The Raptors might be unusual insiders but they’re not afraid to go there

It’s all about discovering out what works every night time for the Raptors and exploiting that benefit to the hilt. The unorthodox nature of the crew’s roster suits that plan.

A crew with out a conventional centre who plops himself down within the low publish and goes to work has turned its half-court offence into an inside-out assault, as counterintuitive as that will appear.

“We don’t have a publish participant however we have now large wings and large guards proper now, a number of occasions, so there may be some benefit to getting place down there,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse mentioned after Toronto’s 109-105 win in Washington on Friday. “(I've) been fairly proud of how we’ve punched in there, made some good performs out of it once they’re despatched assist as effectively.”

The technique works for the Raptors for a few causes. They've quite a lot of gamers who can provoke offence from the publish, every with totally different abilities. OG Anunoby has been punishing solo defenders by bulling his option to the basket; Scottie Barnes can deftly end with both hand across the basket and has a knack for making sensible, crisp passes to chopping teammates; and Pascal Siakam’s skill to slither into the paint and hit a mid-range fadeaway jumper has became a real power.

It’s the number of appears, the various abilities, that enables the Raptors to achieve success.

“All of these guys can move as effectively,” mentioned guard Fred VanVleet, who can spot up on the perimeter for three-pointers with somebody on the publish kicking the ball out to him. “So if the defence tries to double or no matter we are able to kick out of it, and it is only a protected option to attempt to get a top quality shot … simply being nearer to the to the rim. We have had some success there; (it) does not all the time work however (Friday) we had some success within the paint.”

Half-court offence has been a problem with the Raptors for many of the season and the seek for consistency has been principally futile. Discovering methods to increase scoring that doesn’t are available in transition is a big job for Nurse and his workers.

“We have needed to sort of rejig what we're doing with this lineup,” Nurse mentioned this week. “I feel you have in all probability seen we have thrown it into the publish much more. We have made a concentrated effort to attempt to get some early post-ups.

“We're seeing a number of dividends out of these … arising the ground and simply sprinting and (getting) considered one of our bigs (or) greater wings to the basket and attempting to punch it in there early.”

If they will get away with a handful of video games working with untraditional publish play — it’s usually a seven-footer draw double groups or making publish strikes — it's going to take the stress off the crew’s perimeter capturing.

Barnes, as an illustration, dominated within the publish on Friday night time when he went 12-for-19 from the ground on the best way to a 27-point outing.

“It’s not good, by any means,” Nurse mentioned, “however there’s a number of good things occurring when it goes down there, in order that’s in all probability the explanation you’ve seen much more of that recently.”

One other consideration is that the Raptors have deliberately crafted a roster that enables for some outside-the-box methods.

Not many groups have three large, athletic wings that may benefit from matchups. It’s why the Raptors play Anunoby, Barnes and Siakam collectively so typically: They need to all the time be capable to discover a mismatch they will assault.

“There's by no means actually like 5 good defenders on the courtroom for many groups, so you may sort of attempt to discover your matchups or measurement benefits,” VanVleet mentioned. “We play small with out a large so typically they’re switching so much and we simply attempt to discover sure matchups the place we really feel like we have now a bonus within the paint, and it is only a high-percentage shot.”