It’s a shame that the Raptors and Bulls had to play the second half last night. Had the game ended at half, this post would have essentially been a James Johnson celebration with .gif after .gif of James Johnson casually eurostepping over and around Doug McDermott to bucket after bucket. Unfortunately for us all, both teams came out for the third quarter, where one team played basketball, and we’re left instead with a second loss in the column and an empty void where that James Johnson love letter would have been.
The Raptors played their first game on national US TV since 2002 last night. Perhaps in an effort to show viewers what they’d been missing in that time, the team seemingly tried to pack in the entire Raptors fan experience over the previous twelve years into that one game. They came out going shot for shot with a championship contending team: the 2014-15 Raptors. In the second quarter, their bench unit went on a surprising and highly entertaining tear by James Johnson and the backup point guard to take them into the half with a 7-point lead: the 2011-12 Toronto Raptors. The team then came out for the third and got slapped in the face in the third quarter, getting trounced at both ends, with DeRozan unable to sink anything and the defense looking as unorganized as it ever has under Dwayne Casey, with strange lineups and substitutions only seeming to make things worse: the 2002-12 Raptors. After curiously keeping most of the starters on the bench until well into the 4th quarter, the Raptors fought back into the game, got hot from 3, locked down on defense and got huge plays from Kyle Lowry and Amir Johnson to bring the game to where you started getting excited that they might pull off the comeback, only for them to run out of time and lose a close one: the 2012-14 Raptors. It was an interesting collage of teams on an emotionally draining run down memory lane. Hopefully next time we can just watch the 2014-15 Raptors the entire time; they’re a lot more fun.
TAKEAWAYS:
DeMar DeRozan
Let’s keep our Toronto sports fan DNA in check for another couple of days if we can and try not to overreact to a second straight bad-shooting night for DeMar. They happen, and they especially happen against Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Tom Thibideau. Jimmy Butler vs. DeMar DeRozan was billed on TV as the key matchup coming in to the game, and Butler came out the decisive victor in that category. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, Butler is really, really good defensively. DeRozan struggled against his size backing him down into the post and trying to create space to shoot over him. Butler is too smart and the Bulls too well coached to give up free throws to DeRozan in the mid range, which is something he is often able to do against other opponents. And the Thibideau defense has always given Toronto’s side attacking offense fits in the paint, where it’s weakside rotations are always able to bring in help to bolster an already waiting Noah or Gibson, who are terrors at the rim on their own. DeRozan couldn’t find any space in the paint and only took 4 free throws all game. It happens. Enes Kanter is not Noah, Quin Snyder is not Coach Thibs and the Utah Jazz, while spry, are very much not this Chicago Bulls team. So keep those overreactions in check and look for DeMar to bounce back against the Jazz on Saturday.
Pau Gasol
The stories of Pau Gasol’s demise have been wildly exaggerated. He destroyed us last night. Anyone who watched Gasol in the 2012 Olympics or 2010 finals shouldn’t be surprised. He is a really, really good scorer. If you know any Lakers fans, you might enjoy showing them Pau’s highlights from last night and asking them how they’re enjoying the Carlos Boozer experience in his stead. Mike D’Antoni is starting to look better and better to Lakers fans everyday right now, but as helpful as a comparison to Coach Byron Scott might be for one’s legacy, let’s not forget how dead wrong D’Antoni was about Pau. D’Antoni essentially put Pau out to pasture the last two seasons. Crazy. That guy can still play. Gasol killed us last night on 12 of 19 shooting for 27 points with 3 blocks and 11 boards.
The Hansborough & Patterson Defensive Experience
Yikes. I hope Hansborough is OK, after falling hard in the 4th quarter trying to bail out a spectacularly bad defensive possession with one of his patented fouls. But he was as bad as he he’s ever been on the defensive end last night, against a Chicago offence that, while improved (they’ve topped 100 points in every game but one this season) has been well outside the league leaders under the current regime. During the Bulls 3rd quarter surge and early in the 4th quarter, the Bulls badly exposed Hansborough and Patterson while Casey steadfastly sat Valanciunas and rested Amir’s ankle. While rim protection is usually the hole in this pairing, the Bulls exposed them individually. Hansborough got completely out of place on defense repeatedly, and was left scrambling after easy layups like an oddly enthusiastic, forever beardless version of James Harden. Credit to the Bulls for briefly looking like the Spurs over this stretch, but it shouldn’t be this easy. The Bulls were running simple movements off of one or two actions with their big men and turning it into uncontested layups at the rim for a big. That can’t happen. Hansborough was sprinting out to the 3 point line to challenge a Joakim Noah 3-pointer that is never going to happen. Two possessions later he left Noah wide open to cut to the rim in an attempt to double team an 18-foot Gibson jumper. There is no reason for any of that. Patterson, for his part, was problematic in the other direction. He was borderline laid back about switching and unconcerned with denying space or the ball. It’s as if he feels like he has to be the unproductive chill ying to Hansborough’s less than helpfully frantic yang. Casey’s face vacillated between anguish and rage whenever the camera would show him during this stretch. It wasn’t enough for him to, you know, make a substitution, but I can guarantee it’s going to come up in practice.
Amir Johnson
Amir Johnson has been the glue guy on this team forever. But the difference defensively when he is on the court, and offensively when his ankle is letting him run as he did in the comeback 4th quarter last night is absolutely huge. I dream of a world where a healthy Amir can play a Thibideau-inspired 40 minutes a game.
Jonas Valanciunas
Jonas found himself burdened with a spot on the bench through most of the second half, despite being on pace for a comfortable double-double with 8 points and 8 boards in just 23 minutes. Jonas is so close to putting so many different parts of his game together, but admittedly still not quite there on much of it. One thing that stood out last night was his screening. Jonas approaches the perimeter with enthusiasm—he is more than willing to play his role. But just as he handicaps his post game by hesitating upon catching the ball, he’s similarly hesitant to establish his picks. There may be reasons for this, such as to keep the defender guessing as to which side the screen is coming from, but it isn’t working out. More often than not Valanciunas ends up a full half step behind where his screen should be or find that the wing defender is able to jump around it before he’s even set. Valanciunas is enormous, this shouldn’t be happening. Kyle Lowry has adapted to Valanciunas’ style of screen and used it to dance around for open spot-ups. That can get some open looks, but there is a pot of gold waiting to be found if they can figure out the pick and roll. Marc Gasol is no more limber on his feet than Jonas is, and of similar size, and his screens consume defenders whole. Valanciunas needs to focus on setting firmly into place earlier and ensuring his seal. Right now, he’s losing out on pick and roll opportunities and too often relying on the ball handler to carry him through the play. Valanciunas is scoring on floaters and 4-foot push shots instead of dunks when rolling because he’s allowing both defenders to be an active part of the pick-and-roll defense. It looks as if he understands this; but he’s just a little hesitant or unsure of himself. He’ll get there.
James Johnson
James Johnson is our silver lining of the night, going 6 for 6 in the second quarter and completely ruining Doug McDermott’s night. James Johnson has perfectly filled the defense/scoring/aggression void at the forward spot in the roster. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Johnson was an interesting but tempered and inefficient player during his first run with the Raptors, and his subsequent stint in Sacramento, where smart basketball spent the last near decade going to die, didn’t help. Sacramento has, until this season’s start, been a place where interesting and highly redeemable players (see: Patterson, Patrick and Vasquez, Grievis) go to be forgotten in a myriad of chucking, bad defense and worse chemistry. But as anyone slugging out the second half of the season watching the grit-and-grind Memphis Grizzlies on league pass last year can tell you, James Johnson was a wildly underrated part of that team’s dominant post-all star game stretch of play. So far Toronto has gotten the Memphis Johnson and not the Sacramento one. At this rate, if Masai is able to get anyone who’s wasting away on the Sacramento Kings bench, I’m automatically typing him in as a key contributor (I see you Carl Ladry, I see you).
To bring things to an end: yes, the Raptors lost. For the most part, it was not an overly well played game either. They got beat. But let’s walk away from this game with this possibly insane and absolutely biased question. Looking at the whole picture and the season so far, am I crazy, or are you completely OK and maybe possibly even happy to have Kyle Lowry instead of Derrick Rose on your team?
