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Defence will be the decider for Raptors

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Defence for the most part isn’t sexy. Save for maybe a huge rejection at the rim, it’s not the type of in-game play that is going to get a fan out of his seat.

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But it was the backbone of last year’s championship run and how well the Raptors play it over the next 21/2 months will determine however far this year’s Raptors club goes as well.

And on that basis, the Raptors are feeling pretty good about themselves as they head into the seeding games.

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“I think this is a big thing, and I think we’ve already showed we can play about as good defence as any team in this league before the break,” head coach Nick Nurse said. “I think if we get back to playing that way, that can take us about as far as we want to go. That’s a big thing, right? The way we can play defence, if we can get to that point, and play it at a playoff level, which we’ve already kind of done, too, then we oughta have a chance to figure everything else out.”

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Even since arriving in Orlando and set up shop inside the NBA campus, that defence has been on display, but only if you’re willing to overlook the final of three scrimmages where very few parts of the Raptors game seemed to be working including the defence.

In each of the first two games — against more seasoned opponents — those bursts of defensive superiority that have turned games in the Raptors favour or sealed games in their past were on display.

They might not have been as long as Nurse would like to see or that he’s going to have to see if the Raptors repeat goal is to be achieved, but they were there and there’s still plenty of time to work on extending them.

Marc Gasol almost laughed at a question yesterday when he was asked what two areas he would like to see the Raptors excel at going into the meaningful games which began Thursday night with the Raptors first game that counts coming Saturday when they take on the top western conference-seeded Lakers.

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“Ummm, if you play the best defence and make the most shots you are going to win,” Gasol said.

“To me if there are things you are going to ask for, those are my two things. Whoever makes the most shots and plays the best defence is going to win.”

Listening to the players and Nurse over the past few days the major takeaway is most of what the Raptors came into this re-start looking for — conditioning, strong mental approach — is there. All that is really lacking is the rhythm and timing of certain switches and alignments that was so locked in before the Coronavirus brought the league to a screeching halt back on March 11.

“I think it’s going to be a process and obviously we feel like everyone is ready mentally and physically to go out there and play,” Pascal Siakam said. “ I just feel like obviously it’s going to take a little bit for us to be at our best, but I think I like where we are right now, and we’re going to continue to get better.”

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The goal obviously is to be at their peak Aug. 17 when the seeding games and the play-in games have been completed.

INEQUALITY STATEMENT
We know the Raptors are planning some kind of pre-game statement. We just don’t know what that will be.

“I don’t think we have come to like something we want to do right now, there’s a lot of different things swirling around,” Siakam said Thursday.

Rest assured there will be something. The Jazz and New Orleans Pelicans whose game last night was the first seeding game of this restart were reportedly going to all take a knee together around the Black Lives Matter logo printed on the court.
CHANGES FOR RE-START
In an effort to improve on an already solid set-up for NBA games inside the NBA campus, the league has made a few tweaks.

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For starters a cloth covering has been added to the referees’ whistles to prevent the spread of spittle which makes all kinds of sense.

And this one will affect the wagering types. The injury reporting structure will change a bit. Rather than a 1 p.m. deadline to declare players out, doubtful, questionable, probable or available will now be five hours prior to the second game of a back-to-back. This will address the earlier time slots in which a lot of these games are being played.

The seating on the players/coaches benches will also get a tweak although it likely won’t be noticeable to the viewers at home.

QUICK HITS
Gasol was asked about the potential for the re-start of meaningful games to mitigate some of the attention the drive for social change is getting from the NBA players. “I don’t worry too much about diluting the message because it’s really strong and it goes beyond sports,” Gasol said. “I’m sure we will do a great job of continuing to enforce it.” … Gasol made another good point about the lack of a cheering crowd during these games. While the preference would be — pandemic permitting — to have 20,000 screaming Raptors fans backing him and his teammates each night, he says he has found some advantages to a less noisy playing atmosphere. “When it comes to basketball it’s pretty pure,” he said of the arenas on campus. “You can hear everything. You can communicate easily with all your teammates and so it has its good things too. During a timeout you can hear everything really clear.”

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