Raptors 97, Blazers 102 (OT) – Box :: Reaction
This game ended isn’t far enough in the past for me to be rational about things, and it happens to be 1:15 AM. Let me give this one the old college try.
Big Picture
If you consider this roadtrip a test for our contender credentials, the Raptors get an A+ for the game and the trip thus far. They took one of the best teams in the West to OT and lost on very dubious officiating. They’re 2-2 on the roadtrip with two games to go, and I would’ve taken a 2-4 record at the start of this thing, so we’re all good there.
Greivis Vasquez (again) described this as a “playoff game” at halftime and the team showed up for it. They approached this with a defensive commitment that hasn’t been there all season, and that’s what playoff basketball is ultimately about. The Blazers were held to 40% shooting and their season average is 45%. Even if you’re a harsh critic of the Raptors, you have to admire the way they held together in this game and withstood every Portland assault on the backs of rebounding, shot-making, and defense. It is a loss, but no heads should be hanging and if anything, there’s a sense of being aggrieved.
Approach to the Game
I invite you to take a look at some of the Vines posted on the RR account to get an idea of what kind of basketball the Raptors were playing. The Raptors were in attack mode for the duration of the game, and they dominated the Blazers in the paint 64-32. They started the game going inside to Jonas Valanciunas (who had 9 FGs in the first quarter) against Joel Freeland, who he abused. Later in the game the Blazers stuck a dishevelled Chris Kaman on him, who he also tore apart. With Robin Lopez missing, the strategy was to go inside and the Raptors executed perfectly.
The Blazers have taken the fourth-most threes in the league, and the Raptors knew that they’d have to defend against it. The close-outs executed by James Johnson, Terrence Ross, Kyle Lowry, and Patrick Patterson in scrambling situations were the reason the Blazers were 9-30 (30%) during regulation. This wasn’t just Portland shooting a full 8 points below their season average of 38% from three, it was the Raptors recognizing an opponent strength and neutralizing it through communication, rotations, and close-outs. The three-point defense did fall in the second half and OT as legs got tired, with the Blazers shooting 2-17 3FG in the first half, and 10-19 in the second and OT.
[aside header=”Casey on Loss”]
“We did a great job in the first half of taking those threes out and in the second half they got going on them. It was transition defence, over-helping unnecessarily in certain situations and once they saw it go in, that’s when they got hot. That’s part of the discipline we have to have on the defensive end.”
– Dwane Casey
[/aside]
The Blazers average the most rebounds in the league and are ranked second in defense. The Raptors were +1 on the boards through regulation, and ended up being -2 for the game. The gang rebounding the Raptors performed in this game was necessary for survival, and they ended up having an 18-13 edge in second chance points. The hobbled Amir Johnson who was being pushed off the block on practically every possession only had 3, but other than that the team made a full commitment to the boards. Lowry was getting rebounds he has no business getting (look, and look again) and the Raptors ended up neutralizing a potential problem.
Stepping Up
James Johnson, as we’ve come to expect, was excellent in a starting role again. His defense, passing, off-the-ball movement, and offense was a catalyst that spurred the Raptors, especially when Lowry had to take a break.
Terrence Ross suffered through a poor shooting night going 5-15, which covers his otherwise decent game. He covered Damian Lillard, sometimes off the bat, sometimes on switches, drove to the rim with much more intent, and helped out on the glass, getting some very contested rebounds.
I mentioned Valanciunas earlier, but there’s of course also Kyle Lowry, who was devastating for the majority of this game and killed the meek and the mighty. Nicola Batum was covering him for the most part, and he definitely bothered Lowry by taking away his step-back, forcing him to find his offense near the rim or make kick-out passes against a defense that’s very adept at picking the lanes.
Excessive One-on-One Play
Having a 13-point lead in the third and a 9-point lead in the fourth, only to lose it briskly due to poor shot-selection caused by over-dribbling and purposely letting the shot clock run down (like that’s ever a good idea other than when under a minute left) is sad. Long rebounds and run outs followed, with the Blazers three-point FG normalizing. Williams was 1-10, almost all of them outside the context of any organized offense, and Vasquez was 5-13. The combined were 3-14 in the second half and OT, which is enough to lose a game. Lowry’s 10-26 is more forgivable because his first instinct isn’t to jack up a bad shot. He prefers to probe the defense by attacking, and use his jumper as insurance.
[aside header=”Cold Lou”]
“Lou’s not going to go 1-for-10 each night … it wasn’t anything special they were doing with him, he had some good looks, he just didn’t make them. You have nights like that.”
– Dwane Casey
[/aside]
There’s a tendency for Dwane Casey to let Vasquez and Williams take over the reins of the offense to an unhealthy degree. I get that when they’re hot, the Raptors tend to do well and more often then not it’s worked out. However, on a night where you’ve game-planned the rebounding, defensive approach, paint offense, it’s farcical that we let long jumpers through one-on-one play against good defenders be our downfall. This is made even more maddening because throughout the game there was clear evidence that the Raptors were able to get half-decent shots by 1) by setting up Amir Johnson on the elbow and using hand-offs going to the rim, 2) putting Kaman and Freeland in high-screen situations and turning the corner, 3) going at Steve Blake in the block, 4) going at Kaman/Freeman in the block…and the list goes on.
The offense was not a problem despite the Blazers being one of the best defensive teams in the league. It was a matter of patience and execution, which the Raptors did well in 80% of the time. Sadly, the 20% was enough to lose the game and aspersions have to be cast at Vasquez and Williams.
Coaching Decisions
Valanciunas was not fed the ball at all in the fourth quarter. His 0-3 in the frame is mostly him fighting for offensive rebounds and getting the ball with the clock running down. The dedication showed by Casey early in the game of going through Valanciunas was no longer there in the fourth, and I don’t understand why.
He was also benched in OT in favor of Amir Johnson (who wasn’t rebounding at all) and Patrick Patterson who was trying his hardest and getting out-muscled in OT. Combined, they both had 0 rebounds in OT and both played the full five minutes. The Raptors were -3 in OT. I was calling for Jonas Valanciunas for that reason alone, and also because Patterson wasn’t really being used to spread the floor and acted primarily as a screen-setter. Perhaps Casey wanted him to rotate out to the perimeter in case of switches (which he’d be better than Valanciunas at), but for it to come at the expense of rebounding and second-shot opportunities seemed odd.
Of the 17 minutes in the fourth quarter and OT, James Johnson played 7:53. I would’ve played him all 17. I couldn’t figure out why Casey chose to take out Johnson, who was 7-11 FG, 14 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal for the game. He, like Lowry, should have played 40-42 minute instead of 32. The Raptors obviously missed his defense, and without him there wasn’t much off-the-ball movement, which is one of the reasons why Vasquez and Williams took those poor shots. Casey chose to stick with Ross (presumably because of three-point shooting), and other than a three early in OT, he didn’t deliver in terms of scoring.
Based on mathematics, the decision to start the fourth with an all-bench unit and not bring Lowry in till 7:15 of the quarter can’t be criticized because the Raptors were even in that stretch with the lead holding steady at 7. If you look at the greater context, which is that the lead was 13 in the latter stages of the third quarter, you can perhaps say that the focus in the early fourth shouldn’t have been to sustain what we have, but to build on it. Casey chose the former and got burned for it.
A Few Moments in Time
With the Raptors down 2 in regulation, Lowry missed a wide open three-pointer which would’ve given the Raptors the lead with seconds to go. Down two late in OT, he missed a pull-up jumper which he normally drains, after which point the fouling started. He also committed a key offensive foul (to go along with Amir Johnson’s two) which hurt. But hey, you take those because he’s saved our ass numerous times this season.
You can play a terrific overall game against a great opponent but all it takes is a couple minutes to give it all back. After Ross had given the Raptors a three-point edge early in OT, the Blazers came back and hit three straight threes. The defense by Vasquez, James Johnson and Terrence Ross was either late or non-existent ,and it knocked the wind out of our sails.
Officiating
You know that I rarely complain about the officiating but Jonas Valanciunas was getting bumped a lot and I felt he didn’t get the calls he deserved. On the other end, LaMarcus Aldridge got the whistle too frequently on similar to lesser contact. The defensive contact to foul calls on Lowry’s drives to the rim were disproportional, and so were the loose-ball foul calls against Valanciunas, on which he picked up a technical and got reprimanded by Casey. I felt that the call was a huge 4-point swing and a turning point in the game.
The Raptors were called for 21 fouls to the Blazers 17, and it’s the Raptors that were the far more aggressive team which doesn’t add up. There’s also the clear path controversy, where the Raptors were denied one and the Blazers were given one. Was Vasquez too late in fouling and Batum wasn’t? I don’t know. I just can’t see how you can call one a clear path foul, and not the other. Or vice-versa.
Conclusion
I’ve left out a lot of the details of this game, and they’re not that important. For example, I could go on about why Chuck Hayes might’ve been an option at some point, but there’s nothing fruitful to come out of that.
The important point is that whoever felt that this roadtrip was going to peel back the cover and expose the Raptors as a pretenders was wrong. They were unfortunate to not come away with a win, and in defeat they’ve shown enough hustle, competitiveness, and sheer passion that you know they’re going to be just fine.
Photo Credit: Associated Press/Don Ryan
