It’s the boomer-est, most tried and true next-day analysis in sports: One team tried harder, and therefore they won.
That’s not always true, of course, and it’s tough to quantify. We don’t really have metrics to properly gauge how much a team gave a damn on a given night, try as the NBA.com Hustle Stats page might. Sometimes talent covers up for a team giving less than everything. Teams go through peaks and valleys in their spirit over the course of 82. Human elements seep in and alter the nightly effort quotient. But in the immortal words of Rasheed Wallace, the base assumption about any pro sports contest should be that both teams played hard. Pro athletes don’t become pro athletes without being lunatic competitors.
But when a team’s ability to hang is tied directly to how hard it tries, how well it does the little things, you can pretty safely lean on ol’ reliable sports radio tropes when things go off the rails.
The Raptors got spanked by the Hawks on their home court last night, and it was in no small part because they got totally outworked.
You can empathize with this team to some degree. As Darko Rajaković noted after Sunday’s 136-107 loss, the toll of injury and illness has this team running into “the wall.” It’s human, relatable. Building rhythm and upholding good vibes through constantly evolving roles and rotations is tough stuff. You can only bail a leaky boat so long before it sinks.
On the other hand, as Scottie Barnes eloquently put it after Sunday’s game: “this is the NBA” and the Raptors need to “push through that shit.” Every team faces a wall; the ones that push through it are ones that win more than seven of their first 32 games.
What’s equally frustrating and encouraging about the Raptors’ recent spell of getting waxed is that we know something better lies within this group. Yeah, they lost a bunch earlier in the year, too, but they did it with a hell of a lot more dignity than they’ve gone down with in their last four or five outings. Giving a crap was the hallmark of the team that strung together the most entertaining 7-15 start in recent NBA history; a spark that’s been lost as the defense has come unspooled and the turnovers have gotten as lazy and unforced as ever.
If crummy health has been the team’s biggest downfall, maybe the return of some key pieces can help Toronto tap back into the energy well. Jakob Poeltl came back Sunday to help firm up things around both rims, a very welcome return that should help restore this team’s baseline functionality going forward. But it was Bruce Brown who brought the most voltage of anyone on the team in his first game of the year.
“Bruce Brown, he was incredible tonight. You know, his effort was off the charts,” said Barnes of Brown’s 12-point, 6-rebound outing in his first game in 8 months. “You see him get out there and put his body on the line after being out for so long, you know, he’s making himself so tired out there, just guarding, pushing himself and that’s what the team needs. We gotta all match that energy every single night.”
Yes, Immanuel Quickley is still unavailable for who knows how long, and the loss of his shooting and creation has hung over the team all season. But with Poeltl, Brown and Ja’Kobe Walter all returning last night, and the 10-game stretch between Barnes’ two injuries this year standing as proof of concept that this collection of guys can at least play respectable, near-500 ball, the list of viable excuses for nights like Sunday is quickly thinning.
It’s rare that a team is as bad as it looks in the midst of a 10-game skid, or in a 30-point loss. Toronto finally looks to have the health and runway to string together some good hoops over the next couple months. But with their talent level still coming in below most of the league’s, it’ll be connectivity, and a little elbow grease that makes a return to form possible. Without it, they’re toast.
“We build a lot of trust, build a good camaraderie where we’re being able to talk to each other and we know our standards,” said Barnes of the team’s in-practice dynamics. “But we go out there and play and we gotta hold ourselves to that standard every time we step on the floor. Getting beat by 30, man... that’s unacceptable.”
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Today on the podcast I break down the loss to the Hawks, the return of Bruce Brown, 10-game losing streak psychology and more. Enjoy the show!
