Raptors

The Toronto Raptors' primary goal is to play as many playoff games as possible. That task got a little more difficult after a 113-99 loss to the Chicago ...

Toronto could have used some of it in the second half, but Siakam didn’t have it and neither did any of his teammates. But the Raptors got organized in the second quarter and began to systematically attack the Bulls' defensive soft spots, specifically Nikola Vucevic, the talented offense centre who struggles to defend agile players in space. He scored the Raptors' first two buckets, assisted on their third, but his teammates looked heavy in the legs after playing big minutes against Philadelphia on an 8:30 pm start and arriving in Chicago in the wee hours of Monday morning. The start of this year, we weren't able to go out and execute much of anything. Add in that Toronto shot 6-of-32 from three to the Bulls' 11-of-28 and the seeds of a blowout were sown. It's concerning, but outside of health there is plenty of room for optimism for Toronto. The Raptors are a young team getting better. “You always hear me saying that if we're gonna be able to execute the game plan and the schemes that we're trying to execute, and we do it at a super hard and intense level, then we're gonna be OK defensively,” said Nurse. “… It took us some time this year. Otherwise? Toronto will have to take their chances in the play-in tournament reserved for teams that finish 7-through-10 in the regular season. The rest is affecting his rhythm, but doesn’t seem to be paying off by healing up his knee. I certainly take ownership and responsibility for my poor performance and I'm looking forward to getting back on track.” The Bulls scored on an offensive rebound, then got hoops following three consecutive Raptors turnovers. Someway, somehow, the goal is to get there.

The Toronto Raptors' chances to earn the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference took a serious hit Monday night as DeMar DeRozan led the Chicago Bulls to ...

VanVleet threw the ball so far out in front of Boucher it looked like he had no chance to corral it. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers did the Raptors a big favor Monday night, knocking off the Cleveland Cavaliers 131-120. He got into the middle of Toronto's defense and just rose up for his patented fadeaway. "He knows how to play, he’s a very complimentary piece to play off of myself, Pascal, Scottie, Gary, other threats with the way he screens and he can find that short roll and the long roll." While Precious Achiuwa may be the future of the center position for Toronto with his thrilling potential and developing offensive skills, Birch remains solid. They looked primed to be overtaken by the surging Raptors. But on the second night of a back-to-back, a six-minute scoring drought in the third quarter proved decisive as the Bulls piled it on late to jump 2.5 games up on Toronto with the playoff tiebreaker now in hand.

Disputant un deuxième match important en deux soirs sur la route, les Raptors de Toronto ont été incapables de rééditer leur exploit de la veille et se sont ...

À la mi-temps, ce sont toutefois les Raptors qui sont rentrés au vestiaire avec une avance d’un point à 55-54. Les réservoirs semblaient vides après l’immense victoire arrachée aux 76ers de Philadelphie dimanche au compte de 93-88. En deuxième mi-temps, les deux formations ont repris la bataille avec tout autant d’ardeur. En fin de troisième quart, les Bulls ont profité d’une séquence de 15-0 pour s’offrir un coussin de 13 points.

Les Raptors ont vu les Bulls connaître une séquence durant laquelle ils ont inscrit 15 points sans réplique au troisième quart.

L’autre représentant de la Belle Province au sein des Raptors, Khem Birch, a lui aussi été solide dans la défaite, avec 11 points, sept rebonds et quatre passes décisives. Il a été utilisé près de 30 minutes par l’entraîneur-chef Nick Nurse. Pascal Siakam a été le plus productif des visiteurs, avec 22 points, lui qui a aussi été aidé par Fred VanVleet et ses 19 points. - À lire aussi: Mathurin et les Wildcats passent aisément au deuxième tour

Pascal Siakam played very well for the Toronto Raptors, but players like Thad Young struggling helped them fall in defeat against the Chicago Bulls.

Young has quickly earned Nurse’s trust, as he was closing games for Toronto down the stretch in wins against Minnesota and Denver. However, Young hasn’t been scoring at his usual clip since the trade. It was tough not to put Scottie Barnes here given the fact he turned the ball over so much, but Young’s struggles helped him win this dubious honor. VanVleet tried to shoot the Raptors back into this game, but he was laboring through a tough knee injury. This game was going to be an uphill climb given how DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic can stuff the stat sheet. While the start of the game looked promising, Toronto completely capitulated in the second half. The Raptors could’ve moved within a half-game of the No. 5 seed if they took down a Chicago team with two wins in their prior 10 contests.

Pascal was uneven to start the game, but not for a lack of energy, showing aggression off the dribble and a nice balance of hunting his own shot and passing ...

- Tired legs were the story of the game, but mental engagement was just as big. Nick continued to run with the Precious/Birch tandem to start the game after admitting it didn’t work last game, and it didn’t have much success tonight either. Most of his other looks came in late clock situations and garbage time. S. Mykhailiuk2 MIN, 0 PTS, 0 REB, 0 AST, 0 STL, 0-0 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, +7 +/- It feels like he’s always on the glass on both sides of the ball. For the most part, he played the usual garbage man role around the rim and hanging on the offensive glass. D. Banton4 MIN, 0 PTS, 1 REB, 2 AST, 0 STL, 0-1 FG, 0-0 3FG, 0-0 FT, 0 BLK, 0 TO, +6 +/- Khem looked like himself in the worst way to start the game, starting 1/4 and taking some ill-advised corner 3s (which is to say any corner 3s). However, he played Nikola Vucevic very tough, especially on the perimeter, and his P&R game started clicking with VanVleet, resulting in some quality looks. However, he seemed to fade as the game wore on. He made several pinpoint entry passes to his bigs for easy looks, and nearly connected with Chris Boucher on another no-look alley-oop. His playing time started to wither in the 3rd, with Nurse seeming to prefer the Boucher/Birch combo. His role as the primary ballhandler helped to spark the 3rd quarter run for the Bulls, as they hounded him and forced multiple turnovers.