Despite playing just 20 minutes tonight, Valanciunas was relatively upbeat in the locker-room following Wednesday’s win over the 76ers. As always, he’s full of jokes.
After accidentally bumping into Lowry, JV says “Sorry, foul on me”. About 60 seconds later he throws a towel into the laundry basket and it hits someone in the head.
“Sorry”.
That was the end of that.
From across the room, Terrence Ross is taking advantage of the surrounding media to get some thoughts on the NFL.
“Who you think ‘gon win the Super Bowl?”
Someone says Patriots.
“Shit, I don’t think they got it in ’em.”
Meanwhile, from across the room, James Johnson is yelling something about ravioli – honestly, I have no idea.
The last media scrum was with Lou Williams. When asked about beating his former team, he smiles, seemingly surprised by the question.
“I don’t know if I’ve lost to them since I’ve left.”
Everyone laughs. Lou realizes his comment may have come the wrong way – he backtracks.
“And that’s not like a jab or nothin’, but at this point, it’s been four years now.”
Yes, the locker-room was full of gold tonight, but Dwane Casey killed it in the post-game presser too. He also killed us with the disproportionate use of the word ‘man’.
“He’s gone from a young man to a man,” Casey said of DeRozan. “He’s gone through the process, he’s gone through the rigors of the NBA, he has learned from it and he has grown as a man.”
“I asked him how he was feeling and he said he felt great, and he told me he is playing like an old man, you know the slow man’s game when you’re not getting too high off the floor.”
Take a deep breath… We’re not done. Casey continues.
“That’s where he is now; he’s playing like an old man.”
The media briefly chuckled at that last line. But as Casey elaborated, it was clear what he meant. DeRozan plays like an old man in the sense of how much wisdom he’s integrated into his game since his rookie year. His improvement in both his character and skill-set from year-to-year is almost perfect – you can’t ask for more as a head coach.
What has been questionable this season though is DeRozan’s shot selection. What made him so good last year was his slashing and improved – but tamed – three-point shooting. This year he’s been doing less of those efficient things, and for whatever reason he’s been settling for long-range contested jumpers.
He’s far too talented for that.
Tonight was a perfect demonstration of what he should be doing.
His 20 points came off of 9/14 shooting. What the stat sheet doesn’t tell you: His 14 shots were all good looks. Dwane Casey talked about DeMar’s need to let the game come to him tonight – that’s something DeMar clearly took to heart.
“I wanted to come out and play and not try and do too much. Just play within the rhythm of the game.”
If only that was his motto every night.
