One of the supposed benefits of the mini two-game series implemented this season is the immediate shot at redemption offered to the loser of the opening game.
Adjustments typically favor those who have more to make. But a second consecutive double-digit road victory over the Milwaukee Bucks has the Toronto Raptors ignoring the results that were supposed to happen in favor of what they made a reality.
“We didn’t want any splits,” Norman Powell said after the second victory.
Now losers of five in a row, the Bucks have to work out some issues of their own, but hardly any changes could’ve countered the early stages of an experiment Toronto has been given every reason to stick with moving forward.
After struggling to fill the void left in their frontcourt, the Toronto Raptors have proven better off going in a different direction entirely.
Toronto’s early-season quest to fill the frontcourt hole left by the departures of both Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka proved to be a worthy challenge for a team that flexed its superb plug-and-play abilities throughout its title defense last season.
Aron Baynes was the free-agent acquisition who was supposed to offer Nick Nurse a capable center to turn to. Though he couldn’t pass like Gasol, Baynes was a bruiser and a seemingly improved 3-point shooter after shooting a career-high 35.1 percent with the Phoenix Suns last season.
As it turned out, that 3-point shot didn’t travel to Tampa. Baynes’ limited mobility hamstrung a coach who likes his options. The Raptors have been worse at both ends with him on the court. That didn’t dissuade them from trying to make it work by starting Baynes in the first 24 games he appeared in because of how limited options were elsewhere.
OG Anunoby showed flashes as a small-ball five during the conference semis against Boston. But the more minutes Toronto gave him there, the more one of the league’s worst rebounding teams would exacerbate that issue.
The same applied to Chris Boucher, a lanky shot-blocker and surprisingly adept outside shooter whose 200-pound frame could only withstand the rigors of the position for so many minutes at a time.
So, the Raptors kept trying to make Baynes a thing even while the losses piled up, dropping them as low as 12th in the Eastern Conference with a 7-12 record. There were glimmers of hope in the form of a three-game winning streak but also signs of struggles with back-to-back losses, including a defeat to the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves.
It is better to struggle early to build something more sustainable later in the season, but Toronto’s experimentation ran the risk of coming back to bite them when playoff seeds were to be locked in. It’s no wonder they were linked to Andre Drummond in trade rumors in pursuit of some type of solution.
Eventually, that potential reality became too hard to ignore, prompting a lineup switch that produced two of the better wins of the Raptors’ season.
With Pascal Siakam slotted at center and Powell swapping in for Baynes in the starting lineup, Nurse was keeping it simple. He was trusting his best guys to get the job done. The goal was to play to the strengths of a lineup that could all pass, dribble and shoot on offense and switch everything on defense.
Rebounding would be an issue, but it could be mitigated if this new starting unit could make the Bucks adjust to them instead of vice versa.
In the two wins over Milwaukee, the Raptors made a combined 29 triples. They dished out 51 assists. They made Brook Lopez a liability. One of the key pieces to the Bucks’ attack at both ends was a minus-17 in 29 minutes on Tuesday. He then saw just 20 minutes last night and was a minus-9.
Opposing centers didn’t have to guard Baynes all that much. With Powell in his place, every Raptor has to be accounted for. The sixth-year wing wasn’t, which is how he helped Toronto overcome the absence of Kyle Lowry with a season-high-tying 29 points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field.
“I just thought we did a good job both games of not forcing it down there, making Brook and Giannis have to move and defend multiple actions, small ball,” Powell said. “They weren’t switching too much until later on in the second half, so forcing them to rotate and opening up the driving lanes off consecutive drives and kicks and re-attacks.”
Though the benefits of this lineup are obvious — and tangible. In 39 minutes against the Bucks, the downsized frontcourt of Siakam, Powell and OG Anunoby has a net rating of 29.1 — it is not without its vulnerabilities on the interior. After grabbing just five offensive rebounds in the first meeting, one of the adjustments Milwaukee made was to crash the glass, resulting in 15 extra possessions the second time around.
With Toronto’s next four games coming against a trio of star-caliber big-men in Karl-Anthony Towns, Joel Embiid (twice), and Bam Adebayo, Nurse will get a chance to better understand how damaging those weaknesses can be.
Regardless of the results, going small was the logical next choice for the Raptors to tackle the question that’s been hounding them dating back to the offseason because of how few answers they’ve managed to find since.
“It better be,” Fred VanVleet said of the sustainability of the small-ball unit. “We don’t have a choice at this point.”
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February 19, 2021 at 11:00PM
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The Toronto Raptors are done trotting out traditional lineups - Hoops Habit
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