Raptors Takeaways: Sweep in Atlanta sees defence turning new leaf

It’s almost been a month since the Toronto Raptors gave up 155 points to the Memphis Grizzlies, the worst defensive performance in the franchise’s 30-year history.

Normally, when you’re a team seemingly on the verge of full-on tanking like the Raptors, the whole ‘a lot can change in a month’ thing doesn’t exactly hold true. You’re just supposed to keep losing.

But after winning three in a row for the first time since February of last year (pizza party?) and winning five of six for the first time since 2023, the Raptors suddenly look renewed — particularly on the defensive end.

Their recent stretch — one that has possibly prompted more optimism about the team than any in years — was punctuated with a 117-94 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night, capping off a two-game road set and lifting the Raptors to 13-32 on the season.

It was only the sixth time this season that Toronto has held an opponent to under 100 points. Not exactly impressive in a vacuum.

But what makes it topical is that three of those six performances have come during this suddenly successful stretch as the team has finally found ways to combine the athleticism that should be there with a young roster with the sort of effort the team has been sorely lacking. This is a team that over the last two weeks looks to have finally bought in.

Against Atlanta, Scottie Barnes was the defensive lynchpin he was expected to be after sterling stretches last season, finishing with two steals and two blocks, using his patented switchability and energy to jump out to shooters and stick to guys one-on-one.

Pair that with Barnes’ 24 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, and it was the sort of display Raptors fans have come to expect from the face of the franchise.

RJ Barrett — who has had his fair share of critics for his defensive exploits this year, routinely being out of place or getting blown by — showed some serious effort on that end while turning in an efficient night on offence with 23 points on nine of 13 shooting from the field, including three of four from deep.

The Raptors came out of the gates sluggish — a Friday night in Atlanta could theoretically be the cause of that — finishing the first quarter shooting 35 per cent from the field and picking up seven turnovers.

But they flipped a switch — a rare occurrence in a season that was mostly full of losses until the past 10 days. A 16-2 run from the end of the opening frame through the start of the second helped Toronto erase a 12-point deficit. An in the closing minutes of the first half, the Raptors began to pull away, building up a seven-point lead that they wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the night.

The Raptors are still a team in the process of transforming into something bigger, one still finding their footing as they transition to a new era.

But as they start to figure each other out more, as optimism starts to leak through, and as continued experiences start to mould the young roster, wins like these against the Hawks are ones that pile up and turn into something bigger over time.

Turns out a lot can change in a month.

It’s no bench mob. Names like Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell and Jakob Poeltl aren’t among those coming in as subs, but a big factor in the Raptors’ recent run of success has come from the secondary unit.

Coming off a 48-point performance from the bench, highlighted by 18 from Bruce Brown and 17 from Chris Boucher, the Raptors once again found success with their depth, scoring 47 bench points in the sequel.

Boucher followed up his strong night with a 23-point outing while rookie Ja’Kobe Walter, playing in front of a huge contingent of family and friends, finished with seven points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Also coming through in a big way was centre Orlando Robinson, who recently signed a 10-day contract with the team. The 24-year-old big shined on defence in the first half, slowing down Atlanta’s rim-runners, holding up physically against Onyeka Okongwu and erasing a Clint Capela dunk at the basket.

After playing only one minute in his team debut against the Magic earlier this week, suiting up for 21 minutes and finishing with four points, six rebounds, a steal and a block are about all you can ask from Robinson — someone the Raptors didn’t expect to be leaning on in this sort of spot until Kelly Olynyk’s latest injury. And for a team that could be desperate for depth at the position should Poeltl or Olynyk move at the trade deadline, Robinson could be a nice find.

Even before touching down in Atlanta, much of the Raptors’ recent winning stretch has come from big nights off the bench as they had 41 against the Warriors, 32 against the Celtics, 46 against the Bucks (in a loss) and 41 against the Magic.

Again, let’s hold off on giving the unit a nickname. It’s not yet at the level of groups we’ve seen in the past, and chances are, by the deadline, it could look wildly different. But compared to the sheer lack of depth this team has fielded in recent years, the Raptors will take what they can get.

The Trae Young torture chamber

The late, great David Lynch once said: “Keep your eye on the donut, not the hole.”

Toronto certainly had their eyes on a donut on Saturday, holding NBA assist-leader Trae Young, who averages 11.7 dimes a night, to a big fat zero through three quarters. He finally got his first helpers of the night 30 seconds into the fourth off a pass to Bogdan Bogdanovic. And then he proceeded to stat-pad assists, finishing the game with four and ruining what would’ve been an eye-poppingly bad stat line.

They may not have accomplished the glaring feat of keeping Young to zero dimes — something he has never done through his seven-year NBA career — but the defensive effort from the Raptors, shutting down one the league’s best point guards’ biggest strengths, shouldn’t go unheralded.

After honing in on Young on Thursday, keeping him inefficient from the field but allowing him to finish with 13 assists, the Raptors switched up their defensive scheme, showing some athleticism to jump out on rotations to shooters and spotting passing lanes to force 11 turnovers from the three-time All-Star guard.

Showing different looks on defence wasn’t anything close to what the Raptors excelled at through the first half of the year. Their work on that end was close to the worst in the league, and through stretches looked historically bad. Being able to hold an offensive dynamo like Young to four assists — his lowest mark in three years — is a testament to a team that might just be starting to figure it out.

– Is it a coincidence that one of the Raptors’ best defensive performances of the season came with Gradey Dick playing a season-low 14 minutes?

– Trae Young’s 11 turnovers were a career high. Pretty good for a Raptors team that has been in the bottom half league-wide at forcing turnovers. Good thing this dude doesn’t get an MVP vote: