Second-quarter stumble derails Raptors’ NBA Cup run

TORONTO — At least the Toronto Raptors will get some rest now. 

Energy has been the talking point of late in Raptor-land, with the team incapable of keeping up the fight for a full 48 minutes. They’ve looked tired to start games, tired to close them and tired in-between as they fight through injuries, a packed schedule and a tougher slate of opponents. 

The Raptors aren’t a team that can solely win most games on the back of having the better team on paper. They need to win with energy, fight, hustle and buy-in — for a full 48 minutes. It’s been a while since they did that, as the team has lost six of seven.

That lapse of focus and execution over the full 48 came back to bite them once again Tuesday in a 117-101 loss to the New York Knicks in an NBA Cup quarterfinal, ending their hopes of a mid-season trip to Las Vegas and a chance at vindication for a young team hoping to find their footing. 

“I thought that guys did a good job of getting, motivated, but motivation itself is not enough to win games like this. You need to be also very disciplined. You need to execute a game plan, to know exactly what we need to do, to know personnel,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said after the game. “You know, that’s why I wish we could play this team in next two days again, so we can continue improving that … because playoff basketball is that: it’s going to be same team. You got to beat the same team four times. And I think there is a lot of great lessons for us from from this game to take in and learn.”

Learn they did, but it was a lesson they should’ve maybe paid more attention to the last few times they lost a game because of a 12-minute stretch. 

All it took was one frame for the bright lights of the NBA Cup to get dimmed, as a 34-13 second quarter in favour of the Knicks ultimately proved to be the difference between a trip to Las Vegas for the Cup semifinals and a trip to Miami, where they’ll square off against the Heat on Monday after five much-needed days of rest.

“Yeah, seven game in 11 days. We definitely need it,” Jamal Shead said after the game. “We need to get healthy. RJ (Barrett), Quick (Immanuel Quickley), just our entire team, we just need our bodies to get right.”

After a productive first quarter — the kind that Rajakovic has been hoping for of late, with Brandon Ingram netting 17 of his team-high 31 points to guide the team to a four-point lead — the Raptors were silenced in the second, shooting five-of-21 from the field and one-of-eight from deep. 

Excuses start to lose their validity after losing six games in seven, but it’s apparent that a short-handed roster has taken its toll.

Along with Barrett being sidelined for the past two weeks, the Raptors were without the scoring qualities of Quickley, who was dealing with an illness. Those absences stood out in the second quarter, when Rajakovic was forced to make drastic changes to the rotation. 

They turned to guys like Chucky Hepburn and AJ Lawson, suiting up in mish-mash lineups alongside Gradey Dick, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jakob Poeltl, and Scottie Barnes. The Raptors star was struggling to keep it all together, as he finished with 13 points on 6-of-18 from the field, along with five rebounds and four assists.

Rajakovic called those appearances “great learning opportunities” for the young guys on the team and the ones who rarely get minutes, like Hepburn, who was making just his second appearance of the season. But an elimination game with a trophy and money on the line may not be the best time to prioritize learning over executing. Those minutes wouldn’t be there for these players had it not been a time for desperation. 

After losing that stint 12-2 to start the second quarter, the Raptors sent their starting unit back out to stop the bleeding, but the damage had been done. Suddenly, a Raptors offence that was flinging intricate passes that cut through the Knicks’ rainforest of arms like a machete was caught in a web of vines. 

“In the second quarter there, when we tired to go a little bit deeper (into our) rotations, I thought that we generated good shots, we just ended up missing shots, missing layups, and that very quickly led to their transition point on the other side,” Rajakovic said. “I think that was the main reason why we dug the hole over there. That second quarter. The rest of the game, we were competitive.”

In those tone-shifting 12 minutes, the starters looked sluggish and the execution fell off a cliff. Suddenly, the only hope came from the Raptors’ regularly-scheduled third-quarter run — the one thing that has made previous blowouts look somewhat more digestible of late. Jalen Brunson denied them the opportunity. 

Though he missed a few shots in the frame, the Knicks superstar rained three-pointers right on time. He shut down a potential Raptors run after two big triples from Ingram at the nine-minute mark, then he prevented a lost possession, hitting from 25 feet out after the Raptors’ ‘Hack-A-Mitch’ strategy worked, with Knicks centre Mitchell Robinson missing both his free throws. 

Those makes were part of a 35-point night for Brunson, 20 of which came in the first quarter.

“Brunson, he caught fire early in the game and he was outstanding today,” Rajakovic said after the loss. “He was making shots; tough, contested shots. Shooting threes, getting to the free-throw line, he was getting it all.”

And the defence from the likes of OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges and Josh Hart did the rest, forcing Barnes to play a more physical and tedious game than he had hoped and attacking the sluggish and the “not-himself” (according to Rajakovic) Jakob Poeltl.

For all intents and purposes, had it not been for a 12-minute stretch, this was a winnable game for the Raptors. It was a significantly better performance than their last showing against the Knicks on Nov. 30, when they gave up 41 in the first quarter and were thoroughly separated into a different tier list of contenders. 

Had it not been for injuries or wear-and-tear or fatigue or an ugly 12-minute stretch, the Raptors may be on a plane to the desert this week. But the season is taking a tough turn, the same problems of execution and energy keep plaguing them, and excuses aren’t a parachute for a team in free-fall. Maybe a breather is for the best. 

More from Sportsnet

Raptors’ Immanuel Quickley to miss NBA Cup quarterfinal with illness

Raptors compete admirably, but rally falls short of much-needed win

www.sportsnet.ca (Article Sourced Website)

#Secondquarter #stumble #derails #Raptors #NBA #Cup #run