Toronto Raptors: 3 takeaways from Game 2 loss vs. 76ers

1. The bench was atrocious

The Toronto Raptors’ bench was the major problem. The bench that consists of Serge Ibaka, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell and spotty appearances of Jodie Meeks has been bad — really, really bad. They must surely miss the length, athleticism and flexibility that OG Anunoby brings to the team.

Raptors’ Twitter community was going bonkers about how Nurse was using his rotation. One of the adjustments he made was using Leonard in replacement of “Siakam plus bench lineup” for short stretches. The lead the starters worked so hard to achieve went from 61-60 to 69-63 to end the third quarter. To start the fourth, Lowry and Siakam came in for Leonard and Meeks, and it was disastrous, as they fell back to a double-digit deficit.

The four bench players shot a combined 2-for-11 (18.2 percent) with a combined plus/minus of -51. Averaging over the last two games in this series, Ibaka, Powell, and VanVleet are playing 12.8 minutes together, producing 18.5 points on 31.1 percent shooting, 1.5 makes from beyond the arc on 15.8 percent shooting and a -9.5 plus/minus. The statistics and the eye-test prove the bench has been terrible no matter which one or two starters are with them this postseason.

Embiid was dominating Ibaka in the post (that matchup is a nightmare for him). Ibaka even got outplayed by his former backup center, Greg Monroe, who had 10 points, five rebounds and was +10 in 12 minutes of play. Nurse needs to do a better job matching Gasol with Embiid’s minutes because every time Ibaka goes up against Embiid, all the positives Toronto gained from taking away JoJo’s impact on the game become mute.

https://twitter.com/Raptors/status/1123089168811225089

Most of the starters had a bad shooting night and will look to bounce-back from it, but the bench has been terrible this postseason and the Raptors need break up their minutes. A solution to this problem is when matching Gasol to Embiid’s minutes, Ibaka will get extended play with the starters. If Green is having a slow start shooting the ball, replace him with Powell, and come the end of that rotation, keep one of the starters on Siakam or Leonard and bring back Gasol and Green with VanVleet.

Toronto should minimize the “all-bench rotation plus one starter” rotation by having one or two of the bench players play with minimum three starters. One of those starters has to be Siakam or Leonard for lack of depth at the power forward position, and for being the best creators off the dribble in isolation sets. In the last two games when three starters (multiple combinations) plus FVV were on the floor together, they were on average a +3.5. In a small sample size, it seems to be effective.

The Raptors have to do a better job making in-game adjustments. This was one of the reasons why former head coach Dwane Casey was fired. They have the talent to be more efficient and to make the right adjustments to win out the rest of the series.