Where do you even start with this team at this point? The Toronto Raptors are 24-7, first place in the Eastern Conference on Dec. 29, and every time I allow even a sliver of doubt to creep in, even short-term, they promptly make me look the fool for not believing, blindly and fully.
Take this weekend, for example. Playing without DeMar DeRozan and Landry Fields, the Raptors embarked on a five-game west coast road trip (you can call it a six-gamer if you like, but it was really at Chicago, a four-day break, and a five-game trip). They were set to play four winning teams, all with strong guard play while the perimeter defense has been struggling, and their only game against a losing team was in the thin air of Denver, on the second night of a back-to-back. I thought a 2-3 trip would be a positive result, 1-4 an acceptable reality. Shows what my hating ass knows.
The Raptors played great on Saturday in upsetting the Los Angeles Clippers and then hung on to take one from the Nuggets on Sunday, a 116-102 final that required 10 players to contribute with legs a little weary. It also relied very heavily on Kyle Lowry and Lou Williams, who don’t appear to care about thin air or back-to-back situations.
It wasn’t easy to get there, though. The fatigue was obvious, as the Raptors’ defense became non-existent in the second half and the team struggled to keep the Nuggets – third in the league in second-chance points – off the offensive glass. The first half saw the Raptors defend generally well and hold Denver to 38.3 percent shooting, but offensive rebounds (10) and an inability to force turnovers (four) kept Denver firmly in it with 54 points, and Toronto’s once-13-point lead dwindled to just six at half.
Based on how the last few minutes of the second quarter played out, and the heavy load Lowry, Terrence Ross, and Amir Johnson had endured through six quarters in two days, the lead looked tenuous. Midway through the third, the Nuggets took their first lead since midway through the first. The Raptors’ offense consisted entirely of Williams hitting ridiculous degree-of-difficulty shots (AND-1!), as he’s wont to do. The momentum seemed to be shifting in the wrong direction.
And then head coach Dwane Casey threw caution to the wind with minutes, opting to start the fourth quarter with Lowry (62 minutes to that point), Williams (51) and the struggling Greivis Vasquez in a three-guard lineup. That lineup’s played 44 minutes this season and rolled opponents by 15 points, though it wasn’t all that effective in this short stint on Sunday. More importantly, it signaled that Casey was going to ride Lowry and Williams as the team’s lone hot hands, a decision that may hurt Tuesday in Portland but was unquestionably the right call.
Williams scored 10 points in the fourth, while Lowry scored 10 with four rebounds and four assists. It was all them and Amir Johnson, who had the team’s other eight points. There wasn’t a basket in the entire fourth quarter that Lowry or Williams didn’t have a hand in. There were other players on the floor, but it was really all Lowry and Williams.
The Raptors also re-discovered their stride on defense after a woeful third, though a large part of that has to do with Denver just playing out of sorts all season. They’re brutal. Normally a road win in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back would be enormous. It’s still pretty impressive, but this Nuggets team, now uncharacteristically just 9-7 at home, is a dumpster fire. Save for Kenneth Faried being a maniac on the glass and Ty Lawson reminding us that, while he’s been phenomenal on offense, Lowry’s defense has slipped some, the Nuggets really didn’t have much in the way of functioning offense. Lawson creates and Faried gets garbage points, that’s their whole shtick. And it works for stretches, but it dried up as the Raptors locked down with a win in their grasp late.
The story was on offense, though, and Lowry and Williams are basically the beginning, middle, and end. Williams finished 11-of-18 for 31 points with five rebounds and two dimes, while Lowry scored 30 on 12-of-20 shooting with seven rebounds and 11 assists. On a night when the team’s bigs struggled on the glass, those rebounding totals made a world of difference. So did, you know, scoring a combined 61 points on just 38 shots. I’m going to have more on Lowry on Tuesday, because he’s been unbelievable of late and is really deserving of some extended praise, but his effort Sunday was worthy of heart eyes emojis. He ended up playing 74 minutes in the back-to-back, looked absolutely exhausted during breaks in play Sunday, and still placed the offense firmly on his shoulders, with a nod to his tag-team partner in Williams.
Great as those two were, you’re not going to get by on a back-to-back without your depth, and that was apparent Sunday. James Johnson was a non-factor late but had a very solid first half, Ross chipped in with eight rebounds (and one terrific drive-and-dish) when his shot wasn’t falling, and Amir Johnson played his usual, stellar game.
It was Tyler Hansbrough, though, who really stepped up with Jonas Valanciunas struggling some. Hansbrough had 10 points, six rebounds and a block in 20 minutes, shooting 5-of-8 from the floor. The stat line is never just the case with him, and his activity on the glass and with loose balls was paramount in the second half. He played almost the entire fourth quarter as a result, and while he didn’t add anything to the box score beyond a rebound and a foul, there’s a reason he stayed out there for 11 minutes of it. Hansbrough’s had a rough go of things this season and appeared to be falling out of the rotation, but I can’t remember a game this year, save for maybe against Oklahoma City, when he played this well.
Nights like Lowry’s and Williams’ have come to be somewhat expected, incredible though they are. Nights like Hansbrough’s are important over an 82-game stretch and speak to the value of depth, something the Raptors don’t always seem to have in the post, until Chuck Hayes helps shut down the Grizzlies or Hansbrough protects the glass from the Nuggets. Basketball is weird, man.
One quick note that I couldn’t fit in elsewhere: Ross got to the line tonight. Yup. Two whole free throws. In the last seven games, he’s now taken four free throw attempts…and 90 field goal attempts. Entering Sunday’s game, he had the eighth-lowest rate of free throws per possession of any qualified player with a usage percentage of at least 15 percent. It’s criminal how little he gets to the stripe. Also, Vasquez was hot garbage on Sunday.
But hey, let’s pick nits on a more negative day. The Raptors continue to impress, even when there’s reason to be mildly pessimistic about things. They’re 24-7. 24-7! They won in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back. We get to watch Kyle Lowry every game. Life is good, my dudes. Life is good.
