Raptors Use Hot Start To Survive Late Scare from Bulls BY AARON ROSE SPORTS ILLUSTRATED TORONTO RAPTORS NEWS, ANALYSIS AND MORE UPDATED NOVEMBER 24, 2023 7:08 PM 00:05 00:53 Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers Best Bets – FanDuel Action Update Toronto Raptors and Los Angeles Clippers Best Bets – FanDuel Action Update It turns out an early lead can come in handy. The Toronto Raptors have seemed almost allergic to hot starts this season. They came into Friday ranked as the league’s seventh-worst first-half team and had fallen behind by 10 or more points in seven of their last nine games. Sure, they’ve climbed out of a couple of those holes, but that’s not a sustainable way to live in the NBA. So what happens when you’re the aggressor early? Well, suddenly there’s some breathing room for the kind of mistakes the Raptors managed to survive on Friday night to clinch a 121-108 victory over the Chicago Bulls. The Raptors haven’t exactly had an explanation for their early game woes this year. To a man, the coaches and players have said they’re confused by it, unable to identify any clear trends running through these seemingly constant slow starts. “There is a theme that maybe we don’t start the game with the focus and energy that we need to have. And we’re finding it over the course, during the game,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said pre-game. “Our conversations every day are how do we prevent those?” Against the Bulls, there were no issues. Toronto’s offense looked as effective as ever, running the exact kind of system the Raptors have been looking for this year. The team recorded assists on each of their first 11 field goals as the ball whizzed around the court and Toronto jumped ahead by as many as 15 in the first quarter. It helped to have Gary Trent Jr. back looking like his old self. After a nearly disastrous end to Wednesday’s game, Trent asserted himself early and often for the Raptors. He connected on his first four field goal attempts, racking up 13 of his 16 points in the first half, and showed improved defensive intensity, stripping Alex Caruso and scoring in transition for Toronto’s first unassisted bucket of the night. Pascal Siakam played distributor early, collapsing Chicago’s defense and throwing kick-out passes to his teammates dotting the three-point line. Four of his first six assists resulted in three-pointers for Toronto with OG Anunoby being the biggest beneficiary of Siakam’s early charity work. A pair of technical fouls on DeMar DeRozan and Andre Drummond allowed the Raptors to climb ahead by as many as 20 in the first half. It’s not often a team goes wire-to-wire with that kind of lead and the Bulls certainly weren’t going to make it easy on Toronto. A pair of three-pointers from Alex Caruso and Coby White allowed the Bulls to whittle that lead down to 12 and a slow start by the Raptors to start the second half had things looking dicey for a moment. But the thing about early leads is they create wiggle room for those late-game letups that are bound to happen. In the span of three possessions, Toronto was right back up big after a three-pointer and transition dunk from Anunoby stuck the Raptors back to a 17-point lead. Zach LaVine did his best to keep Chicago around in the fourth. He showed why he’s the kind of offensive weapon a team like the Raptors would be interested in. He can nail three-pointers from anywhere and can create offense out of seemingly nothing. It’s how he racked up 36 points, pulling the Bulls to within seven after Toronto went three minutes without a made field goal in the fourth before a three from Anunoby gave the Raptors some breathing room. Anunoby’s defense on DeRozan helped keep Chicago at bay. The Bulls All-Star was limited to just 19 points on 7-for-16 shooting. Anunoby, meanwhile, chipped in with 25 of his own, nailing five three-pointers for Toronto.
