Why Raptors should be confident vs. Bulls in play-in game

Imman Adan and Amit Mann discuss the matchups between the Raptors and Bulls ahead of a potential play-in game and why Toronto should feel confident. Listen to the full episode on the ‘Raptors Over Everything’ podcast feed.

Video Transcript

IMMAN ADAN: Where it stands right now, unless things go totally out of whack in the final few games of the season, the Raptors will be playing and will be hosting the Chicago Bulls. And so those numbers have been really, really interesting to me. So I want to ask you first. If you had your choice, would Chicago have been the team that you wanted to see of the play-in bunch?

AMIT MANN: Yeah, probably. They’re up there. The team that I don’t want to face, and mind you, I think the Raptors can and should beat any of the play-in teams, but the Atlanta Hawks are the team that scares me the most. Because I mean, we know, like, in one game dynamics, who’s your star?

IMMAN ADAN: Trae Young.

AMIT MANN: Exactly. Trae Young is a problem. They’ve had issues containing him before, but the last time they played, like, OG wasn’t there. But then you got Bogdanovic, and then you got Dejounte Murray. These kinds of, like, quick guards have just caused the Raptors issues.

They can deal probably better with a person like DeMar DeRozan, a slower pace, a pick-and-roll ball handler kind of player. He’s fifth in total possessions as a pick-and-roll ball handler. And also he’s second in points as a ball handler. So that is their bread and butter.

And the Raptors can switch, they can do a lot of different things. They can throw different kind of looks at DeMar. And that’s obviously going to be beneficial for them.

They beat them the last time around, and going back and looking at that game, Vucevic was a problem, but I mean, that’s kind of it. It’s a pick-and-roll between Vucevic and DeMar, and then Vucevic pops, and he hits 3’s sometimes, and you just hope that he doesn’t hit that many 3’s.

But outside of that, I mean, like, the Raptors they played a decent game. Scottie Barnes missed, like, I counted 11 to 55 chip shots, and that just sort of happens, but you want to bank that won’t happen again. And also in the early stages of this Jakob Poeltl integration to the lineup, there are several occasions when I’m looking back at the footage that I believe they would have made that pass, or it would have been a much smoother possession here and there.

And so from a size standpoint, the Raptors definitely have an advantage. And I think they just have more overall talent to succeed against the Bulls. But then again, you’ve got Zach LaVine. He could put up 55 on any given day, and he’s kind of scary too.

IMMAN ADAN: Yeah, yeah. Honestly, looking at the game that the Raptors played against the Bulls, there were the ones early on in the season that happened in November. Pascal Siakam gone, the Raptors win one. They lose the other because Zach LaVine missed the one that the Raptors won. Zach LaVine came back for the one that the Raptors lost, but of course, they didn’t have Pascal Siakam.

They also did not have Jakob Poeltl, and the Bulls did not have Patrick Beverley. Now the last game, the game that happened on February 28, that’s the game that I sort of focused in on. That was a close game between the two, and Scottie Barnes just had an absolute monstrous fourth quarter against them. He was blocking every single shot.

And so, to your point, the Raptors are just bigger than them. And to your other point, they play at a much slower pace, right? Like, the Hawks play at a really quick pace. The Miami Heat, the Toronto Raptors, and the Chicago Bulls all play at extremely slow paces, and I think that sort of bodes well for the Toronto Raptors in this match-up.

They also have done really well at containing both Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. What they do is they just help off of Pat Bev and Alex Caruso.

[LAUGHTER]

So–

AMIT MANN: Simple.

IMMAN ADAN: It’s easy. It’s like, it’s pretty simple. I do think that the Bulls do have a counter there with Patrick Williams. That’s someone who didn’t get a lot of time, I thought, in that game that the Raptors played against them. He’s someone who very similar to the Raptors, I feel like he’d fit in perfectly here, in terms of his size, but also in the fact that he’s incredibly inconsistent.

I think what is really interesting to me about the Raptors versus Bulls match-up is the fact that, like, you know Vuc is going to go off, and I think you’re fine with Vuc going off, if you’re the Toronto Raptors, because for one, Vuc is not a guy who can create his own shot. So like, get him the ball, whatever, he’s fine.

It’s DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. And if you have guys who can contain them, I think you’re golden there, but that just requires Pat Bev and Alex Caruso to have bad games. Bad shooting nights, I should say. They’re going to be their pesky selves on defense, but if they have bad shooting nights, I think the Raptors can come and feel fairly comfortable in this match-up here.

They’ve got the size. They’ve got the rebounding. They have been a better defense. I know the league story has been the Chicago Bulls defense. The Raptors have been a better defense for since the All-Star break, when everybody’s been talking about the Bulls defense.

So I just– I’m looking at this match-up and I’m like, on paper, the Raptors should beat them. But still, I have zero faith in the Raptors beating them because watch Alex Caruso just have the game of his life.

AMIT MANN: And like you said, a single game elimination, you don’t know what could happen. Containing Andre Drummond in his, like, 16 minutes or so will be pretty crucial as well. The last time they played, he had 6 and 10 in 16 minutes. So you put Jakob in there, I would hope because you know that Precious, a Scottie, they can guard Vucevic. And so you can do some interesting substitutions there.

And then also Derrick Jones Jr, he’s now in the rotation. So that’s additional length that could– yeah, so that could be additional length that a Scottie and OG, a Pascal may have to deal with. But in the end, like, all three of those players, there are so many mismatches they can attack.

And then also, the Raptors, like, they kind of decide how they want to play. And it’s like, OK, so we have a drop big, cool. Fred and Jak, pick-and-roll, you do your thing. But then they also have another style that if you’re small, we can do this. They can do both of those options against the Chicago Bulls. And so you would think that it’s going to be– it presents a good match-up.

And also last time they played, I mean, Vucevic had six turnovers, right? And they had like 20 turnovers overall. And they got– the Raptors had 23 more shots. They out rebounded them. Like, the formula was there for them to win that game, despite it only being like a 6-point game. They performed better offensively, this is a recording, things should be fine.

But I mean, also, you get a little bit worried about these single game eliminations when you have a player like DeMar on one side and Zach LaVine, just because of their scoring prowess and how talented they are. But I think in a game like that, you are hoping that Pascal Siakam, he’s able to cancel out the production of DeMar DeRozan.

That’s what you want from your star player, your best player. Then after that happens, then you’re probably in a decent spot just to overall beat the Chicago Bulls. But again, one game elimination, who the hell knows.

IMMAN ADAN: Yeah, DeMar struggled against the Raptors. I think he’s only averaged 14 points against them this year. That last game, he had 11 points on 13– he had 13 points on 11 shots, and he got to the line–

AMIT MANN: He’s like a point guard now. He’s a point guard for them.

IMMAN ADAN: Yeah, and sometimes he’s a power forward for them. And that’s sort of the thing where it’s Alex Caruso is a power forward for them. And that’s kind of the thing with the Bulls is like, the Raptors should have more size. And I think your point about Andre Drummond is a really good one there because what the Raptors did in the fourth quarter to completely turn it around and steal that game against Chicago, although they kind of had control for most of it, was they went small, right?

Because Andre Drummond was not in there. And so they did not need Jakob Poeltl and they just went with Scottie at the 5, and we know that Scottie at the 5 is a phenomenal player, right? That game where OG missed a free throw, and Scottie got the rebound and dunked it right back. Like, it was beautiful. It was the high energy.

And I think why I’m sort of excited about a play-in scenarios because I think we’ve seen the best Scottie on nationally televised games. We see the best Scottie when the lights are brightest. Like, he is a true star in the making because when the lights shine bright– I mean, in his first playoff game, he almost had a triple-double before getting hurt. So when the lights are brightest, Scottie really does show up.

But a lot of this is going to come down to OG, Fred being able to knock down their shots. To your point, the Raptors only have 3-points– only have a couple of 3-point shooters. Gary Trent Junior being able to knock down their shots, but going back to that last game against them.

Those guys did not hit their shots except for Gary Trent Junior. It seems like when you’re going up against a bad 3-point shooting team, you only need one guy to be able to do it, and it was Gary who did it for the Raptors. So hopefully one of those three guys, if not two of them, can come out against the Chicago Bulls, and I think that can completely change it.

But my last point about the difference between a playoffs and play-in is in the playoffs, I trust the Raptors to be able to beat this team because I trust that the Raptors are a better team than the Chicago Bulls. They’ve proven to be a better team than the Chicago Bulls. In a single game elimination, it comes down to who has the best shot maker sometimes, and I trust that the Bulls have better shot makers than the Toronto Raptors because they have DeMar DeRozan and they have Zach LaVine.

Now the Raptors have really been able to contain them. And so hopefully that continues through. The Raptors just need to play defense at the way that they play. I think if the Raptors come out with their defensive intensity and we see how good they can be when games matter and when the lights are brightest, we know how good their defense can be. I think the Raptors should be able to beat the Bulls, but I would never pick them outright. I’m waiting a little bit. I’m probably going to do my reverse jinx and pick the Chicago Bulls, who knows.