Don't sleep on Raptors, the Bucks' worst nightmare

Down 11 points to the Pacers with 3:10 left, the Raptors appeared doomed Wednesday night. But they didn’t panic, because they never panic. Pascal Siakam started driving to the basket, Kyle Lowry hit a three, and the defense began forcing turnovers. The Raptors scored 11 straight to take the lead and won, 119-118, to extend their winning streak to 12 games.

The comeback should have been shocking, but it has become commonplace this season for Toronto, the surprise championship contender experts wrote off before the season.  But experts sleeping on the Raptors is nothing new for this squad. Toronto, Milwaukee's biggest threat in the East, thrives on it, in fact.

After Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green left for L.A., we wondered who Toronto would get to replace them. And the answer was … nobody, really. The Raptors picked up Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, but mostly they just promoted from their bench and an excellent G League affiliate, Raptors 905. And they’re doing better on paper than last season. Check out last season’s stats:

Record: 58-24 | Net Rating: +6.1 (4th in NBA)
Offensive rating: 113.4 (6th) | Defensive rating: 107.4 (5th)

Toronto is 37-14 this season, on pace to go 59-23. The Raptors net rating is +6.6, and while their offensive rating has dropped to 11th, they’re second in defense. That's despite nearly every significant player missing 10 games or more with injuries -– congratulations on the good health, OG Anunoby. They have All-Stars in Siakam and Lowry but no superstar. In an era of player movement and superstars forming Big Twos and Threes, the Raptors have simply put together a lot of good players.

Although Toronto is the reigning champion, its roster features just one former lottery pick: Stanley Johnson, who has played in only 17 games. Their current starting lineup features a guy who was selected No. 23 overall (Anunoby), two players drafted at No. 24 (Lowry and Serge Ibaka), another drafted at No. 27 (Siakam), and a guy who wasn’t drafted at all (VanVleet). Injured Marc Gasol is usually a starter; he was picked 48th. Norman Powell, a 46th pick, is out with a broken finger. Hollis-Jefferson was a 23rd pick, Patrick McCaw was 38th, and reserves Terence Davis, Matt Thomas, Malcolm Miller and Chris Boucher were undrafted.

The number of unheralded players making big contributions to the team is a testament to Nick Nurse, the NBA’s best coach, and the organization’s commitment to player development. But it also explains why Toronto plays with the intensity that it does. Having to work to silence doubters at every level instills an attitude of hard work and defiance. This team is tough, and not in the sense that the Raptors will fight you (though Ibaka actually will). They play relentless defense, and while there’s no way to actually measure this, it feels like they simply play harder than anyone else in the league.

The Raptors’ comeback against Dallas in December exemplifies the team’s spirit. They were down 30 points with less than 15 minutes left, with Siakam, Gasol, and Powell out, when Nurse called for a full-court press. NBA teams will break out a full-court press occasionally, usually for a few possessions in a row, but Toronto did it for the whole fourth quarter with a lineup of Lowry, Hollis-Jefferson and three undrafted bench guys for most of that stretch. The intensity was too much for Dallas, Toronto caught up in the final minute, and ended up winning by three. Most teams would have written the game off! The Raptors aren’t most teams.

You can see that the spirit was there early. Even when the Raptors were still known for playoff flame-outs, they always had killer backups, the Bench Mob. It was always Lowry and four reserves, and usually they played better than the starters. The constant was Lowry, who has been underrated his entire career. He’s a talented facilitator who exemplifies the Raptors' spirit of unyielding effort, and it’s not a coincidence that the Lowry + hustling reserves formula works even as the reserves change.

Lowry has always played like he has something to prove. He was traded by Memphis and Houston early in his career without truly getting a chance to prove himself. And the Raptors' failures in the playoffs, while overblown (everybody in the East lost to LeBron last decade!), seemed to haunt him. Toronto doesn't let up because the players remember the hard times. But now that he has won a title, Lowry is playing freer, adding joyfulness to his usual intensity.  

Davis, an undrafted guard who put up 30 points this week, is another example. He dropped in the draft, then refused to sign a two-way contract, He showed out at Summer League playing for the Pistons, and was rewarded with a guaranteed deal from Toronto. Oh, he’s also a former high school football star who surprised everyone by playing basketball in college instead. It’s very similar to the path by Fred VanVleet, last season's playoff hero, who also grinded his way into the NBA with bulldog defense and constant improvement.

It could be that the Raptors were so accustomed to scrapping and clawing for wins that when the team’s talent level rose, its mentality didn’t change. Now instead of clawing their way to close wins, the Raptors can blow teams out for quarters at a time. And even without Kawhi, they match up very well with Eastern Conference leader Milwaukee (43-7) for one reason: three-pointers.

The Bucks' biggest defensive weakness is yielding open threes in favor of walling off the paint. The Raptors hit 37.4% of their threes, good for third in the league. On the defensive end, the Raps hold opponents to 33.8% shooting from three, the league’s second-best defensive performance. Teams shoot a low percentage all around against Toronto, thanks to the fleet of long-armed defenders intent on contesting every shot. Gasol and Ibaka made the Bucks' Giannis very uncomfortable in their playoff series last May. They'll miss Kawhi's defense in the postseason, but scoring against Anunoby (injured last playoffs) and Siakam is no picnic.

Which is not to say the team is all floor-slappers and hustle artists. The team has a lot of fun, even by millionaire athlete standards. Ibaka has a cooking show in which he forces teammates to eat strange and exotic foods like lamb brain pizza. He and Anunoby had a “fashion king” showdown last week. As far as fashion goes, there are at least four players with their own self-produced lines of clothing -- VanVleet’s is called “Bet On Yourself” abd Powell’s is “Understand The Grind.” Lowry and Siakam have personal logos just for them, a sign of the team’s self-realization.

So while the Celtics have a better point differential and the Heat just loaded up with Andre Iguodala, the Raptors are the biggest threat to the Bucks in the Eastern Conference. The only danger is that this extended winning streak will make everyone notice them, because Toronto likes it better when it's way off the radar.