Game #1 - Timberwolves at Raptors
Game 1 of 6 games over 9 days - these are some fun facts about Timberwolves/Raptors tonight
TOR
Game #1 – 0-0 record. 0-0 at home. 0-0 on the road.
Schedule over Week 1 & 2
- Raptors open their season at home for the 12th consecutive season, 196 days after losing to the Bulls in the 2023 Play-In Tournament. Toronto opened the 2022 season with a win but lost their 2020 & 2021 openers.
- Toronto closed the 2022-23 season winning 12 of their last 14 regular season games at home. Their 12-2 record since Feb. 1st was the 2nd best home record in that span. Post All-Star break, they owned the 2nd best net rating at home, outscoring opponents by 11.7 points per 100 possessions at Scotiabank Arena.
- Toronto begins the season with a stretch of 6 games in 9 days, including 2 sets of back-to-backs. 4 of those 6 games will be against teams that owned a winning record last season.
- Raptors finished their preseason with a 4-0 record & owned the best net rating in games against NBA opponents. Also, preseason only means what you want it to mean.
- Toronto has won 18 straight games in Toronto against Minnesota & have not lost to them in Toronto since the 2003-04 season (Jan. 21, 2004). Chris Bosh, Donyell Marshall, Jalen Rose, Alvin Williams & Morris Peterson started that game for Toronto. Gary Trent Sr. came off the bench for the Timberwolves.
- Toronto has won 9 of their last 11 meetings against Minnesota & split the season series in 2022-23. In their most recent meeting, the Raptors won 122-107. Minnesota was without Anthony Edwards & Karl-Anthony Towns. Former Raptor Fred VanVleet scored a game-high 28 points, Pascal Siakam had 27/10/6.
- In their road meeting in January, Toronto lost 128-126 to a Minnesota team on the 2nd night of a back-to-back. MIN was without KAT & Gobert. Toronto led by as much as 18 points & by 14 points in the 4th quarter. Allowed a 23-7 fourth quarter run & lost. Scottie Barnes had a team-high 29 points, scoring 12 of his 29 points in the 4th quarter.
- Last season, Toronto was 8-16 in games decided by 5 points or less – 28th in the NBA. Post all-star break, Toronto had the 8th worst net rating in the clutch & the 3rd worst offensive rating in that span.
- Fanduel has set the Raptors Win Total set at 36.5 games. In 2022-23, their preseason win total was set at 46.5. Toronto has hit the over in 9 of their last 11 seasons.
- Dennis Schroder (GER) & Anthony Edwards (USA) played in the FIBA World Cup, with Schroder being named the tournament MVP after leading Germany to their first title in World Cup History. Germany defeated the United States 113-111 in the semi-finals, their 113 points were the most the USA had ever allowed at the FIBA World Cup. Schroder averaged 19.1 PTS, 2 REB & 6.1 AST, Edwards averaged 18.9 PS, 4.6 REB & 2.8 AST in the tournament.
- Since 2021-22, Toronto has outshot their opponents by 10 or more field goal attempts in 71 games, 31 more than the team with the 2nd most such games in that span. In their last 2 seasons, they’ve averaged the fewest turnovers per game, the 2nd most offensive rebounds, rank 28th in assists & 29th in eFG%. They’ve also allowed the fewest FGA per game by their opponents, forced the most turnovers & allowed the 6th worst eFG% in the NBA.
- Pascal Siakam closed the regular season averaging a career-high 24.2 points & 5.8 assists on 48.0/32.4/77.4% shooting splits. He recorded his second 20/5/5 campaign, the only player in franchise history with even one such campaign.
- Last season, Toronto led the NBA in starter minutes & had two players rank top-5 in minutes per game. Pascal Siakam has led the NBA in minutes per game in 2 consecutive seasons. Since 2021-22, no one has played more 40-minute games than Pascal Siakam with 50 such games. Fred VanVleet is 3rd on the list with 37 games where he played 40 or more minutes.
- Toronto also ranked 30th in bench minutes & 29th in bench points last season. Fun fact, they’ve ranked 25th or worse in both categories in every season since 2019-20.
- Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby & Scottie Barnes played just over 1100 minutes on court together last season & had a 3.9 net rating in those minutes. That would rank 29th among all 3-man lineups with at least 1000 minutes together & 3rd on the team. Toronto was 26-28 in 54 games that they played together in.
- Toronto has a 15-12 record since trading for Jakob Poeltl at the 2023 deadline (incl. play-in). In 707 minutes with him on court, Raptors outscored opponents by 9.1 points per 100 possessions. In 546 minutes with him off court, they were outscored by 4.3 points per 100. His 13.4 net differential was a team-high last season. Opponents shot over 5% worse in the short mid-range with him on the court that they did with him off.
- Toronto ranked 28th in threes per game & three-point percentage last season. In the preseason, they shot 34.8% from three. Preseason means what you want it to mean, but in the 2022-23 preseason, they shot 24.4% from three.
- The Raptors' expected starting lineup of Schroder, Barnes, Poeltl, Siakam & Anunoby were +14 in their 20 minutes this preseason. Barnes was subbed out around the 5-minute mark & then back in to close the 1st quarter with bench units.
- OG Anunoby averaged 16.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists & 1.9 steals last season. Anunoby led the league in steals, joining Marcus Camby as the only Raptors to lead the league in any major category (PTS, REB, AST, STL, BLK). Anunoby’s 128 steals are the most in a season by a Raptor since Kyle Lowry in 2015-16.
- Gary Trent Jr. made 166 threes last season, 2nd most on the team after Fred VanVleet. Through the preseason, he leads the team with 8 threes despite only playing in 3 of 4 games.
MIN
Game #1 – 0-0 record. 0-0 at home. 0-0 on the road.
- Minnesota will open their season on the road for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
- 42-40 record last season, finished 8th in the Western Conference. Minnesota made playoffs for the second straight season in 2022-23 & has made the playoffs in both of Chris Finch’s full seasons as head coach.
- Minnesota & Toronto were the only undefeated teams this preseason, with Minnesota winning all 5 of their games. MIN had an 11.3 net rating in their 4 games against NBA teams, 3rd highest among all teams.
- In other similarities with Toronto, the Timberwolves joined the Raptors as the only teams to average 30 assists in the preseason & they both ranked top-2 in FG%. Again, preseason stats & records will only mean what you want it to mean.
- The Timberwolves were eliminated in the first round of the West Playoffs in 5 games by the Denver Nuggets & now own a 3-8 record in the playoffs under Chris Finch. Anthony Edwards averaged 31.6 points in 5 games & passed Kevin Garnett for the highest scoring average in a single postseason in franchise history.
- Chris Finch’s 104 wins as the Timberwolves’ head coach ranks as the 2nd most wins in franchise history. His .507 win% is also 2nd highest.
- Mike Conley has not won in Toronto since February 2013 – losing his last 5 road games at SBA. He won his last road game against Toronto but the game was in Tampa Bay.
- Minnesota played both of their meetings against Toronto on zero days rest last season. Their last meeting (March 18) was the first of three games that Anthony Edwards missed last season.
- Karl Anthony-Towns hasn’t played in Toronto since February 2010, a game where he dropped 23 points, 10 rebounds & 7 assists on 5/13 FG. He has never won a game in Toronto in his career.