Raptors passing chemistry test on way to surprising early-season run

TORONTO — Does chemistry beget winning or does winning beget chemistry? 

It’s the chicken-or-egg argument of team sports. 

The Toronto Raptors have certainly enjoyed great chemistry through the quarter-point of their season — and great success, too. 

After 21 games, they are 14-7 and just 2.5 games out of first place in the Eastern Conference, in a virtual tie with the New York Knicks, who easily handled the Raptors — a fatigued and short-handed version — on Sunday night. Even the most optimistic prognosticators would not have anticipated the Raptors hitting those benchmarks at this stage, certainly not after they started the season 1-5. 

And while the additions of Brandon Ingram and Sandro Mamukelashvili, the availability of Immanuel Quickley after he played just 33 games last season and the internal improvement by the likes of Jamal Shead have given Toronto a significant boost of talent, the team seems to be over-indexing in the stuff that is harder to quantify but just as important over the course of a long NBA season. 

“Our team chemistry, I think that’s the most important part,” said Scottie Barnes the other day, when asked about what elements had contributed to the Raptors’ torrid November. “Our chemistry, no matter wins or losses, we’re all just super connected, laughing, smiling, just having fun. Our chemistry on this team is the best that I’ve been around in my five years in the league.

“It keeps growing every single day. There’s a lot of laughing, a lot of great moments, making memories on and off the floor. We really enjoy each other’s presence. So, when we get on the floor, obviously, it’s gonna start clicking. We all trust each other. We’re all happy for each other when someone succeeds. That’s what it’s all about.”

Is that why the Raptors are fifth in the NBA in assist percentage, which is just one reason Toronto boasts the NBA’s sixth-best offensive rating, even after a four-game offensive mini-slump that coincides with RJ Barrett going down with a knee injury?

Barnes was speaking on Friday, when the Raptors’ then nine-game winning streak and stretch of 13 wins in 14 games was still intact and before they blew a 12-point lead with just under six minutes to play against Charlotte on Saturday and ran out of gas against the Knicks the night after.

The test of any team bonds comes when the losses mount. And although it’s not like the Raptors are about to hit a wall by any stretch, the wins project to be a little more difficult to come by in the coming weeks.

Toronto returns home to host the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night. Portland isn’t exactly a juggernaut (8-12) but is a big group that ranks No. 2 in offensive rebound rate, which has been a thread running through several of the Raptors’ losses this season. They lost the offensive rebound battle 25-14 against the Knicks, who rank sixth in offensive-rebound rate, and 17-12 against Charlotte, which is fifth. Five of the Raptors’ seven losses this season have come against teams in the top 12 in offensive-rebound rate. 

Next, Toronto hosts the surging Los Angeles Lakers (15-4), who now feature two players — Luka Doncic and LeBron James — the Raptors have never had an answer for, before matchups with Charlotte, Boston (11-9) and the Knicks (13-6) next Tuesday in an NBA Cup quarterfinal.

With the way the Raptors have performed this season, there is no reason not to expect them not to be able to rattle off three, four or five wins, especially since all five games are at home. But it presents a stiffer test than playing Brooklyn, Indiana, Charlotte and Washington (combined winning percentage of .194) seven times in a 10-game span.

However things turn out, the hope and expectation is the Raptors are built for it.

In the glow of the Raptors’ grinding win over Cleveland last week — their eighth straight at the time — I asked Shead how or why the Raptors were able to keep from getting carried away with their success, especially coming off a 30-win season in which the Raptors didn’t win their 14th game until the end of January.

“It’s the same way we didn’t get swept up in the losing last year,” the Raptors’ second-year guard said. “We stay one game at a time, stay positive with each other and keep the message the same: it’s about winning, it’s about playing hard, it’s about doing all the right things to put us in position to win.”

It hasn’t been accidental.

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic has been preaching a consistent, process-based approach since he arrived before the 2023-24 season. How effective it was or if it mattered was hard to measure when Toronto won just 55 games over two seasons.

But that didn’t prevent Rajakovic from emphasizing togetherness, accountability, incremental progress and sacrifice as themes. The message has been constant. It’s why he’s had the team gather for off-season mini-camps in Las Vegas, Spain and Miami the past two summers. Perhaps just as importantly, the Raptors have tried to identify players who are open to that kind of team experience and appreciate the approach.

“It’s not really (surprising), I feel like, just because of how much time we spent together over the summer,” said Quickley, who has been with the organization since being acquired from the Knicks in December 2023, when asked about the team’s family-like vibe. “We were together, probably, I’m sure, more than any other team, and I think that’s been big for us.”

And why have the Raptors been able to bring their team together during what is officially the off-season?

“A lot of our guys, they’re so young, they don’t know any better,” Quickley said. “Most of the teams, when they get older, like seven-to-10 years in the league, they’re like, ‘OK, I’m going to do my own thing,’ but our guys are still coming from college, so they believe everyone is supposed to be together all the time, but it’s pretty cool to have everyone together and everyone enjoys each other’s company, on and off the floor.”

But it’s not just a group dynamic. There aren’t many practices or shootarounds that go by where Rajakovic doesn’t seek out one or two of his players for some one-on-one conversations. He routinely goes over video with Ingram, and meets with Barnes and everyone else on his roster regularly. It means that when he’s challenging the group, everyone knows where he’s coming from.

“He brings the energy every single day,” said Ingram, who is enjoying peak production in his 10th NBA season after being acquired from New Orleans in February. “He’s the leader of our team. He makes sure we bring the energy to practice, games, shootarounds. He makes sure that we have it every single time we step on the basketball floor. For me, that’s the best part about being here.”

It’s level of buy-in that Rajakovic has worked hard to foster but won’t take credit for.

“You know, guys, their character is the baseline for everything, and our front office did really good job of identifying (the) right people,” Rajakovic said. “And now our job as leaders, as adults, is to put them in situations that they’re gonna thrive and learn each other, and then they can build that camaraderie, on the court and off the court. That’s a process, and that process never ends. It’s always evolving, it’s always changing, and it’s always, for all of us, learning.”

Coming off two losses in two games and a schedule that will only demand more of them as the season unfolds and expectations rise, the Raptors head into the next stage of the calendar with plenty of lessons learned but doubtless more to come.