Title: Five Raptors defensive stat trends to keep an eye on
Date: November 6, 2023
Original Source: Sportsnet
Synopsis: In my latest at Sportsnet, I took a look at five early-season trends in the Raptors dense that I’ll be keeping an eye on as the sample grows.
The Toronto Raptors defence is, so far, as advertised.
Sunday’s incredible 22-point comeback against the San Antonio Spurs was headlined by a monster performance from Scottie Barnes. He knocked down threes, he bullied smaller defenders in the paint, and completely took over.
He also locked in at the defensive end, something the Raptors uncharacteristically had not done as a group in the first half. You’re not going to erase a franchise-record-tying 17-point fourth-quarter deficit without getting a lot of stops; those gave Barnes and the Raptors enough runway to chip away at that lead. In a monster across-the-board game, it was Barnes’ defence – jumping an inbound route to steal the ball and prevent a Spurs buzzer-beater – that assured overtime. In the extra frame, the Spurs got next to nothing.
When looking at the team’s early offensive trends last week, our analysis was couched in the idea that they only need to be decent at scoring in the half court, because their defence should be excellent and their transition game is, as you’d expect, quite strong. On Sunday, the Raptors had their second-best performance scoring in the halfcourt, while their defence was average overall (quite bad and then very good) and transition attempts weren’t available at all.
It’s good to be able to win games in a variety of ways, and it was a very nice second-half showing from head coach Darko Rajakovic to find a way to piece this one together. Most nights, the defence will need to be their calling card bell-to-bell.
As explained in last week’s offensive piece, it’s still quite early to draw conclusions. Team-level stats don’t begin to stabilize until around the 20-game mark. This early, you’re looking for three things: How extreme is the change, how well does it line up with the priors, and if there’s a good underlying explanation for the change.
Blake Murphy Sports Writing 