Hard start for young Raptors on return to Toronto

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He looked good from the opening council, a set piece that gave Fred VanVleet a wide 3-pointer that he calmly drained.

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Goran Dragic followed with a running back from 16 feet, but after that, it was a bunch of visiting Washington Wizards and little else from the home team.

The fanbase cannot be blamed for wondering if this was really what they had been waiting for for the past 600 days as they watched the Wizards dominate the game for three quarters and then clinch a 98-83 victory.

This version of the Raptors, young as he is, long and versatile as he is, is going to hang his hat on his defense and opening night was not very inspiring in that regard.

The Wizards have a real star in Bradley Beal, but they’re not exactly an offensive monster.

They’ve added some good veteran pieces that know what to do in Kyle Kuzma and Spencer Dinwiddie and Montrezl Harrell, but not a team that’s going to burn you out.

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Still, they were able to shoot nearly 50% off the Toronto defense during the first three quarters.

While an early fight was not unexpected, no one can say that it saw the Raptors being dominated as much as they were on both ends of the court.

And yes, the Raptors are young. The average age of the team is 25.6 years, making them the seventh youngest team in the league. Take 14-year veteran Goran Dragic out of the equation, which could happen before the trade deadline, and Toronto is the fourth-youngest team in the league.

Young starters like Scottie Barnes and Precious Achiuwa is obviously the right thing to do given where this team stands in its development arc, but there will be times when those decisions will come at a cost and there were plenty of them Wednesday night.

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Barnes, who finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, is going to be an excellent player in this league, but that will come in time. The same applies to Achiuwa.

Yet as exciting as Barnes is right now, Wednesday was his first experience in a regular-season game and nothing in the five preseason games he played came close to that.

Barnes protected Beal in the last preseason set-up, but as Nurse pointed out before last night’s game, Beal’s energy level was going to be substantially higher now that games really count.

The only real highlight of the night for the home team came just before the end of the third quarter when Rexdale’s own Dalano Banton signed in, just the 10th player Nurse used last night.

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With the clock ticking, Banton stepped over center court and released a push that found the mark just as the bell rang.

Suddenly, an almost bleak heralded crowd got involved again and Banton had the first of many memories in a Raptors uniform.

Still, the Raptors were only back within 21 with a quarter to play, and while the deficit dropped to 10 with just over two minutes to play, the setback was too great.

Banton, who the entire arena seemed to be cheering for, finished with seven points in his NBA debut playing just 12 minutes.

By halftime, the Wizards already had a 20-point lead when Washington veterans Bradley Beal, Kyle Kuzma and Montrezl Harrell hit double digits.

The Raptors turned the Wizards around 10 times, but the Wizards returned the favor by reclaiming 12 from the Raptors in a rather sloppy first half by both teams.

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The difference was that the Wizards were getting it right and the Raptors just weren’t.

OG Anunoby knocked down nine boards in that first half, but couldn’t buy a cube by going 1 of 10 at the half, frustration clearly visible as the half progressed. He finished the night with just three baskets in his 16 attempts and he was not alone in his inability to find the mark.

As a team, the Raptors finished the first half shooting below 30% and were just two of 16 from deep.

They finished the game shooting just over 31% and added five more in the second half from deep, giving them a 7-of-32 night.

Before the game, Raptors head coach Nick Nurse spoke about the heavy workload he had put into this young team and how he felt they deserved a good result for all the hard work they had put in.

That didn’t quite work.

Now there are a few factors that contributed to this. Two of the nine Raptors Nurse raced there last night: Chris Boucher and Khem Birch missed almost all of preseason and much of training camp.

But the biggest contributor was simply age and that’s not going to change right away.

There is a lot of growth to come and as it arrives, there will be more nights like this disappointing opening.

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