Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports
Raptors Low Energy 'Pattern' Continues in Loss to Thunder
The Toronto Raptors have found themselves caught in a vicious cycle.
For whatever reason, there seems to be a pattern with these Raptors right now. A brief stretch of impressive performances will give way to a sudden low-energy clunker, only for the coaching staff to rip into the players, rejuvenating them, and sparking the cycle over again.
It’s a pattern that just can’t happen, Fred VanVleet said after his team turned in one of those disappointing performances Wednesday night in a 110-109 loss to the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder.
“We’re professionals, it shouldn’t take [getting yelled at,]” said VanVleet who nearly played hero with a 14-point fourth quarter that stuck Toronto to a two-point lead with 40 seconds to go. “We just can’t seem to sustain that long enough to win against teams we must think we’re better than. It doesn’t work like that in the NBA because they were the better team tonight.”
It doesn’t matter that Toronto came within a split second of squeaking out a victory courtesy of what looked like a game-winning tip-in from Justin Champagne as the clock expired. It doesn’t matter that Precious Achiuwa, Khem Birch, and OG Anunoby were all sidelined. With more energy, this game never would have been close.
“I thought we just weren’t ready to move and run, we weren’t pushing the ball hard,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “Just poor energy, poor effort kind of stuff.”
After jumping up double-digits in the first half, the Thunder came storming back in the third as Toronto’s offense went radio silent. For four minutes, the Raptors couldn’t muster anything. It opened the door for a 33-12 third quarter courtesy of a 16-point third quarter from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander that flipped the script and saw Toronto trailing by double-digits entering the fourth.
At that point, Nurse had seen enough of his bench.
“I thought the other guys were soft, and unenergetic and not playing their role," Nurse said of his bench. "They’re supposed to come off the bench and provide energy and they weren’t getting any stops, weren’t getting any rebounds, were fumbling balls around so I went to Justin.”
It worked.
Champagnie slowed Gilgeous-Alexander while VanVleet broke out of Luguentz Dort’s clamps with four clutch three-pointers. But with the game on the line, the 6-foot-1 VanVleet got swarmed in the paint, unable to get a good shot off and Champagnie’s tip-in, originally ruled a good field goal, was a split second late.
"It really did hurt. Especially the last one. I thought I had it," said Champagnie whose 12 minutes were a season-high for him. "We've just got to be better at playing hard from the jump."
Canadians Lead the Way for Thunder
Oklahoma City's two Canadians certainly put on a show in their homecoming. Gilgeous-Alexander repeatedly got to the line with his herky-jerky dribble drives, carving the Raptors up for 26 points including 12 from the charity stripe.
By his side, Dort not only held his own against VanVleet early, holding him to 2-for-13 shooting through the first three quarters, but he dropped 22 points including four tripples.
Up Next: New York Knicks
The Raptors will have the day off Thursday before continuing their lengthy homestand on Friday night against the New York Knicks at 7:30 p.m. ET.
