3-point shooting, team ball, solid defense and a poutier-than-usual Boogie culminates in easy Raptors victory.
Game Recap
Preview | Quick Reaction | Highlights
Well, that was fun.
The Toronto Raptors easily handled the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night with a solid team effort from members 1 through 15. The Raptors shared the ball, potting 29 assists, played some inspired defense and held the Kings out of the paint for one of their most complete victories of the season. There were no complaints to take away from the game. The Raptors took care of business without a hitch, mirroring the top form they displayed in the first two months of the season.
The first quarter featured a bit of sloppy basketball. The Raptors recorded seven turnovers in the first, which offset an efficient showing from the offense. DeMarcus Cousins was a beast on the inside. A surly Cousins looked intent to get the better of his match-up with Jonas Valanciunas (reminder: they have beef). A motivated Cousins is Le Cousin Dangereux as he had his way with Amir Johnson, who bravely took on a cross match-up. Johnson fought valiantly and took a beating from Cousins’s overpowering physicality. Johnson ducked elbows and hard shoves to make life hard for Cousins, but he still bullied his way to the basket at will. Defensively, Cousins caused problems for Valanciunas as Cousins used his quick reach to record a steal and a block. Still, Valanciunas didn’t back down and still scored four points, but it came at the cost of three turnovers.
With Cousins running rampant, Dwane Casey turned to Chuck “Daddy Swag” Hayes for one of his patented low-post defensive stints. Hayes didn’t disappoint as Cousins’ size didn’t matter against Hayes’s bulk. Hayes kept Cousins within a safe distance from the basket and pulled out every trick in the bag to stump Cousins. Hayes pulled the chair. He swiped for steals. He leaned on Cousins’s right hand. He leaned on Cousins’s left hand. By changing up the coverage every time, Hayes stayed one step ahead of Cousins and shut him down. I counted seven encounters between the two. Hayes stopped Cousins five times, including a block, while Cousins scored twice, one of which was a shooting foul. An already surly Cousins was visibly upset by the sheer ridiculousness of Hayes’s post defense. He’s basically the basketball equivalent of Wobbuffet. On one occasion, however, Icarus flew too close to the sun.
The Kings were scorching hot on jumpshots in the first half, and they entered halftime with a tie at 54. Notorious boxscore denier Rudy Gay was raining jumpers — some open, some contested — and ended the half with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including two triples. As a whole, the Kings shot 67 percent on midrange looks (including a sterling 4 of 5 from the top of the key) which kept pace with the Raptors’ 7-of-16 performance from 3-point land.
The third is when things fell apart for Sacramento. Their offense was buzzing to start, but a moody Cousins picked up two quick fouls, which nailed him to the bench with four fouls early on.
Cousins’s absence opened up the Raptors to attack the basket, while the Kings’ offense dried up — pushed to the perimeter without their anchor. The Raptors proceeded to lay the wood with a ridiculous 39-point quarter, including 8-of-10 shooting from deep. It was silly. When Cousins subbed out, the game was tied 66-66. The quarter would end 93-76 as Toronto outscored the Kings by an edge of 27-10 while Cousins pouted from the bench while sneaking dirty looks at Tyrone Corbin, who was inexplicably tabbed to replace a more-than-solid head coach in Mike Malone.
The fourth quarter went by without a hitch. Casey handed the keys over to Lou Williams to gun to his heart’s content and he delivered with the stakes low. Williams dropped 14 points in the final frame off a series of crafty one-on-one battles. Williams ended with a game-high 27 points. He was one of seven Raptors to finish in double-digits as Toronto recorded a season-high 17 3-pointers on 34 attempts.
Offense will garner the headlines — as it should — but the Raptors’ defense is to be accredited too. The Raptors kept the Kings away from the most dangerous spots on the floor, as 44 percent of Sacramento’s points came from between the restricted area and the 3-point line. Hayes and later Tyler Hansbrough and Patrick Patterson did an excellent job in checking Cousins, who finished with just 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting along with 9 (!!!) turnovers. Gay ended up with 22 on just 17 shots, but a jumper from Gay was certainly preferable to a post-up by Cousins.
Quote of the Night
DeMar is right. Why are we booing Gay? Dude was nothing but a professional in his time here. As a fanbase, we need to rethink our approach towards boo’s.
“Don’t boo Rudy, quote me on that.” – DeMar DeRozan — Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) January 29, 2015
Highlight Reel/Breaking it Down
Patterson nails a triple
A classic Raptors play. They fake a dribble hand-off with a cutting Lou Williams. Lowry then looks off Williams and attacks the basket with Hayes flanking. The Kings get caught off guard and collapse inside. That leaves Patrick Patterson free to sneak behind the play and catch-and-shoot. Patterson finished 3-of-5 from deep.
A rare And-1 for an aggressive Ross
For all of his boundless athleticism, Ross had only recorded a single And-1 play coming into the game. This was his second and-1 of the season. It typified Ross’s night as he picked his spots. He was lethal with the jumper from deep and mixed in a few drives. This is the Terrence Ross everyone is hoping for.
Ross pulls out the acrobatics
I’m back in on Terrence Ross.
V for Verticality
Valanciunas was wisely spared from having to guard Cousins, but that freed him up to provide help defense. He’s been stronger in providing timely help of late and plays like this one, where he used the principle of verticality to school Carl Landry’s layup attempt. Defense is the weakest part of Valanciunas’s game, and it’s promising to see him make strides on that end over the past month.
P for Patience
Whoa! Look at that! Did you catch it? That’s the game slowing down for Valanciunas. He took his time, faked Rudy Gay out of his shoes, before calmly turning over his right shoulder to drop a sweet hook. It’s coming together for Valanciunas. He finished with 12 points (6-of-10), nine rebounds, a steal and two blocks in 26 minutes.
No YOLO Vasquez
I’m proud of the fact that I came up with the moniker for Greivis Vasquez’s fearless style of play. But for the past few games, Vasquez has looked more measured and less willing to roll the dice on dicey propositions. Here, he cleverly gets a wide-eyed Stauskas to go one way, before blowing by to launch his patented floater. The biggest difference here is that he was actually open to shoot that. What a Bada$$, that Vasquez, saying Death of YOLO (at least for now).
