The Raptors just teased something Terrifying...

Without Kawhi Leonard and without Scottie Barnes, the Toronto Raptors were up by 22 points against the best team in the Eastern Conference. That was the biggest hole Boston had been in all season. And even with all that, the Raptors still lost this game 98-93. And the ending was ugly. There's bad rotations, there's an inexcusable inbounds play for the final possession for the Toronto Raptors, and some of the shots this team was taking in the fourth was abysmal. There's no other word to use for it. And look, we are going to get into the shortcomings of the Toronto Raptors in this game without a doubt. Do not get me wrong. There's a lot of people I know are going to be disappointed in this game, of course, with how it ended. They're going to be disappointed with the Raptors, disappointed with the referees, and they should be. There's a lot of stuff that they need to work on. But even with all of that being said, I... Ended this game feeling more fired up about the Toronto Raptors than I did coming in because they teased something that is probably the most important thing they needed to show us as a fan base, show the rest of the NBA, because if they get this right, they are going to strike fear into the rest of the league. It shows up in the numbers because for 48 minutes, the Raptors just did something to Boston that they have not faced all season long. Not only are the Celtics really good this season, they've had the Raptors number for a very long time. They've won 15 of their last 16 meetings, and one of them they've won by 54 points. And tonight, there's no arguing it. Whether you're happy about this game, sad about this game, the Raptors seriously had the Celtics on the ropes. And obviously the offense was cooked. We're going to get into that. But if the Toronto Raptors play this level of defense, if they show up on that defensive side of the floor like they did tonight, It doesn't matter if Kawhi's in and out of the lineup. It doesn't matter if Scottie Barnes is hurt here and there and all these types of things. If the Raptors are playing the level of defense that they played out there in this game, they not only have the chance to win any game that they play for the rest of the season, but once they get, obviously, their one and two scores out there for this team back into the lineup, they have a real shot at... It's beating anyone out there in the NBA, even in those high leverage games. And you see it in the numbers. Boston came into this game averaging 115 points a night. And in this game, Toronto held them to 98, which is the second fewest point total of the season for the Celtics. And Boston only made 30 shots from the field, which is the fewest for any game that they played this year. And again, a big reason that they won. Of course, the Raptors offense was bad. We'll get into it. But the refs really helped the Celtics, especially at the end of the game. Get to the line and get to the stripe and get their shots up. So that's what happens when you face off against Tatum and a more established team. But I want to point that out. The Raptors offense is the reason Toronto lost, but the Celtics were aided by the officiating, especially down the stretch of this game. And the Celtics only shot 41% from the field, which is a testament to how effective the Raptors were on the defensive end. And obviously Tatum got his 24 points, but he needed 21 shots to get there and only made six of them. Peyton Pritchard, a guy who usually torches the Toronto Raptors, came in and only scored, hit five of 13 of his shots, which is. A blessing. when you face He's usually facing the Raptors. It feels like he makes everything. So that was a positive part of this game. On top of it all, Boston turned over the ball 18 times. The Raptors ran those back the other way for 18 fast break points, double Boston's nine. And Boston only scored 20 points in the paint, fewer than Toronto's 26. Both teams, you know, really struggling to score around the basket. But the Raptors defense did this to a Boston team that had the third best offense rating in the league at 118 points per 100 possessions. By our count in the box score, Wednesday, they were just at 104. And even the shorthanded Raptors, who are missing a guy that's expected to be in DPO-Y conversation, it's of course missing a guy that's won multiple DPOYs of Kawhi Leonard, they came in and didn't let Boston get any good looks. And Toronto had such a promising start to the season defensively, but Their defense kind of fell apart in some of these games. I mean, they're coming into this one 14th ranked defensively, which is below a lot of fans' expectations and certainly the coaching staff's. They'd given up 117 or more in six of their first 10 games. Boston's own defense is third in the league, which gives up 104 points a night, which is why Toronto only scored 93 without their two best players. And in this game that felt like it was straight out of the 1990s, the Toronto Raptors weren't able to win this slugfest. But both teams are probably playing their best when, you know, the Celtics, they like to hoist up more threes. So, you know, that's probably more advantageous that this style of play was for the Raptors. But nonetheless, the Celtics got the best of them. And Darko Čauković said this on media day. This is the whole Raptors identity. Everything starts on the defensive end. And with the exception of the first two games of the season, this is the first. Tonight, I've really felt the Toronto Raptors embody that identity that they've been talking about over the past few years. We got to start with Jacoby Walter. He played 35 minutes tonight, hit 5 of 10 three-pointers, and had 17 points, which is a team high. He had two steals and his three with five minutes left put the Toronto Raptors up by eight points. And on the wing, Elijah Martin also had a really good game, came off the bench and hit four or five threes. And he played 16 minutes in this game and was a plus 13 in a game the Raptors lost by five. And it isn't only his shooting. With Martin on the court this season, the Raptors give up 103 points per 100 possessions. And with him off the floor, it's 113. Very small sample size, about 100 minutes of action, but that is still a 10 point swing. And Allen Graves almost has the same split, 105 with him on and 113 without. So the advanced metrics really like what these two guys are doing on the defensive end, and the eye test, the box score, the basic stuff that you see watching this game, it's inarguable how effective they were on the offensive side of the ball. Now I'm going to be talking about Darko Ryakovic's rotations out there in this video, but I want to stick to the positives at the start, because Allen Graves is the reason the Toronto Raptors had the lead heading into the fourth quarter. Up 22, the Toronto Raptors let that thing slip pretty fast. Cole Murphy had a flagrant on a Tatum three and it turned one trip into seven points. Boston ended up going on a 29 to six run and took the lead early in the third. So when you let the defense slip a little bit, the Celtics are a team notorious for just absolutely killing, especially with Jason Tatum who had two threes, a dunk in two minutes of action and the Raptors went cold on the other end. And it looked like the Raptors were about to fall apart. This is something that we've seen from the Boston Celtics a thousand times over. They go down for a long time and they start hitting their threes. Tatum starts getting hot and they just go on a monstrous run and blow out a squad. But then Allen Graves checked into this game. The Raptors are down 68 to 67. Graves hit a three, then scored on his own offensive rebound and then banged another three. That's eight points in 72 seconds. And Kyle Anderson tipped one in. Martin hit a three and the Toronto Raptors closed the third on an 8-0 run and took the lead. And then Graves, the dog that he is, ended up having a dunk off his own offensive rebound, and he finished the game with 13 points, 5 of 8 shooting, and just 18 minutes of action. Jamison Battle also had a good night as well, as he was a plus 10 in 25 minutes, and It might be crazy to say, but Jamison Battle's defense was a big part of the Toronto Raptors going on some runs in this game. He jumped a Pritchard pass in the fourth quarter when the Toronto Raptors were up by four, and his defense on the ball was a big reason that they won those minutes he was out there on the court. Usually, that's the reason Jamison Battle gets pulled from these games, but he was performing on the offensive end, and he moved his feet really well against Tatum, against Pritchard. Those are the two guys I really eyeballed he had a few matchups against, I was just extremely impressed because I'm used to Jamison Battle kind of getting blown by, but you guys are good at straight line drives like Tatum and Pritchard, but he did an exceptional job in my opinion. And Jamal Shead, for as horrible as he was scoring the basketball in this game, he had six assists and made the biggest steal of the night with a minute left. I also want to give a shout out to Slow-Mo Kyle Anderson, who was a plus 14 in his 11 minutes of action and still had four assists. And interestingly enough, every bench player that played in this game was on the plus side of the plus minus, and every starter ended up on the negative side. Of course, the Celtics starters were on against the Raptors starters off, and that's facing off against Tatum, Pritchard, and well, Pritchard's a bench player, but played against the starters a ton. That's something you have to realize and deal with, but nonetheless, the bench played really well for the Toronto Raptors. Coming into this game, Graves has been playing 13.2 minutes a game and Martin 11.2, but obviously with injuries, they've been getting some extended run. I thought that should have been even more extended in this game. These are two guys that, no matter how they're playing, they come out and they guard. They're aggressive on defense, they get deflections, and now in Allen Graves' case, gets a bunch of offensive rebounds. Obviously, the three-point shooting, the scoring, those are going to come and go for younger players still finding their footing in the league, but tonight they were hot. Like, they were knocking down shots, scoring. Graves is just getting his hand on every single 50-50 ball, I don't get why you're not playing these guys when they're super effective on the defensive end every time they're out on the court. I know Graves. I see a lot of people questioning why Graves was out for the last 4 minutes of this game when he helped ignite the Raptors 4th quarter in the late 3rd run. To be fair, the offense started stagnating before he ever sat. With 5.37 left, Boston blocked Graves and then quickly on the same trip and Toronto got hit with a shot clock violation. Graves came out at the 4.34 mark and left Toronto up 89-84. He did play for a single second there with 25 seconds left and got swapped right back out as the rebound was secured. But from the moment that he sat, the Toronto Raptors scored four points the rest of the way and turned the ball over three times during that stretch. And the only points came Came from RJ Barrett, who. Didn't have a great game. The Boston Celtics wing defenders did a really good job out there on RJ, but I do want to say I'm still impressed with RJ's confidence, even during an abysmal performance, to come out and be confident enough to take those shots down the stretch, and he made most of them. He made four points and then got blocked or just didn't score over Nemyi Keita in that final possession that would have tied it. Overall, he was 5-16 from the field and 0-2 from behind the three-point line. But I thought his defense was solid, he still had 8 rebounds and 7 assists, and a block on Derek White with 2 minutes left. So he did a good job attacking the ball late, didn't shy away, even though he was having a bad game, his confidence didn't go out, and he actually played a pretty solid last couple minutes of this game for the Toronto Raptors when really no one else on the court really was. Now on the other side of the equation, Emmanuel Quickley, just, it was a rough game for IQ. 3 of 14 from the field and 1 of 8 from behind the 3-point line. And again, if the decision-making was right, if he was elite on defense, he can get away with him being on the court and hope he gets hot. But he wasn't doing any of those things, and his decision-making out there at the guard spot is just so infuriating at times. He took a contested floater that he missed. He took a 13-foot fadeaway, which he missed. And then the last drive, he ended up getting blocked by Nemes Keita. As shooting percentages on the season just continue to be... They're going in a downward trajectory, shooting 41% from the field and just 33% from the three-point line, so the cold nights are starting to pile up out there for Emmanuel Quickley. I alluded to it earlier, but on nights like this, especially where, you know, Shed's limited offensively, of course. He's a great facilitator, elite playmaker, but three-point shots were not going down. But the Raptors were just humming. They were playing a lot better with Shed in the game compared to Emmanuel Quickley. Not saying Shed had a perfect night, but his impact on the game was just miles ahead of what IQ was doing. But even forget Shed, like you have guys like Elijah Martin who's knocking down shots earlier in this game. You end up pulling Allen Graves for the crucial moments in this one, right? Who can facilitate and do some of these different things out there on the court. Darko Rajakovic, I get you need to take your guys highly paid that have the higher potential, the higher upside, right? Things go right with IQ. He could get extremely hot from the three-point line, but I think the Raptors manage their rotations a little bit better in this game. They have a lot better shot at winning it. The rotations are one thing to be critical of Darko Rajakovic, and again, I'm really critical of Darko. I think he's done a really good job as the coach of the Toronto Raptors, but there's one thing that happened at the end of this game, which is inexcusable. So before that abysmal possession, the Toronto Raptors, there's 16 seconds left, they're down by one, they dribble play for RJ Barrett, which I didn't think was bad, I thought that was a fine play, Nemescu did a good defensive, you know, rotation over there for the Celtics, we missed, it is what it is, you foul them, and Keita goes to the line and knocks down two free throws, so the Raptors end up down by three, still a one possession game, another time out in your pocket, so you get to advance the ball with, you know. The coach able to draw up a play to get you a three, to get you a quick bucket, whatever it is. The Raptors had a lot of options available to them. But instead, we throw an errand pass to the other side of the court. Celtics get the steal, and then this game is over. But the Raptors had two timeouts left, 25 seconds left in this game. And they couldn't come away with not just a bucket, but really a clean look at all. So again, these are the things that Darko's getting judged on now where the Raptors have expectations of being a contender, being a competitive team. And tonight, it's a learning experience. If this becomes a pattern out there where Darko is unable to draw up possessions, draw up plays to get good looks out there for our guys, that's something that we're going to start to notice. Not going to overreact to one specific game, but. The patterns are things that we have to view, and if this is an issue that continues to persist in close games, then more people are going to be calling out Darko Rajakovic. But nonetheless, even though the Raptors offense went cold, the defense held pretty strong. I thought there was a lot of ticky tack fouls. That is the reality when you face off against Jason Tatum and a big Big team like the Boston Celtics, but nonetheless. The defense was fine, the offense completely fell apart, and that's the reason the Raptors lost this game. And I also want to note, Boston was on the second night of a back-to-back after beating the Philadelphia 76ers by 22 points the night before. But tired legs wasn't the reason the Boston Celtics struggled in this game. They also don't explain the 18 turnovers that came from a team that is as well-coached as the Celtics are. For this one night, the Toronto Raptors defended Better than any team out there in the NBA. I mean, the Timberwolves are the best defense right now and give up 105 points per 100 possessions. And in this one, the Toronto Raptors outperformed them. But one night isn't the full season. That's been made clear. We've seen flashes of games like this. Again, so far this season, it's been against the Bulls and it's been against the Wizards. We've had a couple of games where they've shown this defensive prowess, this defensive energy, this defensive potential. And then you go up against these other squads, these other teams, you squander it, you get crushed by, you know, let them score 130 points and you're just confused about the identity of this Raptors roster. But tonight against a very, very, very good team in the Boston Celtics, they showed the ability to guard at that top level. And personally, I know everyone wants to call the sky is falling. We're under 500, all these types of things. I am oddly not worried at all about our offense. Like, the Raptors aren't going to win the championship if Kawhi Leonard's not healthy. That's the reality. Book it, stamp it, whatever. Call me a dude. Without Kawhi Leonard, we are not going to win the NBA championship. I think we can surprise some people, do some stuff, but there's no shot we're going to be able to beat these different teams. But personally, if we have Kawhi Leonard playing in these high-leverage games, high-level performances, obviously we have Scottie Barnes back. I'm actually not too worried about our offense figuring stuff out, especially with how well some of these guys like Jamison Battle, like Allen Graves, like heck Elijah Martin, they're proving that they could actually be some decent rotation players for the squad, especially if they end up playing off of Kawhi Leonard and Scottie Barnes. Obviously, we've also had a couple of inefficient nights for RJ Barrett as of late, but RJ Barrett is not a first option. As much of a hype artist I am out there of RJ Barrett. He is not proven. He can be the 1A option on a good team out there in the NBA. Second option, yes. Third option, that is an absolute moneymaker, bucket getter for your squad. So I think the Raptors are going to figure it out on that end of the court, but... Obviously, Kawhi and Scottie also help your defense as well on top of it, but a lot of it has just looked like effort. It's looked like miscommunications on the defensive end. That is stuff that happens as a team, whether a guy is in the lineup, out of the lineup, whatever. That's more of a team identity thing. We need this team identity for the Toronto Raptors every night. It can't just be teased. This terrifying defense can't just be teased. It needs to be every single night, and if it is, the Raptors are going to be in very... Good shape moving forward. What this means for our record going forward, especially the short term, could be very messy. I think without Scottie Barnes in the lineup, it's going to be tough to beat these upper echelon teams in the Eastern Conference. But in the future, down the line, especially we get Kawhi back, we get a rhythm, get Scottie healthy, I'm still feeling very bullish on the Toronto Raptors. But let me know in the comments section, I want to pose a little question. Who do you think deserves more minutes? Allen Graves or Elijah Martin from what you saw in this game? And if you want some of the latest updates regarding the Toronto Raptors news, check out this video right here.