“We can’t control winning,” Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said on Friday evening. On a cold December night, the Raptors prepared to play their second game of a back-to-back, their 5th game in seven nights. Last night’s buzzer-beater loss to the LA Lakers still fresh, it was time to let that go and focus on the task ahead, tonight’s game against Charlotte.
It’s one of those weeks where the grind of an 82-game season starts to settle in. Yet, in more of Rajakovic’s words, “exhaustion cannot
be an excuse.” The Toronto Raptors could have used a win, as they attempted to get the edge in their season series over the Hornets. It doesn’t matter what happened last night, it doesn’t matter what next week looks like; it was time to focus on the present moment, this game.
That ability to focus on the present is a skill that will take you far in basketball, especially in a season as long as the NBA’s. Especially when you just lost to the Lakers last night, on a LeBron James-assisted buzzer-beater after fighting your way back into the game. As Rajakovic put it, you need to focus on what you can control — it’s a skill that most people need to work on, NBA player or not.
In Darko’s eyes, you can’t control whether you win or lose a basketball game. There’s always going to be factors — like the referee’s calls, or the shot not going in, the opposing team stealing the ball — that his team simply cannot control. If you focus too much on winning instead of focusing on what you can control, like your effort on the court, you’ll get away from the small things that actually do control results.
“If you put winning as your primary objective and goal, then you’re losing focus on details,” Rajakovic said. “You want to have your focus on execution, on preparation, on things that you really control. We control how we’re gonna get involved [in the game].”
Eventually, those small details add up. That’s the “1% every day” mentality that has been the basis of Rajakovic’s coaching philosophy since the moment he stepped into this role.
So, what are the things the Toronto Raptors can control?
The biggest, most obvious one is their effort on defence. That’s something that Scottie Barnes does so, so well. When he’s out there leading the defensive effort, it looks like he sees the game in slow motion. So much so that Barnes is able to direct his lineup like he’s the conductor in his own basketball orchestra.
When he’s playing defence, Barnes focuses on doing whatever he can to help the team in that moment. It’s on instinct — does the team need a body on help side? Where are the holes in their shield? At what precise moment does he need to make the leap to block, so that he has the best chance of stopping the play but avoiding a foul?
“The [raw] talent is there for sure, but talent without work is nothing,” Rajakovic said Friday about Barnes’s defensive IQ. “He’s really diligent with studying the film. Sometimes he fails, but the beauty of Scottie Barnes is that he figures it out for next time.”
That helps when you’re playing a team for the third time this season in December, like the Raptors were the Hornets on Friday night. The first time, the Raptors won in clutch time at home; the second time, the Hornets won in overtime at their own arena. The tiebreaker was either team’s for the taking, and tonight it was Charlotte that took it in a 111-82 blowout to a gassed Raptors team.
With RJ Barrett still out with his minor knee injury, Ja’Kobe Walter was back in the starting lineup tonight. Jakob Poeltl was back after sitting out last night, and Ochai Agbaji is out due to personal reasons. Despite saying last night that exhaustion could not be used as an excuse, the Raptors looked tired out there tonight. Sure, it’s not an excuse, but it’s definitely one of those uncontrollable factors Darko talked about when you’re playing this many games in a week.
When you’re gassed, it’s hard to get out there and grasp the controllables of a game. You’re not able to jump as high to get a round or be as active on defence. Your shot doesn’t have as much power. It was clear on every front that the Raptors were just running out of steam. The only player who scored more than 20 points in the game was Immanuel Quickley, who (quite randomly to be honest) had his best game of the season with 31 points.
Darko’s words ring more true after a rough night for the Raptors. This game seemed out of their control from the moment they tipped off. Everything from the 10-minute delay due to technical issues inside the arena to the way it felt like clawing up a cliff just to get a shot up.
If you’re going back to that “one game at a time” mentality, this is just a bump in the road. One loss in an 82-game season. Just like they started the day, the Raptors need to wipe this game from memory, rest tomorrow, and reset for Sunday’s game against the Boston Celtics. The Raptors are better than their performance tonight, but again, too many things out of their grasp to get the win tonight.
“The only thing we can control is our work,” Darko said after the game. His response to this game is to regroup, rest, and get back to work next week.
