Poeltl still missed but undersized Raptors rally past Bulls

CHICAGO — The perception of Jakob Poeltl as a Toronto Raptor has very much been shaped by his absence.

For nearly two years before he was re-acquired at the trade deadline last season Poeltl was someone fans and management were equally eager to repatriate after he was included as part of the 2018 trade that netted Kawhi Leonard.

When the deal was finally made the excitement continued. After more than two seasons without a seven-footer on the roster, having a big man who could block the odd shot, set good screens and finish well at the rim was buzz-worthy. The Raptors finished 15-11 with Poeltl starting last season.

This year Poeltl has played as he ever does — the big Austrian is a low-maintenance double-double machine whose calling card is his consistency — but after all the effort the Raptors went through to get him, there were questions about his fit.

Even though Poeltl is averaging 14.4 points, 11.3 rebounds and two blocked shots per 36 minutes, while converting 68.5 per cent of his field goal attempts, that he is a non-shooter outside of perhaps 12 feet complicated things for a team that wanted to spread the floor, shoot threes and cut into open space. It was even more so when Poeltl was paired with Dennis Schroder at point guard, who is not thought of as a deep shooting threat, even if he is hovering around a league-averaging mark, having converted 35.5 per cent of his three-point attempts this season.

But Tuesday night’s visit to Chicago was the Raptors’ 11th game without their only centre since Poeltl sprained his ankle late in Toronto’s win over the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 7 — long enough ago that he twisted it stepping on former teammate Pascal Siakam’s foot. Siakam has since been traded to the Indiana Pacers. The Poeltl-less Raptors came into Tuesday night at 1-9 since his injury.

So in that respect, the results have been definitive. Whether Poeltl is the ideal person for the job or the Raptors trading a lightly protected first-round pick and two future second-rounders to San Antonio was too steep a price or if signing him to a four-year, $78 million contract will ultimately prove good value, there is no question that the Raptors have suffered playing without a legitimate big man, and Poeltl is the best one they have.

Still, every once in a while a squirrel finds a nut, and a severely undersized team figures out how to win an NBA game as Toronto did against a Bulls team that was playing its first game at home after a long west-coast road trip and missing Zach Lavine and Patrick Williams.

But the Raptors know all about those issues as they are in the midst of their second six-game road trip in the space of a month. Toronto was playing Tuesday without Poelt, RJ Barrett (knee) and Immanuel Quickley (thigh) and still figured out how to come out on top with a 118-107 win that was just their second positive in the 11 games Poeltl has missed and improved their record to 17-30 while the Bulls fell to 22-26.

After trailing by as many as 16 in the second quarter and in the early moments of the third the Raptors got back into the game with a spirited third quarter where Toronto leaned into playing small. Barnes became their centre in fact if not in title, with Thad Young picking up where he left off. Playing a small and fast lineup paid off as Toronto was able to win the period 37-26 and head into the fourth up by one. Young had 10 and Bruce Brown — in his best all-around effort since being acquired in the Siakam trade — added 10 points of his own as the Raptors’ tempo proved a problem for Chicago. Bulls backup centre Andre Drummond in particular caused some issues for the Raptors — scoring on a deep post-up past an over-matched Young, then blocking his lay-up attempt at the other end leading to a Bulls fast break were examples — but for the most part the Raptors were able to make their centreless lineups work.

They held their own on the defensive glass, out-rebounding the Bulls 9-6, and otherwise found ways to put pressure on the rim. Gary Trent Jr. led Toronto with 24 points while shooting 6-of-11 from three while Young had 16 points, six rebounds and six assists. Brown had 19 points, seven rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks.

The Bulls were led by DeMar DeRozan who had 25.

The biggest challenge was defending the paint, such as when DeRozan crossed over Jalen McDaniels and rose up to crush a dunk over Brown, who was about a foot short of being a proper deterrent.

But Toronto otherwise defended very aggressively and quite well. After DeRozan’s dunk the Raptors answered right back by forcing a pair of turnovers leading to a fastbreak lay-up by Young and a triple by Trent that put the Raptors up by nine with minutes to play. A steal by Dennis Schroder led to another score by Young to keep the lead at nine with three minutes to play. Fittingly, the game’s clinching basket came with just over a minute to play when Barnes was matched up against Bulls centre Nikola Vucevic on a switch on the perimeter. After a couple of timing dribbles, Barnes threaded a seeing-eye pass to Young who was lurking by the Bulls basket, undefended.

It was a win a long time coming and welcome for a Raptors team that is trying to make its way to the trade deadline and then the all-star break with some dignity.

Even better, the expectation is that Poeltl should be back in the lineup soon enough. The Raptors have two days off before they suit up against Houston on Friday for the third game of a six-game trip. Poelt’s been active and doing on-court work at full speed for nearly a week now. His return is likely imminent.

In the meantime the Raptors have been trying to make do and, for the most part, have been falling well short. The Bulls can roll out one of the more effective centre combinations in the league, between starter Vucevic and backup Drummond. They’re each completely different players but have in common being very big and pretty good.

The Raptors could only answer with Young, Jontay Porter and Barnes, and were even more up against it when Porter, at six-foot-10 the tallest of the three, left in the first half with back spasms.

Figure it out as you go along and do the best you can has been the Raptors’ mantra.

“It is different. We’re trying to do the best we can in this situation,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “We adjusted to switch more one through five and to go into some situations that we’re putting two on the ball to eliminate downhill drives on pick-and-rolls. That had moments when it looked good and also had moments when it really affected our rebounding. We’ve got to find out the balance with this roster, what we can do and how we can do it.”

The Raptors arrived in Chicago coming off a loss to Atlanta in which they gave up 20 offensive rebounds to the Hawks, including a game-winning putback at the horn. Since Poeltl got hurt the Raptors have been 29th in the NBA in defensive rebounding percentage. Prior to his injury, they were a much more palatable 15th.

In that context the Raptors deserve credit for their performance on the glass against Chicago, who were ninth in offensive rebounding before play Friday.

“With Vooch, with obviously Drummond coming off the bench, even their guards, they’re doing a really good job of crashing the offensive glass,” said Rajakovic. “Big emphasis for us is protecting the paint and rebounding the ball. We’ll see how we do tonight.”

Turns out they did better than good enough and were rewarded for a team-wide professional effort. At the very least it should make the wait for Poeltl’s return a little easier.

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