Toronto still has one of the worst benches in the league this season. With only 27.6 points scored on average, Nick Nurse’s replacements are in 28th place and the coach is still reluctant to open his bench.
Because the problem is that there are nights where things really go wrong when he does. New demonstration this night against the Lakers.
Led by 32 points from Scottie Barnes and 31 from OG Anunoby, the Raptors had yet taken control of the game in the third quarter, limiting the Lakers to only 15 points. But Toronto was already beginning to lack rhythm, and the arrival of Gary Trent Jr. and company will not revive it. On the contrary…
The passage from the back, with Will Barton, Chris Boucher and Thaddeus Young alongside Scottie Barnes during the first minutes of the fourth quarter will thus prove fatal to the Canadian franchise.
While the substitutes launched by Nick Nurse entered the field five points ahead (90-85), they came out four minutes later four points behind (96-100), overtaken by the speed of D’ Angelo Russell and Dennis Schröder. The momentum has changed sides and the incumbents will not save the deal.
“Even though we’re a bit low in the standings, we don’t feel like there’s a big gap between us and a lot of other teams in this league”
“I’m always disappointed when they can’t make a single stop (defensive)” could only pester the Canadian coach. “We held them to 15 points in the third quarter and we conceded 15 points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. There is really the feeling of having two teams. The guys play really, really good basketball for a lot of minutes, but it’s not enough. »
There is clearly a lack of shooting but also of creation in this roster, and in particular when coming off the bench. The workforce is really unbalanced and Nick Nurse has a hard time finding the right combinations.
“We have to win to qualify (in play-in). We want to qualify, we want to have a chance.”concluded Nick Nurse. “Even though we’re a bit low in the standings, we don’t feel like there’s a big gap between us and a lot of other teams in this league. I don’t think we are afraid of many teams. The main thing for us is to keep improving, playing better, getting wins and making the play-in. Then we’ll see what happens. »
For now, the Raptors are there since they are still in 9th place in the East (32 wins – 36 losses). But with their three consecutive losses, they are under threat from Chicago (30-36) or Indiana (30-37), 11th and 12th.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Pascal Siakam | 57 | 37.5 | 47.4 | 34.2 | 77.2 | 1.9 | 5.8 | 7.6 | 6.0 | 2.6 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 3.3 | 24.6 |
| Fred Vanvleet | 55 | 37.0 | 39.1 | 34.1 | 89.9 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 4.3 | 6.9 | 1.9 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 2.9 | 19.3 |
| Gary Trent, Jr. | 58 | 32.9 | 43.6 | 36.8 | 83.9 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 1.6 | 0.9 | 1.6 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 18.0 |
| Og Anunoby | 53 | 35.8 | 45.4 | 36.2 | 82.8 | 1.5 | 3.8 | 5.3 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 3.0 | 16.3 |
| Scottie Barnes | 64 | 35.3 | 44.7 | 30.3 | 77.0 | 2.4 | 4.5 | 6.9 | 4.8 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.9 | 2.3 | 15.4 |
| Jakob Poeltl | 11 | 28.0 | 72.9 | 0.0 | 56.4 | 3.1 | 6.0 | 9.1 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 14.7 |
| chris butcher | 61 | 20.3 | 49.7 | 33.5 | 74.1 | 2.2 | 3.6 | 5.7 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 9.7 |
| Precious Achiuwa | 43 | 22.3 | 47.7 | 25.9 | 69.4 | 1.9 | 4.3 | 6.2 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 2.0 | 9.5 |
| Otto Porter | 8 | 18.3 | 50.0 | 35.3 | 100.0 | 0.8 | 1.6 | 2.4 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 5.5 |
| Malachi Flynn | 43 | 13.7 | 37.0 | 37.8 | 70.8 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 4.8 |
| Thaddeus Young | 53 | 14.9 | 54.5 | 17.6 | 69.2 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 3.1 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 4.5 |
| Dalano Banton | 27 | 9.3 | 41.1 | 28.3 | 78.9 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 4.4 |
| Christian Koloko | 46 | 14.4 | 48.4 | 11.1 | 66.0 | 1.5 | 1.7 | 3.2 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 2.4 | 3.4 |
| Joe Wieskamp | 3 | 7.9 | 37.5 | 42.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 3.0 |
| Juancho Hernangomez | 42 | 14.6 | 42.1 | 25.4 | 56.3 | 0.6 | 2.3 | 2.9 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 2.9 |
| Ron Harper | 4 | 3.5 | 57.1 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.5 |
| Jeff Dowtin | 18 | 8.9 | 44.2 | 27.3 | 75.0 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 2.4 |
| Khem Birsh | 20 | 8.1 | 59.4 | 50.0 | 80.0 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 2.2 |
| Justin Champagnie | 3 | 3.6 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 2.0 |
| Will Barton | 4 | 8.7 | 30.0 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 2.0 |
