'Missed opportunity': Raptors sit last in East as offensive woes continue with loss to Trail Blazers

TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors have now lost three straight games after the Portland Trail Blazers came to Scotiabank Arena on Monday night and notched a 99-91 win.

It’s been a grim start to the 2023-24 campaign for new head coach Darko Rajakovic and the Raptors' league-worst offence. They now sit at 1-3, which is tied with the Miami Heat, but based on conference play, it puts the Raptors last in the East.

For the Blazers, they picked up their first win of the season as they usher in a new era after trading franchise icon Damian Lillard.

“I mean, it is a missed opportunity,” said Rajakovic, while also reflecting on the collapse the team had on Friday against Chicago, which started its losing streak.

Scottie Barnes, who finished with team-highs of 20 points and 12 rebounds, shared a similar sentiment, saying “I feel like we should have won this one.”

Toronto was in position to grab a victory, being down only 88-87 with 3 minutes left. But Portland showed more “urgency,” as it ended the game on an 11-4 run, which included six points near the hoop for veteran Malcolm Brogdon, who finished with 21 points off the bench.

“After you lose a couple, all the games are must-win, so we had some urgency tonight,” said Brogdon, who credited his teammates for picking “their spots” all night, and also Jerami Grant’s tough shot-making on his way to a game-high 22 points.

The win for the Blazers comes on the second-night of a back-to-back and also marks the first for the recent third overall pick in the 2023 Draft, Scoot Henderson, who chipped in with 11 points, 7 assists and 2 steals. Portland was also without arguably its best player in Anfernee Simons due to a thumb injury.

Overall, it was a tough shooting night for both teams. Portland shot 44% from the field and 31% from distance. But that was enough compared to the Raptors, who hit at 40% and 13% clips, respectively.

“That’s a terrible shooting night for us,” said Barnes, looking back on the Raptors going 4-of-29 from downtown. The 13% shooting is their worst in a game since March 2017.

Rajakovic said post-game that he wants to see the Raptors making quicker decisions in their half-court offence, as they are often waiting too long into the shot clock to become aggressive and find the right looks.

“I mean, we’re moving the ball, but it’s one thing to move the ball around the 3-point line, and it’s another thing to be aggressive on the catch that you can touch the paint, so the defence [will] collapse and then move the ball to find the open man,” said Rajakovic, noting the team didn’t attack enough downhill.

Currently, the Raptors are averaging the most passes per game (315.5), according to NBA Advanced Stats, which also has them holding the worst offensive rating (100.8) among all 30 teams.

Per Cleaning the Glass, Toronto is averaging a league-worst 77.1 points in the half-court per 100 possessions, which is far below the league average of 93.7, and also behind Portland, who's second last in that category.

This isn't a new problem for Toronto, who were the sixth-worst team for half-court offence last season.

Post-game in the locker room, the head coach says he reminded his team of the importance of playing for each other; that even if you’re not making shots, there are other ways to contribute, like rebounding, cutting for teammates and setting better screens.

When asked if he feels his players are playing with too much of an individual mindset, Rajakovic stopped short, but mentioned that it seems as though players are simply focusing on their individual matchups, instead of team versus team.

Even though it is still the "very beginning" of their learning curve under a new system with Rajakovic, Jakob Poeltl says that it "doesn't mean that we can't have great offensive possessions." This comes for a team that, besides losing point guard Fred VanVleet in free agency, has come into the 2023-24 campaign with the same core.

"We're trying to have this like drive, kick, swing offence; play through the elbows, trying cuts, different split screens, stuff like that," said Poeltl, who finished with 14 rebounds and 10 rebounds.

"But at times we get in this mode where — I don't think we're really doing it on purpose — but it seems like everybody's just trying to make something happen almost randomly. We're not on the same page and then we just dribble into a crowd, try and kick out [and] the next guy's dribbling into a crowd. We're not really getting any advantages out of it."

Another weak point for the Raptors was their inability to crash the glass, giving up 13 offensive rebounds, leading to 21 second-chance points. Deandre Ayton was a menace, notching 23 boards — seven of those coming on the offensive end — as he took advantage of the Raptors being thin on the front line, with Precious Achiuwa out on Monday.

“Even when we were getting stops, they just got offensive rebounds, put-back layups, kick out 3s,” said Barnes. "Even when we’re not making shots, we can’t let that affect us on the defensive end.”

Unlike the Trail Blazers with Brogdon, the Raptors also didn't have any additional juice coming from the bench. Rookie Gradey Dick did get another 20 minutes of action, as Rajakovic says he's "progressing every game" as he's "really trying" to make an impact. Sometimes, that might come with being on the opposite end of a highlight.

A brighter note for the Raptors was that Pascal Siakam did notch his first 20-point game of the season, as he came out with “the right mindset,” according to Rajakovic.

This time it was on 9-of-21 shooting, the most shots Siakam's taken in a game this season, and almost three times as many as he had in Saturday’s loss against Philadelphia. However, the final output was still below last year’s average of 24.2 points a game.

Looking forward, the Raptors face a tough upcoming schedule, as they host Giannis Antetokounmpo, Lillard and the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena before they embark on a four-game stretch on the road.