DeMar DeRozan got his first points of the game with 2:58 to go in the first half. He finished with seven on 3-of-9 shooting. Andrea Bargnani didn’t hit the scoresheet until his 18-foot jumper finally found the bottom of the net with 53 seconds left in the first half. He wound up with 12 in the game.
We would include Sonny Weems in this list of invisible Raptors from that first half, but he played just nine minutes, seven fewer than either DeRozan or Bargnani. His total output for the night was eight points.
Credit the Pacers for a fine night from beyond the three-point line, but don’t let the Raptors off the hook.
If a mail-it-in-loss in Washington earlier this season was tough to watch, this one was downright eye-gouging.
It also marked the second consecutive game where they went a game aware of the necessity of protecting the three-point line and then, for whatever reason, failed to do anything about it in the game.
It boggles the mind.
The explanations afterwards were as lame as their defensive efforts in the game.
"We have to go and look at the tape and see what happened," Linas Kleiza offered. "Teams have been making a lot of three’s on us, that’s pretty obvious. We have to go and fix it. There’s no easy answer, but obviously we are doing something wrong."
The ‘watch the tape’ reference was a popular one.
"We definitely have to do some adjusting," Leandro Barbosa said. "I guess we will watch the tape and see where the mistake is. I’m sure the Knicks are a better shooting team than this (Pacers) team so we have to get better."
The only real explanation of how this could happen on back-to-back nights when the entire game plan was built around taking away the three-point line came from head coach Jay Triano.
"It’s the growth of these guys as players," Triano said rejecting the notion that desire (or lack thereof) had anything to do with the breakdown. "The reason (opponent’s) are getting looks is because (we) are in trying to help when we don’t want to help on this team. We don’t want to help on this team. We want this team to shoot two’s. We want to stay attached. They want to help (inside) and then get back out there, but they’re a step slow getting back and team’s like this knock it down on you.
"It’s a matter of these guys competing and knowing what the game plan is and making sure they contest three’s on the team’s like we have played the past two night’s and the team we will play on Wednesday night."
T.J. Ford, the former Raptors point guard, was looking forward to playing his old team. But first, a few minutes looking back.
“What did I learn playing in Toronto? I learned you don’t believe a lot of what people say, because this is a business,” Ford said. “I learned not every relationship you have is a friendship in this league . . . And I learned to believe in yourself, no matter what. You’ve got to believe in yourself—organizations stop (believing) in a heartbeat.”
You would have been excused for momentarily forfeiting your belief in Toronto’s hoopsters on Monday night.
The current edition of the Raptors, most of whom didn’t show up for work (let alone read the scouting report), found themselves down by as many as 27 points to the Pacers before intermission. And so a day after giving up 12 three-pointers to the New York Knicks, the Raptors gave up 13 bombs to the Pacers. And largely thanks to Indiana’s long-range success, Toronto lost its second straight game, in its second straight blowout, 124-100.
“The threes killed us. All of our coverages were to try and take away the three-point shot . . . We knew that coming in. It’s all over the scouting reports, ‘Take away their threes,’” Jay Triano, the Toronto coach, said. “And we didn’t do it.”
Given the grimness of the visiting effort—starting wingmen DeMar DeRozan and Sonny Weems were outclassed, Andrea Bargnani only arrived in spirit after the game was out of reach and the Pacers shot 55 per cent from the field—you wouldn’t have been alone if you spent some of Monday night thinking about what could have been for this Raptors organization.
Jose Calderon scored 21 points and Amir Johnson added 15 for the Raptors. Andrea Bargnani, who entered the game averaging 20.7 points, was held to 12 on 5-for-11 shooting.
“We have to come with more energy,” Bargnani said. “We have to come more prepared, especially in the first and second quarters. It seems like we are just watching the other team play and we are doing nothing.”
Toronto had won six of nine, including victories over Boston and Oklahoma City.
“We have to do it every day,” Calderon said. “We have to play as a team every night for 48 minutes.”
Little-used swingman Julian Wright checked into the game for the Toronto Raptors on Monday night with less than three minutes to go in the first quarter. That was an admission on the part of head coach Jay Triano.
In Indianapolis, the Raptors simply did not come to play.
Wright, alas, did not significantly help the Raptors’ case of sleepiness. The Pacers cruised to a 124-100 victory, one of the Raptors’ worst losses of the season, and certainly the most concerning from an effort standpoint. A 68-point first half by the Pacers doomed the Raptors to a second-straight loss.
Talking to Rogers Sportsnet at halftime, Raptors assistant coach P.J. Carlesimo the team’s effort “pathetic,” and it was not just the defensive effort. In all facets of the game, the Raptors appeared to lack focus, among other things.
Certainly the defence was the most glaring problem. The issues were widespread, although particularly evident on the perimeter. The Pacers owned the paint, and as a result, took target practice on a lot of uncontested three-point shots. It was simple drive-and-kick basketball.
The Pacers took a 24-point lead into the half, and came out looking sluggish. They committed numerous turnovers early in the third quarter. The Raptors managed to squeeze the lead to 15 before Rush responded with a three pointer to put the game out of reach. The Pacers struggled most of the third quarter before closing out on a 10-3 run in the final 2:30.
The team certainly came out complacent. I don’t think a lot needs to be read into regarding the struggles. The Pacers were hot, and cooled down in the third. Their fire in the second half can’t be held accountable. It’s what happens when you win a game in 24 minutes and still have to play for 24 more. The Pacers managed to put a stamp on the game with a strong close to the third quarter, so all is well. Toronto wasn’t able to push the game within 17 the rest of the way as Indiana rolled through the fourth quarter to an easy breezy 124-100 victory.
Defensively, the Pacers were quick to react to Andrea Bargnani, as to not be burnt by him the same way they were torched by Channing Frye on Friday. The offensive movement was tremendous. The team assisted on 19 of the 27 field goals in the first half and did so mainly from inside.
The Pacers, who led by 13 at the end of the first quarter, went on an 11-0 run — which included three 3-pointers — to take a 45-21 lead less than four minutes into the second quarter.
They scored a season-high 68 first-half points.
The Raptors, who shot 42 percent from the field, didn’t get any closer than 15 points in the second half.
"We jumped on them in the beginning and really didn’t give them much of a chance," Pacers point guard Darren Collison said.
"We must come out and have a short memory from the loss of the night before because this is the NBA and there is always another game. Everybody appears to be playing well and unselfish."
The Pacers had four players with at least five assists.
Point guard T.J. Ford came off the bench to tie Josh McRoberts and Roy Hibbert for the team lead with six assists in just 19 minutes. The Pacers had 33 assists on their 47 field goals.
"That’s the key to the offense, moving and cutting and playing through multiple people," Ford said.
"It’s tough to guard us when so many guys are passing the ball. It puts pressure on everybody."
The Pacers shot 55 percent from the field, including 50 percent on 3-pointers.
"The 3s killed us," Raptors coach Jay Triano said.
"All of our cover was to take away the 3-point shot. Our guys got caught in screens. You can’t let this team shoot 3s. We had to stop the 3s."
In an eight game stretch since the Rockets game where Linas Kleiza played more minutes than Sonny Weems due to foul trouble, Weems has been shooting a poor .430% from the field.
This is after a outstanding five game stretch from Nov 10th – Nov 17th where he went .600% from the field and put up a ridiculous 18 points per game.
That five game stretch gave us a glimpse of Sonny Weems’ true upside but may have given some of us the illusion that he was ready to provide that level of production on a consistent basis at this point in his career.
Accountability is key for Sonny Weems, as it is for DeMar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani. Granted they should all be able to play through their mistakes but there comes a point where one has to distinguish between a mental mistake and taking actions that may be detrimental to the team for potential personal reasons.
It is a popular belief…not fact, that Sonny Weems may be forcing his shot due to his contract status as a free agent at the end of this season.
This line of reasoning suggests that he will continue to force the issue on offense in hopes of displaying the extent of his game and solidifying a multi-million dollar payday this off-season.
