Through the first 32 minutes of their game against the Toronto Raptors, it looked as though the San Antonio Spurs’ offense had failed to clear customs. The Raptors used their second-ranked defense to swarm DeMar DeRozan any time he touched the ball, taking the Spurs out of their rhythm on offense. DeRozan had only seven points at this point in the game, and the Spurs found themselves down 56-74.
To DeRozan’s credit, he wasn’t trying to force the issue despite going up against his former team. He was making the right basketball plays, but his teammates were failing to knock down the shots necessary to force Nick Nurse into switching up his defensive strategy.