(Vintage Kobe) – (defense) – (DeMar DeRozan) = (frustrating loss)
Look, the time is currently 1:30 a.m., I am covering for a friend on this post, I just got home from work and the Raptors just lost to this pathetic iteration of the Los Angeles Lakers in overtime. As you can imagine, I’m not exactly in the best mood. Unpleasantness aside, maintaining perspective is always important, a coherent recap even more so, but a night like this does make a homie want to kick and scream. Let’s appease both sides with a little Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act.
Mr. Hyde: “They’re the Lakers!”
Forget levity. Forget the poor officiating. Forget that Kobe managed to turn in his best performance in almost two years. Let’s just focus on this: the Eastern Conference leading Toronto Raptors lost to the Western Conference worst Los Angeles Lakers. That is inexcusable.
Let’s start with the Raptors’ savior and killer tonight: Kyle Lowry. Look, you took the reins when nobody else would, and I applaud you for that. If every Raptor had the heart you have, the Raptors would not have lost this game. But aggressiveness is a tricky balance, and you were on the wrong end of it. Plain and simple. Yeah, DeRozan’s out and the team is slumping, but you cannot take 28 shots as the point guard and only come away with 29 points. That’s not your game. You morphed into a ball-hog, and you had exactly one trick: drive recklessly into the lane. Here’s the thing — you’re six-feet-nothing. It’s not exactly hard to stop that type of play. That’s why Jordan Hill blocked your ass repeatedly in the fourth and in overtime. Even with everyone struggling, you’re still the straw that stirs the drink. You need to do that. Otherwise, the Raptors’ offense turns into a settled cup of bubble tea, with nothing but tapioca beads lodged in the straw. I could really go for bubble tea right now.
And Terrence, what on Earth were you doing with Kobe tonight? Yeah, he’s a tough cover. I get that. Dude has five rings and the fourth-most points of all time. I get that. But he’s a full 13 years older than you, and he had you looking like Jalen Rose’s ancient bag of bones on that fateful night in 2006. At least try to fight through screens. At least hit him back with a drive of your own. Kobe got everything he wanted against you tonight. Dude is 156% of your age, Terrence.
Oh, and don’t think you’ve escaped this #hottakery, Patrick Patterson. What happened to your three? All you got was open looks from deep, and you couldn’t sink a single one. What was that?
As for the team defense, don’t even get me started. Sure, the Lakers made a tonne of tough shots in the first, but what happened in the second? Where did the effort go? Every screen demolished the wings. There is no excuse to take an opponent on the road lightly, especially in the second quarter. No closeouts, dying on screens, no rotations, poor boxouts. Shit was pathetic.
Finally, what is up with your rotations, Dwane? You’re shorthanded in a big way without DeRozan, I know. But James Johnson didn’t get a crack at guarding Kobe in the fourth until there was three minutes left, after Kobe had took a giant shit all over Ross’s sorry carcass? Really? Ross was needed for floor spacing, but with your point guard going all “I’m the captain, now”, was there really a need? That was silly.
One last thing: you lost to the 2014-15 Los Angeles Lakers. Seriously. This Lakers team beat you. Robert Sacre beat you. Robert Sacre scored twice in one quarter. Robert Sacre. WoooOOOoooOOOoooOOOOO. Robert Sacre.
Dr. Jekyll: Let’s not overreact
Deep breath everyone. Come on now, I’m a fictitious doctor that occasionally morphs uncontrollably into a monster that murders dudes. I know what’s best for you.
Look, the Raptors should have won. Even without DeRozan, the Raptors were the better team on paper. But games aren’t played on paper, because that would be very slippery, and you would need a lot of paper.
Case in point: Kobe doesn’t have 31-11-12 games on paper. Swaggy don’t drop 20 on 11 shots on paper. Robert Sacre isn’t an NBA-calibre player on paper. Patrick Patterson’s three-point shot doesn’t disappear randomly on paper. Kyle Lowry doesn’t become a ball-hog on paper.
It’s a bad beat, but let’s put everything in perspective. The Lakers’ shot lights out all night, and it didn’t help that the refs awarded every single call (save for Jonas’s verticality) to Kobe. Shit like this happens. It could have happened in the Oklahoma City game. Same with the Utah Jazz game, or the second Orlando Magic game. It was mere inches from happening in the Celtics game. The Raptors are supposed to beat up on lower teams, but it’s a tough task to win them all.
Look, the Raptors’ offense was fine in the first half. Greivis Vasquez and Lowry picked up right where they left off last season, demonstrating the same chemistry that almost beat the Nets in the playoffs last year. The shots didn’t fall so the stats won’t bear it out, but if you watched the first quarter, you’d know: there’s hope of the offense staying afloat without DeRozan for (possibly) the next month.
And don’t forget: this was their first game sans DeRozan. They were rocking a sans DeMar (shouts to the Starters). When you rid the team of its leading scorer, you’re taking away one of the team’s pillars. There’s a great scene in The Wire, where two detectives ramble incoherently about how shit rolls downhill, and that applies here: shit does roll downhill. Taking out DeRozan freed the Lakers to put their only decent perimeter defender (Wes Johnson) onto Lowry, which really hurt his ability to score. It also took away a decent defender that could have logged some time checking Kobe. And of course, DeRozan is the team’s best attacker by far. With the Lakers rocking a sans rim-protector all game long, DeRozan probably would have put Hill, Boozer, Sacre — anyone — into foul trouble. DeRozan also gives the team another set of options, and his presence means Lowry doesn’t need to take every single shot. Shit rolls downhill, don’t forget that.
So just take a deep breath, watch this video, and lighten up. There’s still 65 more games to go.
Miscellaneous notes
- I’ll say it again: the two-PG lineup worked. Shots didn’t fall, but they played well. It allows the Raptors’ starting unit to keep running the same types of action. It also gives the Raptors a second ball-handler on the floor, which they cannot go without, unless you like all of the action flowing through Lowry
- Speaking of Lowry, he only passed on 59 percent of his touches and he took 18 contested field goals (seven went in). That is inexcusable. He means well, and I’m sure he’ll bounce back.
- Amir spoke after the game and apparently the dude was bleeding through his socks after injuring his foot in the third. For the record, he did not have a good game before that, but there is no doubting that man’s heart.
- The interior attack through their bigs worked. The Raptors turned away form that in the second half and in overtime because the guards — namely Lowry, Williams and Vasquez — monopolized possessions. That can’t happen, especially against terrible interior defenders like the Lakers’ frontline.
- Are you shitting bricks going up against DeMarcus Cousins and the suddenly decent Sacramento Kings on the road? Because I am. I’m pegging that one as a loss. Playing the following night in Utah also worries me tremendously. This was the game to win and they blew it. We could have a four-game losing streak on our hands.
- At the end of the day, it was a bad loss. Keep a level head and learn from the mistakes. It’s not going to be easy without DeRozan, but the season is long. They can get through this.
Photo credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
