Something about the Toronto Raptors is broken. That much is clear ahead of their NBA Cup quarterfinal debut against the New York Knicks on Tuesday.
Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Sportsnet.
After winning 13 of 14 games, including a stretch of nine straight, the Raptors are currently in the middle of a maddening downward spiral. The schedulers haven’t been the nicest this holiday season, with the calendar steering the Raptors to play seven games in 11 days, but that doesn’t excuse the lapses
on defence nor the tendency to play down to opponents.
But what’s splintered can be mended, and nothing could better cure the Raptors’ woes than a win against the Knicks in a pseudo-playoff environment.
Other than an opportunity to wipe the disappointment of the last two weeks with four clean quarters, here are three additional storylines to look out for in the historic matchup.
Cue the “White rabbit pointing as clock” meme
This feels like an oversimplified type of assessment, but considering the scale of the matchup against the Knicks, the surrounding cast around Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram must show up – especially with RJ Barrett expected to miss additional time. Barnes has been electric this season and has secured his position as the team’s best player. And despite Ingram grappling with a cold slump that rivals Toronto’s most bitter winters, his presence still generates unreal levels of gravity.
With Jakob Poeltl clearly battling some kind of injury, Sandro Mamukelashvili needs to continue playing within himself. Immanuel Quickley must fight on defence as teams continue to hunt him in the half-court.
But the biggest spotlight remains on the trio of Gradey Dick, Ja’Kobe Walter, and Ochai Agbaji. The latter had one of his best games of the season against the Boston Celtics but the Raptors are desperately searching for consistency to anchor them back to their previous winning ways. Dick and Walter’s poor play finally forced Raptors Head Coach Darko Rajakovic to deploy the Raptors 905 players A.J. Lawson and Alijah Martin.
The fun part about this specific matchup with the Knicks is that it’ll become a valuable data point in the evaluation process. Is the team one or two trades away from making a deep-ish run in the Eastern Conference? Or are the Raptors built on a flawed structure, where the removal of one Jenga-type piece will cause it to topple?
Deep Waters
In their last outing with the Knicks – a 116-94 loss at Madison Square Garden – the Raptors conceded 45 three-point attempts. After allowing the Celtics to jack up 47 shots on Dec. 7, the Raptors now give up the ninth-most deep-ball attempts per game at 37.6. Before this current stretch of dropping five of their last seven matchups, the Raptors had managed to minimize their opponents’ efficiency from beyond the arc despite the barrage of attempts. But through a combination of their luck running out – teams hitting more open shots – and an unnecessary amount of help rotation, it seems the floodgates have opened.
The writing might already be on the wall and there’s potential disaster waiting for the Raptors when it comes to guarding the Knicks’ high-powered offence. New York ranks sixth in three-point attempts (41) and fifth in percentage (37.5).
OG Anunoby missed the last game against the Raptors in New York but he’s expected to be available against his former team in Toronto. He shot 5-of-7 from three in their win against the Orlando Magic on Dec. 7.
Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 22 points and eight rebounds against the Raptors but could miss this game with left calf tightness. With all of the Achilles injuries occurring throughout sports, the Knicks could play it safe by holding Anthony Towns out for a second straight game.
Miles McBride is out with an ankle sprain. McBride knocked down four triples on his way to finishing with 14 points against the Raptors.
It starts with Shead
Jamal Shead is currently listed as questionable with a quad contusion, but should the scrappy guard suit up, he’ll play an instrumental role in a potential Raptors victory. Shead is 3-for-19 from three dating back to the 118-111 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Nov. 29. Despite his recent struggles, something has fundamentally shifted, either schematically or from a mindset perspective, because Shead is averaging 11 shots per game in the last two contests.
The issue with Shead’s aggressiveness isn’t necessarily that he’s missing the open shots that opposing defences are daring him to shoot. It’s the shots he’s taking halfway through the shot clock or from an unrealistic distance behind the three-point line. Shead needs to get back to farming assists, knocking down the occasional jumper and using his effective floater.
There’s also a growing concern about the fact that the team’s best lineup has defensive issues. The double point guard combination, which also features Quickley, manifests advantages on offence, but creates as many drawbacks on defence. Raptors fans have seen it in old-school duos like T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon. Or Calderon and Kyle Lowry. The duo of Lowry and Fred Van Vleet were able to offset it with enough defensive grit and a super-powered offence.
Shead’s responsibility will be serving as the connective tissue between the times Barnes and Ingram are on the court together. He’s trusted to defend the extremely slim margins for the Raptors, and he can do so by winning key battles throughout the game.
