Raptors collapse in 4th quarter vs. Nets

Amit Mann recaps the Toronto Raptors' loss to the Brooklyn Nets where the team was outscored heavily in crunch time and lacked the ball and player movement that was a staple of the team.

Video Transcript

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AMIT MANN: Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Raptors Over Everything podcast. Rate, review, and subscribe on your podcast feeds on YouTube. Like and subscribe there as well, muchly appreciated if you do so. The Raptors lose once again. They lose 115-103 to the Brooklyn Nets, in a in-season tournament game. They have a few more remaining after this, not that it really matters at this point, because the Raptors have surely been eliminated, and they have been eliminated for quite some time now.

But yeah, they lose this game, just a game that didn't really feel. It was somewhat uninspiring, that's what it was. It was very uninspiring. I felt like I was watching last year's team at multiple points, the team that Masai Ujiri said that he wasn't very fond of watching. I felt like I was watching that team tonight. Key stats, the Raptors finished 11 of 25 at the rim, wow, last four minutes of the fourth quarter, they're outscored 18 to 8.

And at the free throw line, once again, they shoot pretty poorly, 12 of 19 from the free throw line, not nearly as bad as the previous game. But they definitely left points on the board. Let's jump right to the last four minutes of the game. So right there, it's 97-96, around that point. And Gary Trent Jr. has made a couple of shots in a row. And it gets to that decision point where, OK, Scottie Barnes is going to check back into the game. Is Jak going out, or is Gary Trent Jr. going out? And obviously, Darko decided to keep Gary Trent Jr. in the game.

And I don't mind that decision considering how he was playing, but I do quibble a little bit with the approach to how they use Gary going forward for the rest of the game. They essentially kind of gave him the ball. And it was Gary, Scottie pick and roll. And it had mixed results. Obviously, with how the Raptors shot this game, what is the best solution? I'm not really sure. If Jak was there, you could run some Dennis, Jak pick and roll.

I'm not sure how Dennis was feeling. He got a charlie horse off of a-- I believe a Mikal Bridges drive earlier on in the game. And I don't know how good his thigh was feeling, how mobile he was. But at the same time, they decided to go with Gary and Scottie empty side pick and roll. And the first possession didn't go too well in terms of the outcome, because Gary shot a floater and it missed. And then they decided, the Raptors, to do a little Hack-a-Clax, right?

And Claxton missed one of the free throws. And the Raptors get the ball back, and luckily, he missed the second free throw, so you were able to push off of that. And what I appreciate about Dennis Schroder is a few times now, when we're in these clutch situations, he's willing to push the ball down the floor and not wait. And it's actually helped the Raptors get some good results. And this happened again on this possession, where he pushed the ball up the floor. He found Scottie Barnes with the little hit ahead, and Scottie got two free throws out of it.

So that was a good play. And on the other side of things where it wasn't so good, at that point, after Scottie made the free throws, 103-100. And Royce O'Neale made four 3's in the fourth quarter-- OK, a few of them, one of them is a pull-up heat check 3, it felt like, the third of his fourth 3's, on Chris Boucher at the top of the key. You live with that, it is what it is. But a few of the other ones, it was pretty much him being disregarded. The Raptors are offering nail help and he makes a shot from the wing.

And then there was another one where they ran some double staggers and he flared out again to the wing, and he made a shot. On this possession-- so you had Pascal Siakam, he gets switched on to Spencer Dinwiddie. And he's at the top of the floor, and he's taking on that match-up. I don't mind Pascal going one on one in that. I think he's mobile enough, and Spencer isn't like that quick, you know, where he's going to blow by Pascal. I thought Pascal would do OK in that situation.

But Dennis decided that he was going to stunt and recover. And at one point, Spencer drives, and well, Dennis stunts a little bit too hard. And Royce O'Neale relocates to the corner and he hits his fourth 3. Now, it's 106-100. After that, I mean, Pascal misses a makeable chip shot. As I said, they shot 11 of 25 at the rim tonight. And then afterwards, Gary misses a makeable floater in transition. Once again, it was Dennis with the hit ahead. And it was a decent shot, but he missed it.

And-- but you're still in a position where you can potentially get-- you can come back and make something happen here. I did forget that there was a possession where off of one of Gary's missed floaters, Cam Johnson, OG, Gary, they're all trying to get the ball. And for some reason, I'm not really sure why-- Cam Johnson-- he's awarded two free throws out of it. It felt like a jump ball kind of play. But unfortunately for the Raptors, Cam Johnson gets two free throws out of it.

And that did kind of change the momentum of the game a little bit. That made the game 102-96. And then after that, Nic Claxton makes one of two free throws, and then Royce O'Neale ends up hitting that 3 pointer that I just mentioned. And it's 106-100, and the Raptors have the ball. Pascal Siakam is backing down Mikal Bridges on a post-up, a match-up that you like, right? And it's-- again, it's Dennis Schroder. He's pushing the ball. And the Raptors get this possession.

And unfortunately, Pascal misses it-- very makeable shot, it just doesn't go down. Scottie Barnes gets a tip in attempt, it doesn't go down either. But even at that moment, you're still-- it's 106-100 with 1:20 left in the game. And if you play a good possession of defense, you can still conceivably win this game. And luckily for the Raptors, Pascal Siakam, he gets switched on to Mikal Bridges one on one in isolation. And Pascal did a pretty decent job keeping up with Mikal Bridges, which makes me think he probably could have done that against Spencer Dinwiddie earlier on.

But anyways, the Raptors were running the floor. And unfortunately, once again, Gary Trent Jr., he misses a running pull up shot. And off of that, it felt like, I guess, the game was over. Or maybe that that's how OG Anunoby felt because he didn't get back in transition, and the Nets had numbers, and Cam Johnson, who was the trailer on the play, he ends up finishing the layup, making it 108-100. And that's the end of the game, essentially. There was another minute left, but it was all garbage time.

So that's how the Raptors lost this game in crunch time. As I said, they were outscored 18 to 8 in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter, pretty lousy number. Obviously, some of that-- contributing to that lopsided score is what happened in the last, like, minute or so, when the Raptors are trying to rally, they're throwing up shots, and the Nets are making their free throws and whatnot. But not a great last stretch for the Raptors. That's where they lost this one.

There's other parts to this game where things could have gone better, and I guess we'll get to that now. But overall, like, I felt like it was a very sloppy game from the Raptors. As I said, it did feel like I was watching last year's team the team, the team that Masai Ujiri is quoted as saying he didn't enjoy watching. Well, this was very close to that team. They had 27 assists on 39 field goals, but it just didn't feel like that. The ball wasn't really humming.

And you just look at the beginning of the game, OG starts with two bricks. And as in, like, he didn't even touch the rim on some of these shots. And it seems like the Raptors like to engage him early on offense. And I'd have to look at the numbers, but I don't think it's gone very well over the past few games. But again, I'd have to look at it. And then outside of that, Pascal Siakam had three wide open 3's. We know how he's been shooting, not good. And he missed all of them, obviously, in the first quarter.

He did kind of find a groove a little bit. I think he had 8 points in the quarter. So he did find himself, but it's like these kinds of momentum plays that if they're just not going down, like, all of a sudden, maybe a quarter where you score 21 points, maybe it's 29, maybe it's 30, because this is how team basketball goes. Everyone's feeding off of each other. And a lot of those shots, Pascal was wide open. No one's around him, and he missed them.

So that's how that went. And also, Scottie Barnes, it felt like he kind of started the game pretty slow as well. He fell asleep on defense. There was a backdoor cut from Bridges that he was faulted on. And also, his man just beat him in transition at one point. And he just blew by him, and he got an open layup out of it. There was another miscommunication between Malachi and Scottie on a backdoor cut that, again, Bridges got. That's not a Scottie thing, that's more of like-- well, both of them. It's also Scottie, I guess.

But a slow start from the Raptors, and that contributed to them being down by 1 after the first quarter. You look at the second, though, I kind of like the group that they use. Jalen McDaniels hadn't played in, what, five games, or at least he hadn't played anything outside of the last, like, four or five minutes of the fourth quarter over the last five games. But he got some run in the bench unit. Otto Porter Jr. is not playing. I don't know why, but he's not, so there's that part.

But it was a lineup of OG, it was Scottie. It was Precious for a little bit, but then he got his third foul, and then Chris Boucher came in-- Gary Trent Jr. and Jalen McDaniels. And that unit kind of helped the Raptors find the energy that they are supposed to play with. And it was actually Chris Boucher who got the ball rolling a little bit. He made two 3's and he had a layup in transition. And the two plays where he got those 3 pointers, that's what you kind of love.

It was Scottie Barnes and OG running a pick and roll. Scottie Barnes, he brushes a screen. He goes towards the rim, and OG finds him with a two handed overhead pass. And it was a touch pass from Scottie to the corner that found Chris, and he hit that shot. And then later on, the Raptors are running some elbow action with Scottie and Chris Boucher makes himself available at the wing, and he makes a shot. Good stuff-- and also, Jalen McDaniels, he hadn't hit a 3 in I don't know how long.

I mean, maybe it hasn't been that long, but it felt like it's been a long time since he hit a shot, at least from the 3 point line. And he cuts from the free throw line-- from the corner to the free throw line extended. And at this point, Dennis Schroder is in the game. And Dennis drives, and he circles around, and he curls, and he finds Jalen McDaniels at the wing for a 3. So that second quarter, it was going pretty good for the Raptors.

But then here come the Brooklyn Nets, and here come some of the issues that the Raptors have had with their shot selection and also transition defense. The Nets go on a 15-0 run to end the second quarter. And obviously, I mean, some of the things that were coming up for the Raptors, it's their transition defense rearing its ugly head. There was a time where Pascal Siakam, he's clearly back. You know, he's the person back, probably-- he's guarding Dorian Finney-Smith.

And for some reason, I'm not really sure why, Schroder just motions to him to take Spencer Dinwiddie at the 3 point line, even though it feels pretty clear that Scottie-- or that Pascal is going to be on Dorian Finney-Smith, and then that leads to a transition 3. And then Scottie Barnes, who took a few tough mid-range shots, like, things that were just kind of ill advised, and shots that the Raptors didn't really need, especially when the Nets were kind of finding their groove, and they were getting intense, and they were hitting their shots.

You need some good quality shots at that time, and especially-- probably later in the shot clock, not so early, because it just kind of kills the rhythm of your defense, and also your transition defense. And that is a factor in why we saw some of the things that happened with the Raptors late in the second quarter. Pascal Siakam had a turnover. Jakob Poeltl missed a shot that was pretty makeable, but he missed it. But it was Spencer Dinwiddie who made a couple of really tough shots, and the Nets just kind of kept on going.

The Claxton-Spencer Dinwiddie pick and roll was a problem for the Raptors a little bit. And between those two, Dinwiddie was getting to the free throw line, or Claxton was getting alley oops. And Claxton, you know, he's a pretty physical dude. He's got some bunnies to him. He had five blocks, I believe, in this game. And he was a problem for the Raptors around the rim, just a little bit. And anyways, 15-0 run just like that by the Brooklyn Nets.

And the third quarter is where things were-- kind of felt like the Raptors were finding their groove again. And what was nice about it is that-- I just mentioned, you know, Scottie Barnes, felt like he was asleep at points. But first possession, he's a trailer on a play. He drives straight downhill and he draws a foul. I'm like, OK, so now we're seeing something from Scottie here. And you go through it. You know, Dennis Schroder, he had 8 points in that quarter, a couple of 3's.

OG got his first 3 point attempt in this game, the third quarter. The Nets, they limit corner 3's. That is part of their MO. That's how they play their defense. They want to limit paint pressure and they want to limit their corner 3's. And OG, just didn't really feel like he was able to get a possession where he could get a shot off a lot of times. And even the 3 that he made here, it was on the wing. But you put some of these together, you know, Dennis doing his thing. OG had a side step middy as well.

Scottie had an and-one breakaway reverse dunk that was awesome. And you put some of these things together-- you know, Gary Trent Jr. had a terrific game, really. And it felt like the Raptors were in control of this game. But as we go forward, I've already talked about the late fourth quarter and how things went wrong. But I think there's some good things that happened from the bench. You know, they outscored the Nets bench 39-32. They shot 6 of 13 from 3.

It was actually the starters who kind of let them down. And if you've been following me on Twitter, I did a took a look at the net rating of the starters over the course of November. And any way you want to do the splits, whether it's, like, beginning of November to the end of November, the last five games, the last four games, three games, whatever, they're a negative. They're a net negative.

And I think with the energy that we saw, or lack thereof, energy that we saw from this game tonight from the Raptors, it feels like this was a game where we're feeling-- they're feeling it a little bit. I'll put it that way. They're feeling it a little bit. I didn't see nearly as much energy from the bench in this one. And there wasn't nearly as much-- you know, hooting and hollering. It didn't really feel like they were having that cohesion that we had seen in previous games.

And it's been a lot of losing, and they lost this one as well. And it was another very winnable game. And they let it go, right? They let it go. It's unfortunate know how things broke down. It felt like especially with the starters, starter versus starter units, that the Nets just were able to hit 3's, and the Raptor starters were not able to hit some of those 3's at the same clip that the Nets were able to. Obviously, I mentioned the bench, they did their job. They shot pretty well.

But especially in that fourth quarter, I already mentioned that Royce O'Neale, he hit four 3's in the quarter. That's hard to overcome when one player does that, especially someone like Royce O'Neale. Mikal Bridges got loose at one point from OG. He kind of just like lost him, and he floated out to the corner. And he was able to hit a 3. That was late in the fourth quarter as well. But I mean, in the end, they were-- it was 97-96 with four minutes remaining, right?

And it was some of these things that I mentioned. You know, Gary Trent Jr., is he-- do you want him to be the featured part of your offense? Do you want to mix it up a little bit? Should you have taken Jakob Poeltl off? I mean, it's easy for me to say this now after how things went down. But Pascal got a possession, Scottie got a possession. Gary got a couple of screen and roll opportunities. He made a nice pass, he missed two floaters.

Sometimes, shots don't go in. I'm talking this out with you, because I'm trying to convince myself, too, that maybe it wasn't as bad as I think it was. The defense wasn't good, obviously. I mentioned that Bridges shot that made it 100-96. The Cam Johnson free throws was awful. They decided to foul Nic Claxton, a little Hack-a-Clax, so that was one free throw right there. The Royce O'Neale 3 point pull up that made it 106-100, that was a mistake. That was not good.

And then, as I mentioned, Cam Johnson making it 108-100 when OG doesn't get back on defense after Gary misses a floater in transition. I mean, I hate to keep on saying this, but it's just like they're finding ways to lose. And they aren't a team that has the identity, especially in the late fourth quarter, of what they're going to be. We thought it would be, at some point, that it was going to be their defense that's going to catapult their offense, and that they're just going to be a really hard team to score on.

But a couple of these leaky plays, you put them together, and this is how you lose games, especially when you go through lulls where you allow a 15-0 run to end a quarter. And those are with all your starters on the court. Like, your best players were on the court for the two worst stretches of your game. Like, that's the facts, late second quarter, late fourth quarter, those are your worst stretches. You put those together, I mean 15-0 run, 18-8 run, that's what, 33 to 8?

A lot of points, a lot of points, and a lot of starters are on the court for that, aside from Jakob Poeltl in the fourth quarter. But yeah, that'll do it for the game right there, and your starters get outscored that badly in some of their more critical minutes. So just looking at some of the individual performances, Pascal Siakam shoots 6 of 18. He had a couple of good moments where he's able to get into his mid-range, he's able to get into some post-ups.

It does feel like maybe he's getting into his post-ups a little bit too often. I'd like to see him just, like, face up a little bit and just drive towards the basket, but he's opting a lot for his post-ups, so that's that one. I mentioned the good defensive possession he had against Mikal Bridges. He had one earlier on against Spencer Dinwiddie, which is all more confusing-- why wouldn't you just let him guard him straight up when Dennis decided to help, which led to the Royce O'Neale 3?

Scottie, as I said, he didn't really feel like he was awake until the second half, but when he did wake up, started to see Scottie-- well, not the second half. I guess it was the third quarter, or the second quarter, too, where he was leading that bench unit that played pretty well. So-- I guess more so it was just the first quarter that didn't really go-- didn't really see the energy from Scottie the way that we'd like to see it. But only two Raptors shot better than 50% in this game.

It was Gary Trent Jr., who shot 7 of 12. I mean, by the way, I don't want to make it seem like I'm looking at Gary Trent Jr.'s game as a negative. Like, he played 24 minutes and he had 15 points. Like, he made some really tough mid-range shots. Are they in the rhythm of the offense or is it more him just kind of taking the ball, and it's getting a bit stagnant, and he's hitting shots because he's talented enough to do that? Yeah, sure, there's a bit of that.

But the fact is, without his production, like, the Raptors probably aren't in a position to win this game in the fourth quarter, so there's that. Jakob Poeltl, three of five, he continues to be very efficient-- nine rebounds. He had a nice stretch in the second quarter, where he came in and it just felt like he had a bit more force to his game. He blocked a shot. He had a steal. He was grabbing some offensive rebounds-- six points from him, nine rebounds, four assists, a couple of elbow actions they ran with him went pretty well, actually.

And then other times, it didn't go so well. It looked like Darko Rajakovic was a bit frustrated after one turnover that Jak had. He called a very quick timeout after that. And he just had a look on his face, it seemed like he was very, very mad. So I'm not sure if it was Jak's fault on that possession, but yeah. There was that. OG struggled to finish tonight, especially early on in the game. I mentioned the bricks, but he did hit two 3's, and he shot 4 of 12 overall.

Two of those shots were some mid-range 2's. One was a step back-- or a couple of step backs, actually. He had one step back along the left wing that was pretty nice, and another one was off an inbounds play where he kind of spins and is fading along the baseline. He hit the shot. It was pretty nice, so good on him. Precious Achiuwa did not have a good day. If you watched the game, it's pretty obvious that he did not have a good day, so I'm going to leave it there.

Chris Boucher, as I said, great game-- 13 points, five of seven shooting, three of four from 3. He has been-- I'd have to look it up, but I think he's actually been probably one of, if not the best Raptors 3 point shooter over the past two weeks or so. I'll look that up while we're talking about this. Malachi Flynn plays 16 minutes, two of five. He had 5 points. He had some good, aggressive plays, I felt, in the fourth quarter.

I've said it before, that it's easy to see when Malachi is in his aggressive state. He's getting downhill, and he's making plays, and he's making things happen. And he's trusting his abilities. And sometimes, he's not doing that. He kind of gets lost in the offense. And that's something he has to work on, is that he can't become invisible. When he becomes invisible, then he's pretty much-- he's not really a factor on the court. And that's a problem for the Raptors, so they need him to be his engaged self.

They need him to be productive in his minutes. And he was more so that in his second shift than his first. But yeah, I mean, a decent game for Malachi. It says -10, but that bench unit-- I mean, some of these plus minuses are a little bit deceiving. I don't think he was that bad. But I mean, the points indicate otherwise-- or his plus minus indicates otherwise. And the Raptors, they now go on to the Phoenix Suns tomorrow. That's obviously going to be a very tough game.

And for Toronto, I mean, the losses are kind of mounting, yeah. So looking it up as we were going here, last 10 games, Chris Boucher is shooting 52% from 3 on 2.3 attempts per game. He is the best Raptor from the 3 point line since November 10 to now. So he's shooting pretty well, so congrats to him. He works on it, he worked on it pretty hard. He knows it's how important it is, and it's a key to getting minutes. And he's hitting his shots, so kudos to him.

But yes, the Raptors they move on to the Phoenix Suns tomorrow. And we'll see how it goes. Obviously, the Suns, you know, they got Devin Booker. We'll see if Kevin Durant plays. We'll see how healthy they are. But in the end, I mean, the Raptors, they got to start winning some games-- win some games. They got to find their energy, their spirit again, because it was lacking tonight despite the game being fairly close. Wasn't seeing the same team tonight, so anyways, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Have a great night. We'll talk to you soon, bye bye.