Heading into the new season, the Toronto Raptors have emphasized that they are going to play hard, fast and aggressive basketball.

After nine games, this style of play has become a double-edged sword for Toronto. Despite their 2-7 record, the Raptors lead the NBA with 30.6 assists per game and have the eighth-best offense with 118 points per game.

Toronto is also allowing the worst scoring in the league, 124.7 points per game, but has lost five of its last six games by six points or less.

Their suffocating transition defense has a turnover frequency percentage of 19.5, best in the NBA, but the Raptors are third-worst in the league with their offense giving up 16.8 turnovers per game.

“We just have to continue to play hard and figure it out,” swingman RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., told reporters, noting that the Raptors led after three quarters in their 122-107 loss at Sacramento on Wednesday and trailed by as much as at 15 in a 121-119 loss at Denver on Monday.

“We’re doing the right things, we just have to learn to sustain them for 48 minutes. When you have a new team, a lot of young guys, it’s a learning process for all of us.”

Toronto had to rely heavily on its rookies or second-year players, with star forward Scottie Barnes (broken eye socket) and point guard Immanuel Quickley (right pelvic contusion) missing. Reserve veterans Kelly Olynyk (low back strain) of Kamloops, B.C., and Bruce Brown (arthroscopic knee surgery) were also unavailable.

“The guys that are playing are getting used to playing with each other and that way we can be up and running when Scottie, Quick and everyone is back,” second-year swingman Gradey Dick told reporters after the defeat in Denver. “(Head coach Darko Rajakovic) came in and talked about how he’s not big on moral victories, so I think we’re adopting this mentality that, going into this, we can’t not just be happy that you succeeded.

“But with the team we have, we have to know that we are playing well, but at the end of the day we have to know how to finish games.”

Looking at the Raptors’ numbers paints a complicated picture of who they are this season.

Toronto is fourth in the NBA in offensive rebounds with 13.8 per game, but is 17th overall with an average of 44.2.

Perhaps most confusing is how often Toronto asks referees to blow their whistles.

The Raptors are averaging 26.2 fouls per game – second worst in the league – but are tied with the Washington Wizards for 10th with 20.8.

That second number would make more sense if Toronto’s forwards were struggling, but that’s not the case. The Raptors score 60 points in the paint per game, the second most in the NBA.

A team that does so much around the rim — both scoring and grabbing offensive rebounds — should be able to commit more fouls, but it hasn’t been able to benefit from calls so far this season.

“It’s every night we commit a lot of fouls,” Barrett told reporters in Sacramento after Toronto made 15 free throws to the Kings’ 32. “We just have to try to figure that out, figure out how to play defense without fouling.

“Then on the offensive side, you just have to go hard in the paint and make the right plays.”

The Raptors continue their swing on the West Coast with a back-to-back Los Angeles, facing the Clippers on Saturday and the Lakers on Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 7, 2024.