The up and down season continues as Toronto looks to find some consistency against the consistently hurt Brooklyn Nets.
They call them free throws, because they’re free, yeah? Raptors fans have long had experience with Toronto finding new ways to lose games in the clutch, but in their recent loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Raptors decided to play the hits. After earning 29 shots at the free throw line, Toronto managed to convert on only 20 shots for a lowly 69% (not nice, as it turns out) from the charity stripe. Cleveland, on the other hand, shot a grand total of 6 but made 5, good for 83%. While you can certainly look to a string of incidents that decide a basketball game, when both teams shoot as poorly as these two Eastern Conference squads managed to do — Toronto put up a ghastly 42/25/69 line, while Cleveland managed slightly better at 46/32/83 — it turns out that the little things not only matter, but they can often swing the balance from win to loss.
But that was then, and this is now, and the now has Toronto squaring off against an extremely banged up Brooklyn Nets squad that should garner a victory for the Raptors. One thing to keep an extremely close eye on is how coach Darko intends to continue using Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam in relation to the bench. Of late, Darko has been putting Scottie Barnes out there as the lone starter with the bench unit and the results have been mixed. Once more looking at the immediate past, the starters plus Gary Trent Jr. and minus Scottie Barnes, finished the 102-105 loss to Cleveland in the positive end of the ledger on the +/- scale, with a range of +6 through to +11. Scottie with the bench, on the other hand went a -4 through to -20 (the 20 piece belongs to Scottie).
First 7 games:
— (@AaronBenRose) November 27, 2023
Scottie: 22.6 ppg on 51.3% shooting w/ 25% USG rate
Pascal: 15.4 ppg on 41.2% shooting w/ 20.8% USG rate
Last 10 games:
Scottie: 16.5 ppg on 42.7% shooting w/ 21.9% USG rate
Pascal: 23.2 ppg on 53.8% shooting w/ 28% USG rate
Can coach Darko and the Raptors find a shred of balance between opening up a nice lead and getting the doors blow open in the first quarter? Will someone on the bench step up with some consistency to help smooth the sails when it’s Scottie alone at the helm? Could Raptors fans please see some kind of movement to shore up very obvious, glaring holes in the roster construction? One step a time, friends, one step at a time.
Sportsnet — 7:30 pm ET
Toronto: Dennis Schröder, Gradey Dick, Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, Jakob Poeltl
Brooklyn: Spencer Dinwiddie, Mikal Bridges, Royce O’Neal, Cam Johnson, Dorian Finney-Smith
Toronto: Christian Koloko (out — respiratory)
Brooklyn: Nic Claxton (ankle — available), Cam Johnson (leg — probable), Ben Simmons (back — out), Dennis Smith Jr. (back — questionable), Cam Thomas (ankle — out)
