Raptors a defensive juggernaut despite lowly record

Article content

Teams 20 games under .500 usually aren’t anything close to passable defensively, but this year’s Toronto Raptors are an exception.

Article content

Article content

Article content

The team improved to 27-47 with a win Friday over the Charlotte Hornets, holding the visitors, albeit a depleted version of the already terrible Hornets, to barely 40% shooting from the field.

Toronto entered the night 16th in the NBA in defensive efficiency (points allowed per 100 possessions). More impressively, Toronto had been the league’s best defensive team, yes, its best, in the 18 games since the all-star break before Friday, and it’s not a coincidence Toronto had a .500 record in those games.

Head coach Darko Rajakovic was asked about the turnaround (Toronto ranked 26th defensively in the 55 games prior to the break, though had been steadily moving up since January).

“A lot of work that we put in since the start of the training camp creating habits. We’re trying to do all these different schemes, a little different engagement than everyday NBA and really trying to maximize the potential of every player on the defensive end,” Rajakovic said. “We’re trying to be disruptive. We’re trying to be very active. We’re trying to make our opponents play on their heels. We always want to be in attack mode. And in order to create those habits, that’s not happening overnight. So a lot of work, a lot of pounding the rock. And then finally we were able to to see the the product of that work.”

Article content

Article content

Jakob Poetl the crucial anchor of the defence agreed with his coach, noting the team plays an unorthodox type of defence that took a while to learn.

“At the beginning you’re gonna not be on the same page as much as you’re used to, especially for the guys who’ve been around. You’re gonna make mistakes because you’re not used to being in these positions, but the idea is that you do it for long enough to where we get really comfortable in it then we can put teams in uncomfortable situations and i think that’s starting to show,” Poeltl said. “We’re able to put a lot of pressure on guys and force them to make mistakes and that’s awesome for us. It gets us going, it gets us running on offence.”

Toronto has succeeded defensively by holding opponents to a low effective field goal percentage (only Cleveland has been stingier since the break), by corralling tons of defensive rebounds, by guarding the rim well, and by holding opponents to an NBA-low 33% accuracy on three-point attempts since the all-star break.

Article content

Scottie Barnes and Poeltl have led the charge. Both would have strong cases for all-defensive team consideration if the Raptors had a better record. Barnes has been a monster, while Poeltl has been a steady force.

Rajakovic was also asked why he kept the faith in his group when they looked rough at times defensively earlier on.

“Twenty-nine years of coaching. Seen it before. Things (don’t) happen overnight. I don’t believe in instant gratification. I don’t live in that world,” he said.

“I live in a world where hard work, dedication, really a commitment to the principles during the course of my career, I’ve seen it work for me. I’ve seen it work for many other coaches. And every time when try to over-complicate it and make it just all about schemes, that’s a shortcut. In the long run I think it’s a shortcut to not have success.”

Article content

It will be interesting to see how Brandon Ingram fits into all of this next season. He has the length and athleticism to be a passable defender, but has never excelled at that end of the floor. That said, RJ Barrett had an even worse reputation defensively, but has been far better this season as his effort level increased, especially in the last few months.

GRIZZLIES SHOCKER

In perhaps the biggest NBA surprise since the Luka Doncic trade, Memphis fired head coach Taylor Jenkins on Friday. The team sat tied for fourth in the West and finished second in the conference just two years ago. Jenkins was quite successful in his six years with the team, even with star player Ja Morant and others often injured.

The team had been struggling lately, particularly defensively, but the move with only nine games left in the season was still a shocker, especially to Rajakovic, who is close with Jenkins and was his top assistant for three years In Memphis before taking over in Toronto.

Article content

“For me, (it was) not surprising news. It’s shocking news for me,” Rajakovic said. “I did not see that coming. We are close. I know Taylor as a man. I know Taylor is a coach. He’s first class in everything he does. Unfortunately, that’s the business and that’s the life of coaches. I’m coming from a different system. I’m coming from Europe. And in Europe we have a saying: ‘There are only two types of coaches — those that are fired and those that will get fired,’” Rajakovic said.

“What I do know and what I can tell you is that Taylor is going to be just fine. He’s going to be in a great position going forward. I’m sure there are a lot of teams that would love to see that guy coaching their franchise. He’s first class in everything he does and I wish him all the best.”

It’s extremely uncommon for the coach of a contending team to be let go at this point of a season.

AROUND THE RIM

Charlotte’s loss made the Hornets the third team the Raptors can no longer finish under in terms of wins and losses. Even if the Hornets won every game left and Toronto lost all of its contests, at worst they’d be tied at 27 wins and 55 losses … Jamal Shead is third amongst all rookies in assists per game and seventh in steals and 13th in minutes played. Shead’s also fourth amongst all NBA reserves in assists.

@WolstatSun

Article content