{"id":930964,"date":"2026-10-17T02:44:30","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:44:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930964\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T02:44:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T02:44:30","slug":"toronto-raptors-have-a-chance-to-be-special-on-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/930964\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Raptors have a chance to be special on defence"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> doesn\u2019t scare easily, but you could see the fear in the eyes of the New York Knicks<\/a>\u2019 big man.<\/p>\n

It was late in the first half of Thursday\u2019s pre-season game, a 122-120 win over the Toronto Raptors<\/a>, and the six-time all-star was looking to attack Collin Murray-Boyles<\/a> off the bounce. With the sophomore forward draped all over him, at one point tying up his dribble, Towns started to survey the court for an outlet.<\/p>\n

In that moment, Kawhi Leonard<\/a> came over to double, while Scottie Barnes<\/a> hedged on the opposite side, both of them swiping at the ball. All at once, Towns was surrounded by a generational defensive talent, an ascending all-league stopper, and one of the game\u2019s brightest young stars on that side of the ball. Under duress, he sailed the pass over the head of Jalen Brunson<\/a> and out of bounds.<\/p>\n

The Raptors are going to frustrate a lot of great players this season. That was only a glimpse into what they\u2019re capable of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have a limit to how good we can be,\u201d Murray-Boyles said of the team\u2019s immense defensive potential. \u201cIf we\u2019re all dialled in, I feel like it\u2019s going to be a nightmare for any team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, Toronto finished as the fifth-ranked defensive club \u2013 an impressive feat considering only one of their starters profiled as plus defender. It was a credit to coach Darko Rajakovic and his frenetic style of play, which was fourth in the league in forcing turnovers, and to Barnes, who earned an All-Defensive Second-Team nod, but was inexplicably left off the First-Team.<\/p>\n

Now, they\u2019ve added Leonard, a seven-time all-league defender and two-time Defensive Player of the Year, who was tailor made for this \u2013 or, really, any \u2013 defensive system. Jakob Poeltl<\/a>, the anchor of their defence, is healthy again and Murray-Boyles\u2019 role figures to grow exponentially in Year 2. They\u2019ve got a pair of pesky guards off the bench in Ja\u2019Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead<\/a>, and drafted Allen Graves<\/a>, another versatile forward who prides himself on wreaking havoc defensively.<\/p>\n

As the pre-season showed, it\u2019s success will largely depend on personnel. With Friday\u2019s exhibition finale on the road against the Detroit Pistons<\/a> shaping up to be a rest night for the starters, the Raptors used Thursday\u2019s contest to get a look at their regular rotation and gauge where they stand ahead of next week\u2019s regular season opener. Overall, they had to be pleased with what they saw throughout an uncharacteristically competitive tune-up game.<\/p>\n

After resting their stars in Toronto a couple days earlier, the Knicks took this one seriously too. The reigning champs were close to full strength, and like they did a year ago, when they swept the five-game season series with the Raptors, they knew which players to attack. With Poeltl and former Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley<\/a> on the floor, New York used a heavy dose of pick and roll actions featuring Brunson and Towns. It went as you\u2019d expect it to, that is until Murray-Boyles came in.<\/p>\n

In six and a half minutes with their three-best defenders \u2013 Leonard, Barnes, and CMB \u2013 on the court together, the Raptors held New York to 2-for-9 shooting and outscored them 21-7. They blocked two shots, grabbed two steals, and forced three turnovers, including that collaborative effort that led to Towns\u2019 errant pass. Over the other 41.5 minutes, the Knicks shot 51 per cent and Toronto was outscored by 16 points.<\/p>\n

The sample was small but encouraging. At one point late in the second quarter, Barnes picked Brunson up full court, and with Murray-Boyles pressuring Towns at the top of the arc, Leonard fought through a screen and poked the ball away from Mikal Bridges<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Murray-Boyles got an extended look with the starters early in the second half \u2013 a three-minute stretch in which Toronto went on a 10-2 run and held the Knicks to 1-of-7 shooting. On one defensive possession, Leonard trapped Landry Shamet<\/a> and deflected his pass to Brunson. While Brunson re-gained control and beat Quickley off the dribble, Barnes met him at the rim and blocked his shot, leading to a Murray-Boyles dunk in transition. Nightmare fuel for the league\u2019s other 29 teams.<\/p>\n

If he\u2019s healthy, Poeltl will almost certainly continue to start, and that\u2019s fine. The league\u2019s more mobile or perimeter-oriented bigs may pose a matchup problem, but prior to his back injury, the seven-footer was a solid enough defender at his position. He\u2019s not a rim protector, in the traditional sense, but he makes up for it with his instincts and intellect. He\u2019s usually in the right place at the right time. At minimum, he should be serviceable as long as his back holds up.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s important is that Murray-Boyles, who averaged 22 minutes per game as a rookie, is on the floor for at least 30 a night this season. Even if he\u2019s not starting games, there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019ll be out there to close a lot of them. The Raptors understand that the 21-year-old rising star is the key to unlocking their ultimate potential, particularly on defence. <\/p>\n

A year ago, lineups that included both Murray-Boyles and Barnes held opponents to 104.5 points per 100 possessions. For context, that\u2019s two points fewer than the top-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> allowed last season. Now, add in Leonard, one of the best to ever do it, and you have three unique defensive weapons \u2013 long and versatile forwards who can guard and switch one through five. Throw them out there with Walter and Shead, or Graves if you need more size, and that\u2019s the Raptors version of a death lineup.<\/p>\n

Having three elite defensive players at varying stages of their professional careers can only help the others, as well. Quickley and RJ Barrett<\/a> are not typically known for their defence, but both players made strides playing alongside Barnes last year and shouldn\u2019t be lacking for motivation, given the former is coming off another injury plagued campaign and the latter is going into a contract season. <\/p>\n

Both guards have shown to be capable defenders when they\u2019re locked in, and with guys like Leonard and Barnes setting the tone, there\u2019s no reason not to be. Take a play or two off on that end of the floor and you\u2019ll stand out like a sore thumb, now more than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more mental than our ability, I feel like,\u201d said Murray-Boyles. \u201cEven if we didn\u2019t have the best defenders, it\u2019s more about being on the same page. When it comes to help and rotations and stuff like that, when a player gets beat, who can be there and step up for him? I think that\u2019s going to be our biggest thing to focus on when it comes to how good our defence can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bar has been set. At minimum, this should be a top five defensive unit once again. Internally, that\u2019s the goal and the expectation. With good health and, as Murray-Boyles puts it, if everybody remains dialled in, the league\u2019s No. 1 ranked defence is in the realm of realistic possibilities. Their defence isn\u2019t perfect, to be sure, but it has the chance to be something special.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 Karl-Anthony Towns doesn\u2019t scare easily, but you could see the fear in the eyes of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[16159,64,63,497738,497739,590,297371,85,297370],"class_list":["post-930964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-apple-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-collin-murray-boyles-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1465110","tag-kawhi-leonard-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-512591","tag-nba","tag-scottie-barnes-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1251666","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-28"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}