RAPTORS BLOG: Mixed results on offence without Siakam in Chicago home-and-home

Article content

Life without Pascal Siakam remains a work in progress for the Raptors.

Article content

The return of Fred VanVleet has prevented the train from completely going off the tracks on offence (he’s been great in both of his games since returning from injury), but the home-and-home series against the Chicago Bulls was an intriguing first look at what things are going to look like. There was a solid home win and a blase road defeat a night later.

Article content

Article content

Some positives from the Siakam-less offence:

-They got to the line a ton in both games, even without one of the NBA leaders in free throw attempts. Now, Chicago starts three below average defenders and guards the rim poorly (the Raptors absolutely ate inside, even in Monday’s loss), so we’ll need to see how this area looks against other opponents. But it was encouraging.

Article content

-They generated a lot of assists even though the torrid three-point start to the season levelled off significantly over the two games.

-Gary Trent Jr. and Precious Achiuwa looked like the players the Raptors need them to be in the second game after a rough one at Toronto on Sunday.

-The Vince Carter-esque Scottie Barnes dunk was one of the best we’ve seen in a long time.

Article content

Article content

Some negatives.

-Barnes is banged up and though he’s playing through it, it’s impacting his game.

-Chris Boucher is tailing off a bit after a great run.

Some more thoughts:

– It was interesting to see Nurse and the Raptors break out the box-and-one against DeMar DeRozan. We’ve seen it against three-point masters Stephen Curry, Trae Young and Damian Lillard in the past plenty of times. Turns out it can slow down the NBA’s mid-range maestro too.

Obviously the defensive approaches to DeRozan worked a lot better in Toronto’s win against Chicago in this two-game set. That’s a combination of Zach LaVine being available for the game in Chicago, which changes just about everything on offence for the Bulls and strengthens them significantly), and most of the Raptors simply not having it on Monday night.

Article content

Still, it was weird to see DeRozan only attempt six and nine shot attempts, his season lows.

The Raptors (and maybe the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks) seem like the teams star players probably hate to see on the schedule the most. They’re either long, physical, instinctual, well-oiled machines, or all of the above.

– Koloko’s rim protection has been way better way sooner than anticipated. Siakam covers tons of ground, but even without him the Raptors made life in close pretty hellish for the Bulls in the first game.

-Not sure what to make of the Bulls. They seem like a group that can be solid in the regular season (especially once Lonzo Ball returns) but would not be favoured to even win a round in the playoffs. Dangerous offensively, but too many weak links defensively to beat good teams consistently.

Article content

-The schedule eases up significantly for the Raptors for the next week. Houston is in town Wednesday and is in the early stages of a rebuild around Jalen Green and Jabari Smith. Then it’s a trip to Oklahoma City (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been unreal, but the Thunder is nowhere close to a scary team); Indiana (where another young Canuck, Bennedict Mathurin has been amongst the best rookies) could finish last in the East and Detroit, though improved and even with the strange Dwane Casey vs. the Raptors win factor, is still finding its way.

THREE STARS:

1 Zach LaVine

2 Fred VanVleet

3 Nikola Vucevic

THREE STARS GAME 1:

1 Fred VanVleet

2 O.G. Anunoby

3 Christian Koloko