Toronto Raptors: Stop Trying To Flip The Switch

By Joshua Howe | Mar 20, 2015

Mar 18, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Andrew Wiggins (22) drives to the basket as Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas (17) defends during the first quarter at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports /

The Toronto Raptors’ last game against the Minnesota Timberwolves was set up to be something really great. The Wolves are a bad team and the hope was that the Raps would be able to regain their mojo. Stephen Harper even showed up and it was the first game for Andrew Wiggins as an NBA player in his hometown.

A dream scenario. Basically all Toronto fans were hoping that Wiggins would have a great game but the Raptors would win. It really wasn’t that much to ask.

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Well, the Raptors did end up winning, but the game it took to get them there was, put simply, worse than boarding a two hour nonstop flight with a bunch of rabid Justin Bieber fans. Every possible thing went wrong or kept going wrong because, let’s face it, Toronto has had some of these issues for a while now.

The dream scenario became a nightmare quicker than Dwane Casey could yank Jonas Valanciunas from the hardwood (which he did for the better part of the second quarter). Even the main event himself was put out of rhythm early as Wiggins accumulated fouls and had to saunter back to the bench for what seemed like every 30 seconds.

With Wiggins out of the picture, the game just became ugly. Suddenly it was no longer, “The Homecoming,” and instead was just a Raptors vs. Wolves game in the dog days of the NBA season. The sell-out crowd was out of it and the players were too.

Over and over the Raptors let the Wolves get into the paint. Their perimeter defense was just awful. The most frustrating part about it was knowing that, if they wanted, they could stomp this team in a matter of minutes. But they dug themselves a hole and found it hard to climb out of, only really pressing on the gas pedal for about a three minute stretch in the fourth quarter.

For most of the game, Minnesota played harder and with a purpose despite the restricted minutes of Wiggins. They deserved to win the game. Really, I mean it. I was almost at the point where I didn’t want to see the Raps win.

Why? Well, do you really want Toronto thinking that they can just flip the switch any time they want? They may be good enough to do that against the 14-53 Timberwolves, but they won’t be able to do such a thing in the playoffs.

The overarching problem that has plagued the Raptors recently has been effort. They just haven’t been putting out enough of it. Who knows why that is. Certainly, some of the blame falls on the players, but some of it falls on the coaching staff as well.

I mean, how can you possibly play a game like the one against Minny when you’ve got this guy staring into your soul every night?

The one player who wasn’t playing like a deflated bouncy ball was Valanciunas, who got off to a quick start and had four points and seven rebounds in about nine minutes of action. He was murdering the Wolves. They couldn’t stop him. Nikola Pekovic? Ha! Gorgui Dieng? Please. Anthony Bennett?…Sorry, that was too insulting.

And how was he rewarded for this awesome display? Casey pulled him from the game for most of the second quarter and the first half of the fourth.

Raptors fans around the world were seething. There was no reason for Casey to do such a thing. None at all. The relationship between himself and Valanciunas is mind-boggling. There must be something more to it than, “No really, I wanted Patrick Patterson and Tyler Hansbrough out there for flexibility!”

Right.

This abysmal game hit its low point during the second half, when Kyle Lowry went down with an injury. He got up fairly quickly, but he got out of the game as fast as possible and then booked it back into the locker room.

We were all kept in the dark for several dizzying minutes until we got this:

You could hear the collective grimace from Toronto worldwide. The tension was tangible.

Thankfully, we did get this news not long after and it looks like Lowry will be all right and hopefully back at 100 percent come playoff time. Maybe the extra rest will even do the rest of his weary body some good too.

If this game, which was supposed to be something memorable and fun, tells us anything, it’s that the Raptors have a long, long, painfully long way to go. They need to locate their ball movement, their defensive intensity, their leadership and their joy.

That last one especially. They’ve looked more depressed than Johnny Depp in every movie since the first Pirates of the Caribbean film.

These Raptors aren’t built to be a “flip the switch” type team. They need to understand that now, before it comes back to bite them when it matters most.

Next: March Madness 2015: Top Plays From Day 1

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