Just a little bit, the Pelicans who played on the road can take away the victory and end the Raptors' winning streak. Unfortunately, Fred VanVleet stepped up, and the ultra-far three-pointer in the first 1 minute and 49 seconds before the final game helped the Raptors gain the lead, and finally the Raptors defeated the Pelicans 105-101 to win six consecutive games. At present, the Raptors are seventh in the East with 20 wins and 17 losses, although it is still a fairly good report card, but the Raptors at least see hope.
After winning the championship in 2019, Kawhi Leonard chose to join the Clippers, which led the Raptors to directly replace the core, pascal Siakam is clearly not ready to become the Raptors leader, and they even missed the playoffs in the 20-21 season. But there are pros and cons to everything, and missing the playoffs gives the Raptors the opportunity to select Scotty Barnes, and they have one more forward. Now, the Raptors' forward reserves have reached the level of the top league.
In the past decade, small forwards have won the world, and LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Leonard and others are the league's top small forwards. Therefore, the rich front reserve allows the team to have more choices, after all, the front line takes into account the flexibility of the defender and the height and strength of the interior line. At present, the Raptors' forward lines mainly include Siakam, OG Anunoby, Barnes, Chris Boucher, Presches Achuva, Sviatoslav Mikhailiuk, Gary Trent Jr., DJ Wilson and other forwards. Of course, the front line alone is not enough, the Raptors also have a key guard, that is, VanVleet.
Nick Nas will most of the time send FanVleet, Siakam, Anunoby, Trent Jr., Barnes jr. starting lineup, Boucher, Achuva and others will occasionally appear in the starting list, but the previous five are relatively solid. VanVleet, Siakam and the other five started a lineup without a center, mainly a defender and four forwards, such a model can ensure speed and flexibility. On the offensive end, the Raptors averaged 16.5 points per game in the league, the highest in the league, and averaged 19.5 points per game, ranking second in the league. Defensively, the Raptors have averaged 9.2 steals per game this season, ranking second in the league.
In fact, this is the advantage of a guard and four forwards, Pat Riley once predicted that the future basketball will be played by five players about 2 meters tall at the same time on the court, although the Raptors have not yet reached that mode, but the mode of a guard and four forwards is obviously close to Riley's prediction of the future of basketball, and the effect is very good, at least in the past six games, the Raptors have not tasted the defeat.
Most of the time, the Raptors' interior line height is slightly insufficient, it seems that there is pressure on the defense of the inside line, but the Raptors have only conceded 42.6 points per game this season, the fifth lowest in the league, which is a very good report card, which shows that the Raptors' interior line has not been destroyed by the opponent. In fact, this is the advantage of the front reserve, the front players have excellent mobility, their defense and pinch are very in place, so the Raptors' internal disadvantage will be compensated.
The 2019 championship is too short for the Raptors, so the Raptors are trying to build a new championship-winning lineup, for now, the Raptors do not have the strength to win the championship, but now the Raptors have gradually found the key to victory, a guard and four forwards The story has just begun, maybe some future season, the Raptors will soar like in 2019, once again stunning everyone.
Text/Duncan's laugh