Dare I say that the Raptors played well last night? A solid all-around game from Lowry, consistent scoring from DeMar with 13 free throw attempts, good team rebounding and reliable scoring from the bench unit? It’s nice to see the team’s identity back all at once. It seems hollow to celebrate too haughtily a win over a team whose best weapon is Rodney Stuckey. The Pacers have been a much pluckier team than their record suggests though. There’s much more reason to feel good than anything else after last night’s game. Remember that feeling?
DeMar was the brightest spot on the court for the Raptors. He didn’t have a breathtaking performance. Instead he played his typically solid, 24 points while living at the free throw line, helping turn steals into the fastbreak and pulling in 6 rebounds. It’s the kind of night in, night out performance that had him on last year’s all star team, and it’s the first time we’ve seen him play his game all the way through since returning from injury. It’s a comforting sign to see him back to form, and hopefully it goes towards further massaging the fears of a fan base whose team just moved to 30-15.
Defensive rebounding has been one of the biggest holes in the sinking ship of the team’s defensive play this year, ranking 24th in the league. Last night was the first time all season it felt like the entire team was making an effort and a priority to help clean up the defensive glass. It paid off. Valanciunas was the team leader with 8 boards in 27 minutes, but Lowry had 7 rebounds, while Ross and DeRozan added 6 a piece. It was nowhere near dominant, but it’s the first time in a short little while that the Dinos have rebounded at an above (slightly) average rate at their own end. It makes a difference.
That difference can make itself felt in a hurry when you’re scoring as well as the Raptors once again showed they’re capable of. The Raptors scored at a rate of 115 points per 100 possessions last night, a number that mirrors their stats during the early part of the season when they were lighting the league on fire with the top ranked offence. The bench unit was a big part of that number then, and it was again last night, going on a 20-0 run in the second quarter. Louis Williams was hitting 3s and getting to the line, Terrence Ross looked energetic in the fast break and Patrick Patterson was the offensive weapon he’s been all year, going 2 for 3 from deep with 13 points.
The starting lineup is still crawling out of the gate, as it was prone to at times last year and as it has seemed to do in every game since Greivis Vasquez took over the 2 spot from Ross. That experiment hasn’t worked nearly as well as a year ago. The Vasquez-Lowry 2 man lineup numbers are still a positive at +5.4 points, but nowhere near the +17.6 advantage it was a year ago. Vasquez is actually playing more effectively with all 4 of the typical bench unit players than he is with any of the starters. That makes some sense. It means going up against the opposing team’s backups instead of their often superior starting wing defenders, it also usually means that he’s guarded by a point guard, over whom he enjoys a notable size advantage, instead of a wing player, and it gives him Patrick Patterson and James Johnson to work the pick and roll with, which is the bread and butter of Vasquez game. Greivis shot a career best 38% from deep last season, but has regressed to a below average 32% from 3 now.
It’s a problem to walk out a starting unit with two traditional bigs and two 30% 3-point shooters in DeRozan and Vasquez. That lineup can’t space the floor, which takes away any opportunity for the kind of pick and roll game that Vasquez brings to the table as an alternate. He’s been a poor defender this season as well, especially against opposing shooters who haven’t struggled to lose him running through screens or blowing by him off the dribble once he catches up to challenge a spot-up 3. I’m not meaning to dump on Vasquez; he’s a useful player and an integral part of the team’s second unit. But the starting unit with Vasquez has dropped to -12.1 points in nearly 100 minutes together now, and the same unit with Ross instead of DeRozan was hovering on the wrong side of zero before DeMar came back too, netting -1 points in nearly as many minutes together. On the flip side, the 5 man bench units with Vasquez are still scorching opponents for double-digit gains together. That’s where Vasquez value lies. Ross time in the doghouse needs to reach a conclusion. His play hasn’t been spectacular, but the team has put up better numbers with him and General Greivis in opposite places.
The story of this game, beyond team-wide improvement, was Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. The Raptors played great as a team to open the season 13-2 to be sure. But even then, it was the side-to-side attacking offense of Lowry and DeRozan bending defenses and living at the free throw line that was propelling the team above others. That’s the dominance we saw last night, for the first time since November. Let’s see if they can take that energy and assertiveness into a segababa against the Kings tonight.
