In a 116-103 loss to the Bulls, the Raptors were exploited as the one-dimensional team that they are. When Greivis Vasquez was drilling bomb after bomb, the Raptors looked good. As DeMar DeRozan thrived in the mid-range, they looked as if they could beat Chicago. And then those things disappeared in the fourth quarter, and so did the possibility of victory. The Bulls scored on 17 of their 22 possessions in the fourth quarter, shooting 60 per cent for the evening. “They scored 39 points [in the fourth quarter],” Casey said. “That’s a thing that’s been our Achilles’ heel all year, and still is.” Yet, when in doubt, Casey still tends to lean toward offence when choosing between his admittedly limited options. For Casey, it has been difficult to find a lineup with much balance. He has been criticized for not using Jonas Valanciunas enough, but you can understand his hesitation, especially when either Vasquez or Lou Williams is on the floor. It does not take a brilliant tactician to try to put the slow-footed centre and one of the quickness-challenged guards in a pick-and-roll and wait for the rest of the Raptors defence to collapse around the initial breakdown. Even with fleeter lineups, the Raptors can be easily exposed. Amir Johnson, in particular, has fallen off from his past performance. Yet, with a three-point lead, James Johnson came off, leaving Williams, Vasquez and DeRozan as the Raptors’ perimeter defenders. The Raptors likely were not winning this game with any lineup, but they were going to have to rely on the Bulls to miss some open looks with this unit. But the Bulls kept making.
“We ran out of gas a bit, but that’s no excuse. We didn’t get it done in the fourth quarter.” The Raptors had 16 assists after three quarters. They ended with the same number. “I thought our lack of energy, or whatever it was, stopped the ball movement as well as their defence,’’ said Casey. “Again, that as one of our Achilles heels on the offensive end. We started getting stuck and they played the passing lanes. “You have to compete with force on the offensive end and we didn’t do that down the stretch. I thought the ball movement stopped not only in the fourth quarter, but the entire second half.” Crushed in Chicago last Friday when the Raptors had no resistance in the paint, Toronto’s fight and competitive spirit was much better Wednesday, a night following a late-game heartbreaker against the host Pistons.
The Raptors unravelled with a decidedly lacklustre performance on defence. The Bulls’ Tony Snell came off the bench to rack up nine points in the fourth, while starting guard Aaron Brooks dumped in two threes, including a 25-foot pull-up jumper with less two minutes to go that served as the final dagger for the Raptors. In the end, Chicago shot 60.8 per cent from the field, and more than 52 per cent from beyond the arc. As Casey put it, “There’s not a lot of defence being played in that situation.”
Feel free to hit that panic button Raptors fans | Sportsnet.ca
But lost in the hubbub was a more important point, the Raptors didn’t start competing until it was essentially too late. “It came down to us not being in fight mode until we got hit first, and we didn’t start fighting until the second half,” Casey said. “We’ve got to play desperate to be effective.” That was the Raptors calling card for the second-half of last season and the first half of this one – the good old days, in other words. Now that might be the only hope they have. Only their tenancy in the NBA’s Eastern Conference has preserved the illusion that the Raptors are a team that needs to be reckoned with. And the potential that Lowry can play at something approaching an MVP level – something he hasn’t done consistently since Christmas and can’t be relied to do anytime soon given that he already required a three-game maintenance holiday after the all-star break and lasted only 10 minutes in his return to the floor Tuesday after missing two games with a back injury — seems more remote all the time. Those were the circumstances before the game ever started. The frightening thing is there are no obvious reasons why they will change any time soon, which is a problem given Toronto has 10 games left in the regular season.
Nothing the same for once-surging Raptors | ESPN
They’ve gone 18-21 since the new year, dropping to fourth in the East, in danger of losing home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, while the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks have turned into juggernauts. Lowry, who carried the team in DeRozan’s absence, has spent 2015 worn down and injured while DeRozan, mired by timidity after returning from a groin injury, is only now starting to pick up the head of steam that earned him countless trips to the free-throw line and a spot at the 2014 All-Star Game. And all of this is overcast by the big defensive elephant in the room. The ball-pressure and double-teaming defense, an undercurrent to their success after the Rudy Gay trade, has completely vanished this season. Since Jan. 1, only five teams have performed worse defensively. Post-whiplash, a fan base already heavy on emotional extremism — remember the frenzy at the Air Canada Centre during last year’s playoffs? — is reacting to something as overlooked as defense with a familiar refrain: panic. Overhaul the defense. Overhaul everything. Fire the coach. Fire Drake.
Raptors continue to back their way into playoffs | TSN
Last year around this time, they had punched their ticket to the playoffs for the first time in six seasons and, naturally, it was cause for celebration. They had done it on their own, controlling their destiny as they approached the end of the season in an upward trajectory. Perhaps at that point, hanging with a superior Bulls team for three quarters would have meant something, but times have changed. “That doesn’t count,” Dwane Casey said after his team allowed Chicago to score 39 points on 15-of-20 shooting in the fourth quarter, falling 116-103. “In the win-loss column, it’s an L. We competed for three quarters but [when] a team shoots 61 per cent, 52 from the three, scores 116 points, that’s not a lot of defence being played in that situation.” Same old song and dance for a team that hasn’t played much defence since their once historic campaign took a turn for the worst. The Raptors were 37-17 after four straight victories over elite opponents back in February – well on pace for their first ever 50-win season. Since an impressive showing in Atlanta, they have dropped 13 of 18 contests, including all 10 to winning clubs. Now, it seems unlikely that they’ll even match last season’s franchise-record total of 48 wins. To do so, they’ll need to go 6-4 the rest of the way.
Recap: Raptors Crumble Again to the Bulls, Lose 116-103 | Raptors HQ
We should be angry. This team should be angry. The Bulls went off for another huge fourth quarter, this time for 39 points. The Raptors’ D could offer little resistance as Aaron Brooks, Tony Snell (17 points in 17 minutes, by the way) and Nikola Mirotic dropped bombs from all over the court. When winning time came, the Bulls found ways to make plays and expose the Raptors. And that malaise, oh it felt crushing. Coach Dwane Casey said the team “ran out of gas.” He didn’t say it was an excuse, but the apparent exhaustion feels deeper than the kind experienced on a typical back-to-back. Toronto isn’t just looking forward to the playoffs now, it feels like they’re looking forward to the end of the season. This is where we end up when expectation turns to disappointment, and disappointment turns to reality. With less than a minute to go, the crowd drained out of the arena. What else could be said? Sigh. Shrug. The Raptors are just not good enough.
Bulls Cook Raptors in Toronto | Blog a Bull
This was a pretty frustrating game for a lot of it. The Bulls had a really good offensive game going through 3 quarters, thanks in large part to some awful Raptors defense, but they couldn’t seem to get stops against Toronto. It didn’t feel like the Bulls were playing bad defense, per se, the Raptors just seemed to be making some tough looks. The thing about relying on making insane shots, though, is that those shots usually stop falling at some point. Unfortunately for the Raptors, their crazy shot-making largely disappeared in the fourth quarter. They shot just 6 of 18 from the field in the final frame after shooting 50.8% from the field in the first three quarters, including a sizzling 8 of 15 (53%) from range. While the Raptors’ unsustainable offense of making heavily contested jumpers dried up, the Bulls’ offense took off from their already excellent game. The Bulls got whatever they wanted in the fourth, shooting a bonkers 15 of 20 (75%) from the field and 4 of 6 from deep. In all the Bulls outscored the Raps, 39 to 21 in the final quarter to blow them out in what had been a close game, with the Bulls trailing, for much of it.
Chicago Bulls Sweep Season Series of Toronto Raptors | Pippen Ain’t Easy
When asked what the difference was after the game by ESPN’s coverage team, Jimmy had this to say. “Halftime,” Butler said. “We knew we had to stop turning the ball over, and we didn’t give up. Our guys made the right plays on both ends of the floor, and it resulted in a win.”
Game Notes: Chicago Beats Toronto 116-103 | Hoops Addict
Jonas Valanciunas kept trying to get Pau Gasol to bite on a head fake but the Spaniard wasn’t going for it. Valanciunas needs to establish an ability to hit a jumper before offenders will bite on pump or head fakes. Teams know that Valanciunas is shooting 62% in the paint but less than 50% anywhere outside of the paint. This is basic scouting report stuff that teams have compiled on Valanciunas.
Toronto Raptors rushed by the Chicago Bulls | Raptors Cage
At the core of the Raptors struggles in the past month has been their lackadaisical play on the defensive side of the ball. Tonight would be no different. The Bulls shot a blistering 60% from the field and a 52% from beyond the arc. The Bulls were exposing the holes in the Raptors’ porous defence, almost scoring at will in the fourth quarter. The Bulls attack was a highly balanced one, as five players put up more than 15 points for the game.
I can haz yo linkz??! rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
