Raptors Continue to Flirt with Mediocrity in Loss to Clippers
Maybe the Toronto Raptors are just mediocre.
Sixty-seven games should be enough of a sample size to start making some definitive judgments. Yes, there have been some above-average stretches, but by and large, it’s been clear where the Raptors stand this season. They came into Wednesday night with the 16th-ranked offense, the 18th-ranked, they ranked 15th in Net Rating, and, what do you know, they’ve been hovering just below .500 all season.
Over the past five games, they’ve shown who they are. They can compete with other middling squads, knocking off the Chicago Bulls and splitting a pair with the Washington Wizards. But put them up against a good team like the Denver Nuggets or the Los Angeles Clippers and, as Wednesday’s 108-100 loss showed, things aren’t exactly pretty.
Can the Raptors come out of the play-in tournament? Sure. Should they earn the seven or eighth seed in the conference they’re certainly talented enough to win one of two play-in games. Even taking a pair off of two mediocre teams shouldn’t be an unreasonable request. But beating mediocre teams isn’t the goal here, or at least it shouldn’t be.
At times Wednesday, the Raptors looked like they could hang with the Clippers. Their defense was dominant early as they sagged off Russell Westbrook, at times to an insulting degree. Toronto left him unguarded in the corners, begging him to take and clank a pair of wide-open jumpers in the first quarter. The 5-on-4 style defense gave Toronto the opportunity to wreak havoc on the Clippers, forcing nine first-quarter turnovers as the Raptors jumped ahead by 10 on an O.G. Anunoby pull-up three.
Anunoby took on the Kawhi Leonard assignment and looked OK in the role. It wasn’t quite the defensive performance he’d shown against Bradley Beal or Nikola Jokic as the former Raptors superstar nailed a pair of his trademarked pull-up jumpers and tied things up in the second quarter on a corner three-pointer.
It didn’t help that Precious Achiuwa had three fouls in his first three minutes, forcing Toronto to turn to Thad Young for backup center minutes that he struggled in. The Clippers’ early comeback came courtesy of a handful of far-too-easy layups against the undersized Young playing out of position.
Toronto’s hyper-aggressive aggressive defense that had looked so good in the early going, began to cause problems as the Clippers nailed far too many open jumpers and lightly contested layups. Eric Gordon drilled a corner jumper with nobody in his area code as Los Angeles jumped ahead by double digits in the third quarter, stretching the lead to 13 when Terance Mann took it end-to-end for an easy layup.
It took until late in the third quarter for Gary Trent Jr. to score his first buckets, a pair of free throws after starting the game 0-for-8 from the field. Considering how well the bench had played over the past couple of games, a pair of no-shows from Trent and Achiuwa put Toronto in a bind.
The Clippers just about put it away from there. Paul George found Mann for an alley-oop and-one finish through contact from Scottie Barnes to put L.A. up 13. Moments later, Leonard blew by Anunoby for a one-handed slam over Jakob Poeltl, wrapping up the night with 24 points on 8-for-15 shooting.
An Anunoby three and a pair of free throws from Barnes allowed Toronto to make it semi-interesting late, pulling to within four but another ally-oop pass from George to Iviac Zubac put the final in the coffin for the Raptors.
Siakam was the only offensive difference-maker for the Raptors, reaching 20 points on 9-for-21 shooting but it was far from an impressive performance from the All-Star forward.
With the loss, Toronto will fall 1.5 games back of the Atlanta Hawks for the coveted eighth seed in the conference and just a half-game up on the Wizards. Ultimately, though, this all seems largely irrelevant.
The Raptors have shown who they are and so far it's been a team not nearly good enough to contend in the NBA playoffs.
Up Next: Los Angeles Lakers
The Raptors will wrap up their West Coast road trip Friday night when they take on the Los Angeles Clippers at 10:30 p.m. ET.
