Coming off of 24 extremely good minutes of basketball \u2014 perhaps the best of the season for the Toronto Raptors \u2014 the team disappointed against the Indiana Pacers.<\/p>\n
Sabonis feasted on the offensive glass and in the post, and Toronto had little option but to swarm him \u2014 leaving his teammates plenty of space to score.<\/p>\n
He was back cut multiple times and made some mistakes with his closeouts, giving up uncontested baskets to a Pacers\u2019 team that seemed to score fine without any extra help from the Raptors.<\/p>\n
Having one of Khem Birch, OG Anunoby, or Yuta Watanabe \u2014 all sizeable frontcourt players who can protect the rim and clean the glass \u2014 would have breathed life into the rotation.<\/p>\n
Barnes was one of Toronto\u2019s most important offensive machines, churning out points when on the court, and he finished with 17, on top of plenty of other spending stats.<\/p>\n
At one point, VanVleet set a screen for Siakam, who rejected it, jetted into the paint, and dumped it off to Achiuwa, who was skulking along the baseline, for the dunk.<\/p>\n
to simply score in isolation at will, and on nights when his jumper is off, as it was against Indiana, there\u2019s not too many points to score when Toronto\u2019s stars are on the bench.<\/p>\n
Rosters that score by committee can only handle so many absences; \u201cnext man up\u201d only works when there\u2019s enough overlap of skills on the roster that absent players can be replaced.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s no individual\u2019s fault, and it\u2019s especially painful when there are so many individual defensive talents on the roster.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, Nurse said before the game that he expects Anunoby to be back \u201cany day now.\u201d Wins should follow.<\/p>\n