Toronto Raptors Need to Work On Defense
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
What can we take away from the Toronto Raptors difficult road trip so far? There is still room for improvement, especially on the defensive end. After starting the west coast road trip with impressive back-to-back wins against the Los Angles Clippers and the Denver Nuggets, Toronto has now lost two in a row.
Taking Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers, one of the best home teams in the NBA, to overtime and losing by five shows the Raptors have what it takes to compete with an elite team at their home court. But this wasn’t the case against theGolden State Warriors.
Although both teams are significantly different, Toronto showed that the fast pace of the Warriors was too much to handle. After managing to climb back in the game by half-time, Toronto lost control on the defensive end, resulting in the Warriors largest run and no way back for the Raptors.
When not performing well defensively, the Raptors have relied on quick runs to bring them back, but the Warriors did not allow that. Jonas Valanciunas, who often plays a big role for the Raptors, only played for a productive 11 minutes, but slowed the team down on defense. However, pulling him out from the game did not really help the Raptors’ situation.
Golden State was able to outpace the Raptors and slow them down offensively, blocking eight of their shot attempts. Overall Warriors shot above 50 percent and also out-assisted the Raptors, who are usually the ones to do that.
The Raptors should focus on adapting defensively to teams and figuring out strategies to slow teams down, even when whistles are not going your way.
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