Toronto Raptors: 3 goals down the stretch of the season

2. Foul less

The Raptors are called for 21.5 fouls per game this season. That is the second-most fouls committed by any franchise in the NBA. This is too many, and when combined with the rebounding problem, is a case for one of the worst defenses in the NBA.

They are only saved from this fate by the fact that they are fourth in the NBA in steals at 6.7 a game and they are the number one team in forcing turnovers. They turn their opponent over 16.1 times per game.

However, when a team fouls a lot, they have a couple of issues associated with this. If one of their better players gets into foul trouble too early, they will have to sit and they cannot impact the game. Considering that Siakam and Kyle Lowry average the most fouls for the Raptors, this is a problem.

On top of that, as teams get to the end of quarters they are usually in the bonus against the Raptors. This gives them easy points which the Raptors can ill-afford to give up. They are in the bottom three in the NBA in free throws against, free throws made against, and free throw percentage against.