Toronto Raptors manager Nick Nurse sat down for his post-game press conference and began looking for answers.
For the second time since the NBA season began, his Raptors have lost a game. It happened like this only against the same team: the Boston Celtics. Boston dominated the Raptors in all facets on Sunday with a 112-94 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
The Raptors were apparently in trouble from the start. On the first play of the match, guard Fred VanVleet missed a layup. The next time there was a missed 3-pointer from Kyle Lowry. Then followed two more missed shots and two turnovers.
By the time Toronto scored, nearly three minutes were up. Throughout the first quarter – and throughout the game – Boston prevented the Raptors from finding any kind of offensive pace. And the nurse noticed it.
“Obviously it’s not ourselves,” Nurse said. “I think more, we have to play much better. I am thinking above all of the offensive end. We weren’t very good. We didn’t make many shots. We didn’t play with great composure. t perform very well. It was difficult today on many fronts. I think the current X and O and the tactical part, we will have to do better. But it wasn’t a good pace during the day for us. “
It certainly didn’t help the Raptors who were whistled for 11 fouls in the first quarter, including three on Pascal Siakam – the third of which Nurse challenged unsuccessfully. But Nurse wasn’t about to let the blame fall on the referees.
“It was tough, but it was all part of a bad rhythm,” Nurse said. “We didn’t play well enough or strong enough or good enough or fast enough or hard enough to win today because we kicked our asses.”
Siakam, the Raptors All-Star striker, finished with 13 out of 5 out of 16 points with just three rebounds. Ever since the game started in Florida, Siakam has struggled to find a rhythm of his own.
In the 12 games since the second half, Siakam averages 17.8 points while shooting 39.6% from the field and 31.9% from depth. In 53 games before the NBA hiatus in March, he averaged 23.6 points with 45.9% of shots while earning 35.9% from 3 points.
The nurse said the team will continue to try to get Siakam going at all stages of the game.
“I think we will always try to involve him in all areas instead of as a player or jump shooter or host in screen-and-roll or center in screen-and-roll,” The Nurse said. “I think we have to mix and vary, even some isolation at the top, ISO to the side. I hope he is involved in the transition game a little too.”
Siakam was clearly slowed down by the three first quarter fouls, but said he felt he was getting the shots he wanted during the match – he just had to finish those attempts.
Siakam also wasn’t interested in looking at last week’s events – including players deciding whether or not to continue the playoffs and delay Game 1 of this series from Thursday to Sunday – as a crutch for the Raptors’ poor performance.
“You can’t find excuses, man; it’s basketball. Go out there; you play,” Siakam said. “This is something we like to do, we’ve been doing it for a while. And of course it’s hard, and you don’t want to minimize the things that are happening. But once we step on the floor, it’s time to play, and we need to be in. able to do our best, play and do everything to be our best, so we can’t really have these things as excuses.
“It’s been an exciting week, a lot of things have happened, and a lot of debates between staying and leaving. But for me, I was like, ‘If we’re here, we’re here.’ It’s gone – we have to be here and we just have to play, and we can’t use that as an excuse. “
One thing that works in Toronto’s favor is its history of fighting first stumbles.
Last year, Toronto lost Game 1 in the first round, then lost 2-1 in the Conference semifinals and 2-0 in the Conference finals. Only one of those series went into game seven when the Raptors made it to the finals, where they lost games 2 and 5 before returning to win the NBA title in six games.
“I think we learn from games,” Siakam said. “Obviously it was one of those games, and I didn’t play well, and we didn’t really have an attacking pace. I don’t think our defense was bad; we made mistakes and stuff like that. But we just try. Go back. and watch the movie and try to be better “.
One thing that will have to change, according to Nurse, is the Raptors’ transition crime.
In the regular season and the first round, Toronto averaged 19.2 transitional possession per game, according to Second Spectrum data, and an average of 1.3 points per possession in those played, the seventh-best score in the NBA .
Against Boston on Sunday, Toronto had 19 transitional possessions but only scored 19 points. Only once since the restart had the Raptors recorded a lower average points per possession (0.93 against Miami on August 3).
But to do that, the Raptors have to stop on the defensive side.
“It’s nearly impossible to score in transition when the ball goes through the net and you have to get it out,” Nurse said. “I thought we had a lot of defensive rebounds and a lot of turnovers which we didn’t turn much. Again, just a little bit of the energy of the game. That was just another factor. The energy of the game wasn’t very good for us. “
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