The Toronto Raptors held an early practice before taking off for South Beach on Friday. We should all be so lucky.
The Miami Heat are a very good team at home, and that didn’t really end in the playoffs, when the usual South Beach hangovers don’t (or shouldn’t) apply – Miami scored much better against Charlotte in their home games in Round One, and the Raptors could be in tough defensively. There wasn’t a lot of talk of specifics as to how the Raptors may change things at that end – they seem mostly content with their defensive effort so far, and justifiably so – and instead the focus fell on offense, where the Raptors have at times looked like a group of guys who haven’t played together before.
Valanciunas cool with workload
You’d think if that were the case, the offense would naturally run through the giant in the middle, especially after he starts feasting on early touches. That’s never really been the case with the Raptors and birthday-boy Jonas Valanciunas, who has been their best offensive weapon through two games but is having to carve out his offense through garbage points rather than having his name called. Does that bother him any?
“Do I want the ball more? No, I’m good,” Valanciunas said diplomatically. “We played all together, so…the Raptors won, not me.”
That’s the right way to play it, but with the Raptors’ guards struggling to solve Hassan Whiteside – more on that tomorrow – it would make sense to feed Valanciunas a little more. There was a lot of talk about just that last night, and Dwane Casey was naturally asked about it Friday.
“That’s probably the politically correct answer. He better say that,” Casey said. “JV is a great student, he understands the game. That’s growth. He understands the screening is just as important as his offense. It would make me even more happy if he said his post defense needed to be better…at least he’s thinking on the defensive end. No, but he’s going against one of the top defensive centres in the league in Whiteside. He’s got his hands full and it’s going to get even more difficult as the series goes on, but I think he’s ready for the challenge.”
The issue the Raptors have always faced with getting Valanciunas more looks is that in runs antithetical to how their drive-oriented offense runs. If Valanciunas has the ball, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan don’t, and Valanciunas is still improving as a passer and decision maker. Plus, getting deep post position against Whiteside isn’t exactly easy.
“Not necessarily calling plays for JV but plays where he’s rolling to the basket or plays where Kyle keeps it in what we call midget and dumps it off the JV,” Casey said. “So of those are some of his better offensive plays rather than going into the teeth of the Miami defense with JV with his back to the bucket.”
With Valanciunas and a few other role players picking up the slack, maybe that will help the Raptors’ stars get going?
Carroll feeling like JYD 2.0 again
DeMarre Carroll has really stepped up alongside Valanciunas to contribute with Lowry and DeRozan still struggling. Carroll’s defensive performance Thursday was uneven through the middle quarters, but he was instrumental in the team’s hot start and was a major factor down the stretch. That’s wildly encouraging, as Carroll is only now starting to consistently look like himself after weeks of slowly ramping things up.
“I think my biggest thing is I feel like I finally got my rhythm back,” Carroll said. “I still got more room to improve, but overall I feel like I got my rhythm back. My shot feels good, my movement feel good. The big thing for me now is to be aggressive. When I’m aggressive, good things happen. So I’m just going to try to be aggressive on both ends of the court.”
That depth the Raptors boasted all season long has been paramount in their surviving nine playoff games with historically poor shooting performances from their All-Stars.
“Those guys – DeMarre’s finding his three-point shot. We’re very comfortable and confident in TRoss and his pick and roll game, his pin-down game, and his 3-point shooting. Patrick hasn’t had one of his breakout nights either, but we have some guys who are capable,” Casey said. “But Kyle and DeMar they trust their teammates, their style of play lends itself to getting their shots and making plays, but they have other guys who are very capable and we haven’t even talked about JV in the post.”
As for Carroll returning to health and essentially ending his round-the-clock relationship with Alex McKechnie?
“I do not miss spending that much time with Alex,” Carroll said. “I look at Alex, I told him, he’s like my grandad. He kind of likes that. We’ve been through a lot, man. It’s been great, man. All these flights that we’ve been taking, it’s been crazy, but it’s been good.”
I thought he played great at times in Indiana but had some off nights, too. That return to consistency being a little slow is understandable, and there were reminders for long stretches Thursday of why Carroll was signed to the deal he was.
Assorted
*Some life advice from Carroll: “I always thought it was on, even when my knee was swole as a grapefruit. It was still on. It’s one of those things, man, you always got to be positive. And basketball is a small part of our life. So much goes on outside of basketball. So I’, always positive, and I feel like I was always going to be able to play, even though sometimes it didn’t look like it. I still was positive. That’s the biggest thing, man. Whenever you go through injuries, you’ve got to be positive.”
*Cory Joseph and Carroll had a friendly disagreement over their botched coverage of an open Goran Dragic three last night, something Arden Zwelling expertly covered here. After getting to watch film, Joseph believe’s he’s won the argument. “Oh, by far I was right. I definitely should have switched onto him. Maybe I could have called it louder, so it was a little bit of agreement.” By this point, though, Carroll was no longer around to defend himself.
*This piece from John Schuhmann has some fun series stat nuggets. And this, from Kevin Yeung, is a good summation of the series so far.
