TORONTO — Since Nick Nurse took the reigns as head coach, there are many aspects of the game that you can point to as being “Toronto Raptors Basketball.” But the most identifiable thing has, probably, been the team’s defence.
Through two games of Nurse’s third season at the helm, however, it looks like Toronto’s going through a bit of an identity crisis.
“We’re nowhere near where we want to be defensively, but it takes hard work, it takes dedication of watching film, understanding who we’re playing against and making adjustments on the fly,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said after his team fell to the San Antonio Spurs, 119-114 on Saturday night. “I think we’ll watch some film tomorrow and the next day and see what we did bad and what we did good and try to build off the good end of things rather than dwell on the bad things.”
The second loss in as many games they played, we are still early into the Raptors’ season, of course, but the uncharacteristic slippage we’ve seen from them on defence is still concerning, nonetheless.
Over two games, Toronto sports a porous defensive rating of 111.5 and have appeared a step or two slow on rotations, leading to more room for opponents to operate and make decisions with the ball.
As an example, familiar foe DeMar DeRozan torched Toronto on Saturday for 27 points and eight assists, shooting 10-of-17 from the field and, surprisingly, going 3-for-4 from three-point range. DeRozan, obviously, is a great offensive player, but the Raptors didn’t offer much in the way of resistance. They allowed DeRozan to take his time over the course of the game and dictate when, where and how he was going to attack.
This could’ve been aided by one of the basic tenets of good defence: More communication.
As Toronto guard Fred VanVleet described it, the Raptors simply aren’t talking enough to each other right now.
“I am not going to give anybody credit for communicating, myself included,” VanVleet said. “We got to do a much better job of that. So to answer your question, everybody on the team needs to be better on that end of the floor communicating, starting with myself and I think that will help our defence out. I mean there’s nobody in the building so there’s no excuse to not be talking. It’s quiet as hell out there.”
In general, the Raptors have been disappointing on defence to kick the season off, and they know it.
“It’s tough. It’s tough. I think we’ve got to guard our guys a little better,” VanVleet said. “Individually, we’ve got to make multiple efforts. Make more slides. Figure it out. It’s not rocket science. I don’t want to say it’s an effort thing. I feel like guys are trying out there. We’ve got to make more plays at a higher level.
“It’s easy to say it on offence when you say guys have got to make plays, you’ve got to complete the play. But it’s the same thing on defence: You’ve got to make the extra rotation, you’ve got to make the close out, you’ve got to come up with the rebound. We’re trying. I think we’ve got to perform defensively at a higher level each possession. I think we’re just not doing it for a full game. We do it in spurts, but I think teams are just a little too comfortable right now, or these last two teams that we play.”
What is encouraging about Toronto’s defence, however, is those spurts VanVleet speaks of, have been excellent.
The makings of a strong defensive club is still there for the Raptors thanks to the fact they still have personnel like OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam and, as evidence Saturday, Chris Boucher.
Boucher recorded a career-high seven blocks on Saturday, and while his shot contests can come at the expense of cleaning up the defensive glass, the energy he brings on defence, attempting to swat everything within his vicinity, is exactly what the Raptors need right now. That willingness to lay it all out there on every defensive possession was part of the reason why the Raptors became as stout a defence as they did the past two seasons in the first place.
“If we can perform at the right place, I think we can be a really good defensive team,” Boucher said. “We’ve just got to go out there and prove it every time.“
And it really should be just that simple.
Yes, this Raptors team has new faces to incorporate and didn’t have much time to prepare these new guys thanks to the short training camp and pre-season. But the fact remains that Toronto picked up a couple losses to teams it probably shouldn’t have lost to because the club’s signature defence isn’t up to snuff yet.
“I think it’s a lot of things that goes into that, everybody making adjustments trying to figure it out,” Lowry said. “Your defence should be a little bit more ahead of your offence right now, and we’re just kind of even right now with everything, and it’s a brand new situation for everybody, but we’re 0-2 and I haven’t been this record in a long [expletive] time.”
EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers signed defenceman Travis Dermott to a professional tryout on Friday.
Dermott, a 27-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., produced two goals, five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 50 games with the Arizona Coyotes last season.
The six-foot, 202-pound blueliner has also played for the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Toronto drafted him in the second round, 34th overall, of the 2015 NHL draft.
Over seven NHL seasons, Dermott has 16 goals and 46 assists in 329 games while averaging 16:03 in ice time.
Before the NHL, Dermott played two seasons with Oilers captain Connor McDavid for the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. The team was coached by current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Maria Sharapova, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, led the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan vote her first year on the ballot — an important part to possible selection to the hall’s next class.
The organization released the voting results on Friday. American doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan finished second with Canada’s Daniel Nestor third.
The Hall of Fame said tens of thousands of fans from 120 countries cast ballots. Fan voting is one of two steps in the hall’s selection process. The second is an official group of journalists, historians, and Hall of Famers from the sport who vote on the ballot for the hall’s class of 2025.
“I am incredibly grateful to the fans all around the world who supported me during the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s fan votes,” Sharapova said in a statement. “It is a tremendous honor to be considered for the Hall of Fame, and having the fans’ support makes it all the more special.”
Sharapova became the first Russian woman to reach No. 1 in the world. She won Wimbledon in 2004, the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. She also won the French Open twice, in 2012 and 2014.
Sharapova was also part of Russia’s championship Fed Cup team in 2008 and won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012.
To make the hall, candidates must receive 75% or higher on combined results of the official voting group and additional percentage from the fan vote. Sharapova will have an additional three percentage points from winning the fan vote.
The Bryans, who won 16 Grand Slam doubles titles, will have two additional percentage points and Nestor, who won eight Grand Slam doubles titles, will get one extra percentage point.
The hall’s next class will be announced late next month.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The driver charged with killing NHL hockey player Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew as they bicycled on a rural road had a blood-alcohol level of .087, above the .08 legal limit in New Jersey, a prosecutor said Friday.
Gaudreau, 31, and brother Matthew, 29, were killed in Carneys Point, New Jersey, on Aug. 29, the evening before they were set to serve as groomsmen at their sister Katie’s wedding.
The driver, 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of nearby Woodstown, New Jersey, is charged with two counts of death by auto, along with reckless driving, possession of an open container and consuming alcohol in a motor vehicle. At a virtual court hearing Friday, a judge ordered that he be held for trial after prosecutors described a history of alleged road rage and aggressive driving.
“’You were probably driving like a nut like I always tell you you do. And you don’t listen to me, instead you just yell at me,’” his wife told Higgins when he called her from jail after his arrest, according to First Assistant Prosecutor Jonathan Flynn of Salem County.
The defense described Higgins as a married father and law-abiding citizen before the crash.
“He’s an empathetic individual and he’s a loving father of two daughters,” said defense lawyer Matthew Portella. “He’s a good person and he made a horrible decision that night.”
Higgins told police he had five or six beers that day and admitted to consuming alcohol while driving, according to the criminal complaint. He also failed a field sobriety test, the complaint said. A prosecutor on Friday said he had been drinking at home after finishing a work call at about 3 p.m., and having an upsetting conversation with his mother about a family matter.
He then had a two-hour phone call with a friend while he drove around in his Jeep with an open container, Flynn said. He had been driving aggressively behind a sedan going just above the 50 mph speed limit, sometimes tailgating, the female driver told police.
When she and the vehicle ahead of her slowed down and veered left to go around the cyclists, Higgins sped up and veered right, striking the Gaudreas, the two other drivers told police.
“He indicated he didn’t even see them,” said Superior Court Judge Michael J. Silvanio, who said Higgins’ admitted “impatience” caused two deaths.
Higgins faces up to 20 years, a sentence that the judge said made him a flight risk.
Higgins has a master’s degree, works in finance for an addiction treatment company, and served in combat in Iraq, his lawyers said. However, his wife said he had been drinking regularly since working from home, Flynn said.
Johnny Gaudreau, known as “Johnny Hockey,” played 10 full seasons in the league and was set to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets after signing a seven-year, $68 million deal in 2022. He played his first eight seasons with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.
Widows Meredith and Madeline Gaudreau described their husbands as attached at the hip throughout their lives. Both women are expecting, and both gave moving eulogies at the double funeral on Monday.
