Bulls 115, Raptors 113 | Box Score | Quick Reaction
Things were going so well.
The Toronto Raptors were playing a great first half, were up 46-38 with 4:40 to play in the second quarter, and had just forced a turnover. DeMarre Carroll went up for a layup and stuck it against tough defense from Jimmy Butler, putting the Raptors ahead by 10.
It was a good moment on several fronts. The Raptors had started strong, something they’ve been doing a much better job of lately. They also bounced back from a shaky stretch in the first quarter, answering a 10-0 Bulls run with an energetic 8-0 run of their own our of a timeout. Carroll scoring that basket gave him seven points in a strong start of his own, the best he’s looked offensively since before his injury. Getting the points against Butler, whom Carroll had a large hand in shutting down for six quarters this week, was even better. Butler had all of two points to his name then, and DeMar DeRozan was in the process of putting up another strong game opposite his defense.
Unfortunately, Carroll’s bucket included some contact against Butler. Carroll cleared out with his left arm on the finish, and his elbow caught Butler in the mouth, busting him open.
Jimmy Butler leaves the game with a cut lip cut from an elbow by DeMarre Carroll. pic.twitter.com/RvIhNTIrTF
— MarcusD (@_MarcusD_) January 3, 2016
Wyatt Earp once asked, “You gonna do somethin’? Or are you just gonna stand there and bleed?” Butler’s response to the shot was to do something. All of the somethings. Forty second-half somethings, to be exact.
Butler wouldn’t return until there were five seconds left in the half, missing a late three to drop him to 1-of-4 at the break. There didn’t seem to be hard feelings – Butler argued with officials and told reporters in the Bulls’ locker room after the game, “I mean, he didn’t do it on purpose. It messed my swag up though so I can’t go on a date for a while.” He was, however, quite mad. Butler admitted as much but said what would come had nothing to do with the shot, and instead was a change in approach to being more aggressive. Taj Gibson, meanwhile, said Butler emerged from the tunnel for the third quarter “a man possessed,” per James Herbert of CBS Sports.
What followed, well, it’s tough to know where to start. Butler played the entire second half, for one. He dominated the entire second half, for another. He hit an array of difficult shots, drove to the rim aggressively, got fouled to no end, and generally proved an impossible check for any Raptor thrown at him. All of this while still taking on a large defensive role, helping slow DeRozan some (he still had seven to finish with 24 and four assists, playing really well once again). It was remarkable to watch, before numbers and records are even brought into it.
All told, he scored 40 points in the half, breaking Michael Jordan’s franchise record for points in a half. “I don’t want to be compared to Him,” Butler said after. He shot 14-of-19 from the floor, hit a pair of triples, went 10-of-11 at the line, and dished four assists.
Butler on what 2nd half felt like: "I don't know. It hasn’t happened all my life to tell you the truth. I was just playing basketball."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) January 3, 2016
In terms of what changed other than his demeanor, the Bulls did a better job getting him quality ball screens but mostly just handed him the ball and said go. “He just made play after play,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. “We tried everybody and everything and couldn’t get him stopped,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.
In other words:
Now, Casey’s comment isn’t exactly true. The Raptors did try a lot of things to slow Butler, and Butler mostly made tough shots and got inside, something he’s better than almost anyone at doing. The Raptors defended Butler-Gasol screen-and-rolls mostly well, and Jonas Valanciunas had a sound defensive outing in support. The Raptors also did well to clean up their own glass, save for one late instance of an E’Twaun Moore tip-in.
They left some options on the table, though. The Raptors did a poor job with ball-denial, letting Butler get a touch early and often. That was a clear strategic focus of the Bulls, and the Raptors outside of Carroll aren’t strong enough to front Butler without risking over-help from a big. Opting to use DeRozan and Terrence Ross on Butler was necessary for stretches with Carroll still on a minutes restriction, and Carroll was open if not forthright about still being less than 100 percent after the game.
“He got in a nice groove. He had it going. I’m going to be quiet with what I really want to say. I take it on myself but I know I’m not all the way there,” Carroll said. “I don’t want to speak too much but I’m not all the way there. And he did what he’s supposed to do against a guy who’s not all the way there.”
Taking the blame when he played just 10:46 of the final 24 minutes is perhaps asking too much of himself. (His health is a discussion for another post.) Ross gave a good effort and navigated screens well, and DeRozan spotted in when called on, but neither is a great matchup for Butler, who has few great matchups. Carroll is supposed to be that guy, and at less than 100 percent, he wasn’t able to be (even though he had been for the previous six quarters). And that’s fine, because Carroll didn’t even play poorly on Butler and only played the final 3:12 of the fourth quarter.
Sticking with non-Carroll options so long was required because of his minutes restriction, but it does raise a pretty frequent question: Where the hell was James Johnson? It’s seemed, this season, that I’m more understanding than most about Johnson’s usage, though I’ve been clear I believe he has more utility than his playing time suggests. Sunday seemed a prime opportunity to use him, as Johnson is a strong, physical defender who could have bodied Butler up and made his treks to the rim more difficult. The concerns about Johnson, namely his off-ball defense, would only have mattered if he did a good job on Butler and the ball wasn’t in his hands. Johnson’s better-suited to ball-denial and fighting through screens than the smaller Ross and DeRozan, and his absence was more curious Sunday than it is most nights.
In any case, the defense on Butler wasn’t the entire story. As many said afterward, it was a very talented offensive player getting very hot and making some difficult shots. There’s more the Raptors could have done, but maybe not much more. As big an issue was the team’s offensive execution late.
Toronto finished the game shooting 45.7 percent and having hit 13 threes, but that percentage dropped to 40 in the fourth quarter, they hit just a lonesome triple, and, most symptomatic, they had only three assists on 10 field goals. They managed 26 points, but when the game came down to individual possessions, they couldn’t get a clean look. This was a top-10 offense hanging 113 points on a top-five defense, and so maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that the well dried up, but it was. For all the hand-wringing about the Raptors’ style of offensive play, some of it warranted, the Raptors own the No. 6-ranked fourth-quarter offense and the 10th-ranked “clutch” offense as defined by NBA.com. While it makes sense that the style of play would be more difficult to execute late, the numbers haven’t backed that up yet.
Until Sunday, when consecutive crunch-time drives from Kyle Lowry and DeRozan resulted in abjectly terrible shots where the intent appeared to be to draw contact. “We tried to get to the basket and get the foul call, but we didn’t get it,” DeRozan said of both attempts, while Lowry lamented the team’s inability to get the ball in their hands on the move. Lowry’s layup down two with 24 seconds left missed high off window, and DeRozan’s jumper seven seconds later was turned away by Gasol. Carroll had a late look from outside, and thanks to some poor free-throw shooting, DeRozan had a chance to win at the buzzer, only for what would have been his fourth triple of the night to rim out.
A lot has to go right for a player to go off for 40 points in a half. (I mean, I think. It happens infrequently enough that I can’t be sure.) A lot has to go wrong to be on the opposite side of it, like a fair amount has to go wrong to fail to close out a game you lead by 11 points with 7:44 to go and have multiple chances to take back late.
A lot has to go wrong, too, to drop seven consecutive games against a team you fancy yourself an equal of. Two losses of a very different type to this Bulls team doesn’t mean the Raptors aren’t on the same level, but it’s a missed opportunity to at least prove that they are. The Raptors should have won this game even with Butler’s outburst, and it’s frustrating that they didn’t. Sometimes, I guess, guys just hit contested threes in your face.
