you know, they've got some issues. They've got some problems, but they've also got some big strengths. And um I think that some of the strengths were on display yesterday uh against the 76ers. I think that they showed some stuff there.
Why don't we get into the player evaluations? And this was a tough one. I think I'm going to give it to Scotty Barnes. Uh Scotty Barnes was really good this game. He had 18 points on 14 shots, five rebounds, four assists, two steals, two blocks, two turnovers. Uh he was one of the only positive players on the game. Um in terms of his plus minus, uh he was two of three from the free throw line. He was two of five from three. So he had an efficient night and he didn't score like a whole ton. Like 18 points is good, but it's not like a career high or anything. The reason I'm giving it to him because is because he was one of the only players that was actually like actively good defensively last night. Uh he was matched up against Joel Embiid and uh that is an extremely difficult matchup. So you you got to give him props there. Um he was able like Joel Embiid had a huge night like 29 points in 26 minutes is obviously an insane amount of points. Um, but Scotty was playing uh the center role uh on defense. And it's not always about how much the opposing center scores. It's about sort of, you know, how the team plays defensively. And while obviously uh the team like gave up 130 points, it wasn't because of Scotty Barnes. I think Scotty Barnes was doing a good job uh playing in the paint uh trying to stop people going to the rim. Um and he's giving up a ton of size inside. And I thought he had a bunch of really good possessions against Joel Embiid. Uh he blocked his shot twice going to the rim. Um I thought Scotty looked really good in transition. Like he had uh four assists, which um you know isn't a huge amount for him, but he was doing a really good job of playing in transition uh shooting the ball, playing against Joel Embiid uh in the post. Uh he has the foot speed advantage there and whenever Joel Embiid sagged off too far, he would shoot and uh he made the shot like a a good amount of the time. um especially in the mid-range when Joel Embiid would just drop all the way back into the paint. Scotty would pull up and shoot a shot. I I think it was just a solid all-around game from him. Um he had a bunch of, you know, two of five from three is also quite good. Yeah, I I I think that being one of the only players to actually play good defense. Uh counts for something in my book. And he wasn't that far off from everybody else in terms of scoring. Uh 50% from the field, 18 points. Um, yeah, I think he was just the best player uh for the Toronto Raptors last night, but it was pretty close because the second guy on this list, Emanuel Quickley, I think he had another really good game. And this one might even be better than uh the last game where he had his best game of the season. This might be his best game of the season. So, he had 22 points on 16 shots, which is great. Uh he had six rebounds, six assists, only one turnover. He was five of nine from three. That's pretty much how he scored uh last night. Um he was electric in the first half. He was just banging shots. I think he was three of three from three at one point in the first quarter. Uh at one point I remarked, uh we have the real Maxi on our team because he was outscoring Maxi for a decent percentage of the night. Until, you know, Tyrese kind of heated up in the second half. But I thought it was a good game from him. I think that his ability to shoot has been sorely missed for the Raptors. Um like he was on the court. It wasn't like he was uh missing games, but he was missing the shots. And it has started to turn around for him. And I predicted this. I was like, "Listen, guys, there is a huge sample size of him being a good three-point shooter. You just need to give him some time." And it looks like his three-point shot has returned. Five of nine from three, 55% from the three-point line is really good. Uh on defense, he was kind of being hidden. Uh the Toronto Raptors were switching quite a bit. Uh he was either on Kelly Oubre or VJ Edgecomb. Um those guys weren't the issue. Uh on defense. Uh he does try and box out. Like obviously when you don't have Yaka Purle, everybody has to be on board grabbing rebounds. And he did do a decent job grabbing rebounds from the guard spots. Six is is a good uh mark to hit all of them defensive rebounds. And he does try and box out. He does try and be physical on defense. He was not the the guy who is being tasked with guarding uh Tyrese Maxi. So maybe you have to ding him there because they were forced to play Ochiabaji uh in the starting lineup. Um and he was on Tyrese Maxi for a lot of the night. So maybe you have to take something away from there because you have to play a guy like Ochiabaji who's been just a complete zero on offense uh instead of having Quickly guard him. And I think part of that is because it's the second night of a back-to-back. Obviously legs are going to be an issue and um the Raptors really needed Quickley's offense in this game. Like it was just pretty stark like uh you're going to have to have a guy um carry the offensive load and he really did that in this game.
Next up uh this was a tough one. I'm going to give it to R.J. Barrett because while RJ Barrett was tasked some of the time with guarding uh Trendan Watford, uh that was the the dubious distinction of guarding Trendan Watford for most of this game fell to Brandon Ingram. So like it was kind of a tossup in terms of uh who played better on the offensive end. RJ was more efficient. Uh he had 22 points on 12 shots uh with three rebounds, six assists, uh zero steals, zero blocks, one turnover. He was good at the free throw line, six of seven from the free throw strike. Obviously, he's less of, you know, the focal point on the offensive end. Uh he did hit two of four from three. So, this this game was just uh lost on the defensive end. Um I I think that you can live with certain players going off, but um you know, too many of the 76ers were able to get their game off, and part of that is is because the Toronto Raptors have some issues containing penetration from the wing.
Next up we'll go to Brandon Ingram because Brandon Ingram uh the only reason he's not last year is because the Raptors started Ochiabaji. Brandon Ingram had a decent offensive night. Uh 21 points on 17 shots, seven of 17. He was 0 of three from three. He did shoot seven free throws, so he was active going to the line. Uh he had eight rebounds, five assists, uh one turnover, so the rebounds are nice. And obviously without um Yaka Purle in the game, everybody has to pitch in on the boards. Five assists is is pretty good. The ball sharing is looking good. Offensively, he's he he looked fine. He was making his mid-range shot. The real issue here was that uh he among others, but a lot of it was him was unable to contain Trendan Watford, who had like an insane evening. 20 points on 10 shots. Yeah. 80% uh field goal uh percentage. Um and he he couldn't keep Watford. I mean, the team couldn't keep Watford off of the board. 17 rebounds and then 10 assists for Trendan Watford. So when he was getting past uh you know Ingram into the lane, there was some RJ Barrett there as well. Uh he was making plays for other people as well. So this was kind of you know not a very good night from Brandon Ingram on the defensive end and that's going to happen especially when your starting center is out. Uh, a lot of the problem with having, you know, him on the perimeter is that his foot speed isn't very good. And Trendan Watford is a good driver and he's also very physical, like he has big broad shoulders. And both of those are kind of an issue for Brandon Ingram, who's a little thinner and uh doesn't have good foot speed. So, he was able to just kind of chisel his way into the paint and either score or make a play for other people. And then on the boards, he was just like a monster. Uh, so he was definitely one of the issues. Um, of course, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxi, those guys are kind of going to go off. But, um, you can't have a guy like Trendan Watford, uh, scoring 20 points on 10 shots. That's just not going to cut it.
Um, last in this group, and it's kind of like he was inserted into the lineup as a way to contain Tyrese Maxi. And I think he did a good job containing Tyrese Maxi. Uh, Tyrese Maxi didn't go off until uh the second half. Um, and he was 12 of 24 from the field. So, it wasn't like he was stopped. He was kind of contained. He shot under his uh, you know, season average of 33 and a half points per game uh at 31 and he played about his minutes per game this season at 43. So, it wasn't like he shut him down. And on offense, uh, Ochayabaji was just a complete zero. Literally a zero. Had zero points in this game. Only attempted one shot. Uh he had two rebounds and just no other stats. Um, yeah, I mean like you can't completely evaluate him uh on the offensive side of the ball just because he's he's an afterthought in the offense. He's just kind of standing in the corner waiting to shoot a shot, but he's just like such a zero on that end because he can't shoot anymore apparently. His his three-point shot has just vanished this season. And um yeah, he doesn't offer much else. Just not a good game um from him. And he only played 15 minutes, but one shot attempt in 15 minutes. I mean, I I don't think he's a rotation caliber player anymore. So, that's unfortunate.
Now, let's go to the bench. Um, this one is pretty easy. I think he had one of his best games uh of his career, and that was Koloko Murray-Boiles. Koloko Murray-Boiles was all over the place on both ends, especially on the defensive end. He was um, you know, just like a like a turnover creation machine. He was only credited with one steal, but it was a really good one um on Kelly Oubre. Kelly Oubre tried to cross him over, tried to ball bring the ball east west and um Koloko Murray-Boiles picked his pocket, forced the turnover, and then Kelly Oubre had to foul him when he uh dove on the ball. And um that was really good. Uh the the blocks were uh refreshing to see because, you know, he gives up some size on the inside. He had like just an insane block on Tyrese Maxi. Tyrese Maxi skyed to throw down the dunk and uh Koloko Murray-Boiles met him at the pinnacle like right at the top got his hand on the ball and blocked it. It was unbelievable. Um I love that. 12 points on six shots. He was one of one from three. Unfortunately he was three of six from the free throw line. So the Raptors did get to the line quite a bit this game. 28 free throws matched the Philadelphia 76ers uh from the free throw stripe. So you can't even complain about the officiating this game. They got beaten fair and square. Um, but you know, Koloko Murray-Boiles was uh really good outside of those free throws. 12 points, uh seven rebounds, one assist, a steal, two blocks. So, filling up the stat sheet. He was a plus two on this game. I thought he played really good defense. Um, obviously he's undersized for the position. And whenever Joel Embiid is on the floor, I it's tough to grab rebounds, especially even against Andre Drummond. So, Andre Drummond was the opposing center um uh for Koloko Murray-Boiles and Mamadi Diakite off of the bench. He played 16 minutes, grabbed eight rebounds, three of them offensive. It seemed like he grabbed five offensive rebounds in like one possession. I'm not sure how he only ended up with three offensive rebounds, but rebounding is going to be an issue uh off of the bench if they're playing against another center-sized player. Thankfully, uh Andre Drummond went one of five from the field, so he was getting all of his own misses, so maybe it wasn't that bad. But yeah, I thought he had a really good game, especially as a rookie. You know, you're grading on a different scale. If they show you something, if they're showing you like a flash here, a flash there, it it goes a long way in my book. So, he had a good game.
Next up, we're going to go to Jamal Shed. Jamal Shed, I think, played uh really good defense in this game. Um he was all over the place. Uh causing creating turnovers. Um he was, you know, uh shooting the ball really well. He was one of the reasons the Raptors were able to go up big in the first quarter because he was banging shots. He was three of five from three. All of his points came from the three-point arc. He had nine points total, three rebounds, five assists, a steal, uh two turnovers. I thought he played well. I thought he was a uh you know, disruptive force on the defensive end. Uh he did what he could. He guarded Maxi pretty well. Um he was playing in the passing lanes. Um he he's a disruptive player who plays the right way and when his shot is going he is um a a good player like just a a good uh player off of the bench. So the bench was not the issue here. Jamal Shed had a good game. Koloko Murray-Boiles had a good game. Sandro Mamukelashvili had a good game as well. He had 10 points on five shots, three rebounds. So that's a little light. Two assists, two steals, one block, one turnover. He was one of three from uh three, three of three from the free throw line. Uh he's a good straight-line driver. Uh he can shoot the ball. He has an offense versatile offensive game. Um his size really was an issue this game because of um the Philadelphia 76ers with Joel Embiid and uh Andre Drummond and you know uh Trendan Watford getting inside like that was a big issue for all of the front court players on the Raptors. It would really have helped not against Embiid necessarily to have um Yaka Purle in this game, but against uh a lot of the guys who thrive going to the basket like Trendan Watford, I don't think he scores 20 points on eight of 10 shooting if Yaka Purle plays in this game. It's just, you know, those types of players go off when the other team doesn't have a true seven-footer. Uh so Sandro, you know, he had a good offensive game, maybe not a great defensive game.
And then we'll go like the two guys that I wasn't impressed with. Um, we'll start with Grady Dick. So, Grady Dick had three points on one of six shooting. This was kind of a disaster class. Like, it looked as though he was doing a good job spacing the floor. The 76ers didn't want to help off of him and that gave the Raptors some more space to work with on the inside. Unfortunately, his shot just didn't go in uh last night. One of four from three, one of six from the field. And then on defense, he is bad. Like this is not a guy that can keep anybody in front of him really. So and the the 76ers are kind of stocked with players who can drive. Quentyn Grimes can get into the paint. Trendan Watford, uh Kelly Oubre, VJ Edgecomb, he was matched up against VJ uh at points in the first half and VJ Edgecomb is like has dynamite in his legs. He can just blast past anyone. So I don't really understand that matchup. There isn't really anybody on the 76ers that he can competently guard. There's not many players in the league he can competently guard. His defense has been poor uh this season. No doubt about it. So, bad game from him.
Jacobe Walter had another really um uninspiring game last night. Three points in 11 minutes on one of six shooting. He was a negative 16 in this game. His defense didn't look good. He He's not physical enough to stop some of the larger wings on uh the 76ers. And his bag is like puddle deep. He he does not have any juice with the ball whatsoever. I was hoping that he could be like, you know, in this season a 3 and D type player that the Raptors could bring him on and he could really play disruptive defense and then maybe show me something with the ball in his hands. And that has been the biggest issue with him as a player is that he just does not have much burst uh with the ball in his hands and it just does not seem as though he has the moves to get to the basket. He also doesn't seem to be going toward the basket. It seems like he is, you know, hesitating. He's not trying to cut with a purpose and get to the rim. That has just not been there this season. He always seems to get caught in the mid-range area and has to like put up a weak shot. I don't like that. And um, you know, it's been a tough uh sophomore season for him. Uh hopefully he's able to put it together and show me something because right now the Toronto Raptors where I thought that they might have like one of the guys uh Ochiabaji, Jacobe Walter, Grady Dick, I was expecting at least one of them to sort of show up, pop off and you know have some juice, give the Raptors something on either end and you know none of them have really done that. So it's kind of unfortunate.
In any case, this was a loss, but I was actually kind of impressed by their ability to stick around in this game. I thought that the the Sixers were, you know, going to run away with this one in the third quarter when they went up 10 and, you know, they were playing fast and loose, free and easy. And the Raptors actually managed to stick around and, you know, get it within three and that takes guts. They they didn't lay down. They didn't give the Sixers an easy win. The Sixers played Joel Embiid 26 minutes. That's got to be close to a season high for him. And they needed him to play in this game, uh, pretty substantially because when he was out, uh, they didn't look as good. And, um, Tyrese Maxi, uh, you know, he had a really good game as well. They needed all of the good games that they had. Trendan Watford. They only ended up winning by 10, but it was because in the fourth quarter they needed to put all their starters back in and, you know, make a run with those players. It wasn't an easy game for them to win. The Raptors stuck around until the very end. And that's without Yaka Purle. So, you got to give them a little bit of credit. It was also on the second night of a back-to-back. So, there are a bunch of excuses for why they lost this game. I am not ashamed of how they played and uh I'm glad I watched the game. It it wasn't that bad.
So, next up, uh the Toronto Raptors have a bit of a break here, uh in the schedule, both in terms of time, uh off between games. They play again on Tuesday, so a little bit of a rest there. And they also play against the Brooklyn Nets, and the Brooklyn Nets uh only have one win this season. The one win that they have came against the uh the Indiana Pacers, so it's not like they've surprised anybody. Um they do not have a good roster. Uh Michael Porter Jr., Nick Claxton, Cam Thomas, Terrence Mann, like they're lacking firepower and also at the same time they play a selfish brand of basketball. Uh Cam Thomas is not a uh you know distributor. He's not a guy that is going to make the right play every time down the floor. He jacks up shots. He's shooting 40% from the field, 35% from three. He's averaging 2.6 assists per game. 21 points to 2.6 assists, that's kind of pathetic for a guard. Um and only 1.4 rebounds. So, he's just a very one-dimensional player. Michael Porter Jr. can score, no doubt about it. He's he's shooting 47% from the field, 23 points per game, but he's also under three assists per game. I think the Raptors should be able to take that game. I think that the Raptors should have that one circled. Uh they should, you know, don't take the the Nets lightly. You need every win you can get, especially if it's on the road. They'll be playing in Brooklyn. I'd like to see a victory there. Um I think that the Toronto Raptors can contain that team and they can beat them. So, I'd like to see that especially because uh the game after that they're going to be playing against the Cavs and they're going to be playing against the Cavs in Cleveland uh again and the Cavs are close to full strength. They got to take the wins where they can get them and that is against the Brooklyn Nets.
In any case, that's the episode. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a like and subscribe if you haven't already and also hit the bell icon so you know when new videos go live. Uh also join the Discord. There are a lot of people talking Toronto Raptors in the Raptors Report Discord. Join up there and uh follow us on all social media platforms. We've got a presence on pretty much all of them, so check us out there. And as always, thank you for tuning in to Raptor Support, your source for in-depth Raptors content.