Winners on the line in Cleveland at the start of the season, Nick Nurse’s men know that the hardest part is yet to come. On the menu, Toronto will have to chain a trip to Brooklyn, a double-confrontation in Miami then the reception of the Sixers for two games in a row.
A boiling program which has the merit of placing the Raptors in the heart of the entry subject. The first win in Cleveland helped set the tone. We must now continue to chain the good performances and find the benchmarks that made the success of the Canadian team last season.
“Those first 10 or 20 games, that’s where we have to establish who we are as a team, we have to establish our identity,” said veteran Thaddeus Young. “Because if you don’t establish your identity early, then you won’t get whistles, you won’t be able to decide who plays physically, and the refs will start whistling stuff.”
A stronger collective with one more year?
For Nick Nurse, this insane schedule is not necessarily a bad thing. The opponents will be quality, but these Raptors have the weapons to do well.
“I think we are aware that we will have to be really competitive. They’re all good teams.”, slipped coach Nurse. “The identity of the opponent doesn’t really matter. We know that we can stand up to the best teams and I believe that we will have to be even better against all these teams. So we have to worry about ourselves”.
The Raptors will also be able to count as an asset their collective experience from last season, which has allowed the team to gain strength over the months. This season, logic dictates that Toronto will come back stronger.
“I’ve been on a number of teams and we got off to better starts because we were all acclimated to each other”added Thad’Young. “We all knew exactly where certain guys wanted to receive the ball, we knew the systems, we weren’t trying to learn things on the job. I think last year everyone was still learning things. Obviously, there was Pascal (Siakam), OG (Anunoby), Fred (VanVleet), these guys were already there and already knew everything. But all the new guys were in transition and had to ask themselves, “Where am I going to score? How do I fit into the mold of what we do? “.
Problem, Brooklyn, Miami and Philly can say the same thing since the three formations have not turned their workforce upside down compared to last season. Toronto’s progress will be all the more interesting to follow.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Pascal Siakam | 2 | 35.4 | 58.5 | 33.3 | 52.9 | 2.5 | 9.0 | 11.5 | 6.0 | 3.5 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 5.0 | 30.0 |
| Fred Vanvleet | 2 | 38.3 | 55.0 | 58.3 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 7.0 | 0.5 | 4.0 | 0.5 | 3.0 | 16.5 |
| Gary Trent, Jr. | 2 | 36.5 | 39.3 | 40.0 | 71.4 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 3.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 16.5 |
| Scottie Barnes | 2 | 34.1 | 50.0 | 66.7 | 100.0 | 1.5 | 3.5 | 5.0 | 5.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 3.0 | 16.0 |
| Og Anunoby | 2 | 37.4 | 38.1 | 44.4 | 88.9 | 1.0 | 5.0 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 14.0 |
| Precious Achiuwa | 2 | 17.7 | 29.4 | 20.0 | 60.0 | 0.5 | 5.0 | 5.5 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 | 7.0 |
| Dalano Banton | 2 | 11.1 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 3.0 |
| Christian Koloko | 2 | 17.6 | 16.7 | 0.0 | 50.0 | 2.0 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 3.5 | 2.0 |
| Thaddeus Young | 2 | 8.4 | 25.0 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| Juancho Hernangomez | 1 | 7.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 |
