The Toronto Raptors are now through about a quarter of their 2021-22 season, a significant chunk of which has been spent away from Scotiabank Arena. In fact, they’ve played 12 of their 20 total games on the road, where they’ve achieved a 7-5 record.
Most of those games came within the last two weeks, with the Raptors heading out for their longest journey of the season — a six-game trial-by-fire road trip that saw them face off against some Western Conference heavy hitters (Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz) as well as some solid opponents (Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies) and ultimately go 2-4.
The NBA season is, as the cliche goes, a marathon not a sprint, and these extended voyages — especially when they occur early on — can have a salient impact on how the remainder of a team’s year goes.
This is particularly true for young groups like the Raptors, who, yes, have a core in OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Fred VanVleet that knows itself very well, but have also added fresh pieces like Scottie Barnes, Dalano Banton, Precious Achiuwa, and Svi Mykhailiuk, who are still finding themselves within their roles while playing key minutes.
Relationship-building, then, becomes vital.
“It was a long road trip,” Barnes said. “You gotta stay together during these times, just trying to get better. Pack a lot of clothes.
“We’re with each other every day in the hotel. Just keep communicating with each other. We’re bonding, I would say.”
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Not only are connections forged in these types of situations, opportunities arise for teams to truly discover who they are and what they’re capable of as a collective unit. For the Raptors, this early experience has been a bit jarring, since the identity they’ve looked to adopt since training camp (that of a formidable defensive team) has been challenged in numerous ways and has yet to be something they can consistently rely on (they currently rank 24th in defensive rating).
“I’d say it takes a good season for a guy to learn the movements of NBA defense,” head coach Nick Nurse said. “I’m always talking about connectivity — the defense has to be connected. And we lose a little bit of that and some of that’s just, I don’t wanna say chemistry, but it’s different people in and out and different positions and different stuff happening continually — it makes it hard to get that chemistry and connectivity.
“But we’ve gotta stay with it. We’ve been really working hard and drilling our fundamentals and every day just going over all those things defensively just to get some more repetitions in.”
Even so, that doesn’t mean the team has opted to shift its focus. Instead, the revelation that the offense, particularly with Siakam back in the fold, is more potent than initially anticipated (ninth in the league) has only reinforced the notion that, if and when the defense does come together, Toronto will finally begin to see the version of itself in the mirror that it knows it can be.
“We know what we can do when we’re all doing what we’re supposed to do and we all play with that type of energy that we need to play with,” Siakam said. “And there were games where we didn’t have that, it was obvious.
“When we’re all clicking on all cylinders and doing what we do, using our length, our athleticism, and doing all those things, we’re a tough team to beat. And when we don’t do that, it’s the opposite.”
Of course, the Raptors’ struggles haven’t simply been about new faces and poorly executed defense — they’ve also had a litany of injuries, such that key names have been missing from the rotation almost every single night. From Siakam’s delayed start due to his offseason shoulder surgery to Yuta Watanabe’s preseason calf injury to VanVleet’s groin strain to Anunoby’s hip pointer, playing games on the road hasn’t been the toughest bit of the early season.
“We’ve had a lot of bodies in and out, which we gotta try and solve that,” Nurse said. “I don’t know how we solve that, but I always say I hope the ball bounces a little better our way on that front. I think if we get in a situation where we’re looking people eye-to-eye our defense is much better.”
While they’ll still have to wait to roll out an entirely healthy roster, the Raptors will at least get the immediate benefit of returning home for seven straight games, where they’ll look to regroup and use what they learned from their early-season ordeal to make that next step toward their ultimate goal, turning flashes into regularity.
“I think that we’ve played a little up and down like a young team might,” Nurse said. “At the start of the year you probably would’ve thought there’d be up and down moments — there’s been some tremendous basketball at times.”
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