There are certainly factors that make a DeRozan shot look better or worse — how many passes have come before it, how many seconds are left in the shot clock, whether a second defender is hedging his way, leaving a theoretically open pass — but it is not as if DeRozan has been widely out of character lately. He is just missing a lot this year. Compare that to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the aptly named Splash Brothers, whose league-leading Golden State Warriors visit Toronto on Friday night. “There’s no such thing, with those guys, as bad shots,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “Golden State, they walk in the gym and it’s a good shot for those guys.” If Curry pulls up from 30 feet away from the basket, nobody is going to question it. It does not have to be a so-called “heat check,” when a player has made a few shots in a row and is trying to determine if it is possible for him to miss. It does not have to be late in the shot clock, when there are no other options left. An offence that consisted of nothing but contested three-pointers for Curry would probably be one of the best in the league, so long as the opposition still had to play as if he might pass.
But when shots aren’t falling and when a record begins to go south, teams get exposed and that’s where the Raptors find themselves. Prior to Thursday’s gathering at the team’s Air Canada Centre practice court, Casey and his staff spoke about the team’s recent troubles on defence and the team’s inability to step up defensively in the fourth quarter. “Maybe our rotation,” said Casey when he addressed the media. “We may have to look at our rotation, the people we have in there defensively. “I thought that’s what has hurt us. It’s what we talked about. We could always depend on the fourth quarter defensively to get stops, to get on a run and close it out in the fourth quarter.“We’ve got to look at who is on the floor that time to put a finger in that dike.” Casey wasn’t about to point fingers, but he doesn’t have to name names when so much can be laid to bare in the game’s crunch time when solid team defence, rebounding, ball security and taking good shots within the offence are required.
DeRozan averaged 16.6 points in January and 17.4 in February, his worst scoring months since January and March of 2013. In his six seasons, he has never had a lower field goal percentage for a month than February’s. Lowry has gone from one of the five or six best players in the entire league over the first two months of the season to troublingly poor, and here is where the honesty comes in. Asked to describe his game at the moment, Lowry had a quick response: “Me? I’m trash,” Lowry told reporters. “I’m trying to figure it out right now, to be honest with you. I don’t know (how to fix it), that’s why I’m in here, working hard and trying to figure out what to do to get myself back on track.” DeRozan did not duck away from that assessment of the status of his own game. “Right next to the trash can (that Lowry’s) is. Both trash,” DeRozan told the Sun, matter-of-factly as he signed merchandise following his media scrum. DeRozan and Lowry clearly are frustrated, but while Lowry is searching for answers, DeRozan seems more confident that things will fall into place. “I don’t know what it may be, find a rhythm (after missing so much time due to injury), whatever it may be, but it happens,” he said.
Raptors guards work through slump | TSN
More than anything else, Lowry’s frustration lies in his missing jump shot. The all-star point guard is shooting less than 30 per cent from the field during Toronto’s three-game losing streak, hitting just three of his 22 three-point tries. Unfortunately for the Raptors, he’s not alone. DeRozan is shooting the ball at a 34 per cent clip over that same stretch, with the two of them combining to go 4-for-18 in the fourth quarter of those contests, as Toronto has given up leads of 18 and 13 points in back-to-back losses to New Orleans and Dallas. “It happens,” DeRozan said. “You’re going to have some type of drought at some point in the season. It just happens. It can be many sorts of things, fatigue, or whatever it may be.” Neither player has seemed right, at least not consistently, since DeRozan returned from a 21-game layoff due to injury in early January. While the Raptors’ swingman has worked his way back from the first serious ailment of his career, Lowry has looked spent at times having carried the team on his shoulders in DeRozan’s absence. Their work in February has reflected that. Both guards are shooting below 37 per cent from the field and a combined 16-for-72 (22 per cent) from long distance this month. Of greater concern, they both seem to be settling, particularly late in games.
Kyle Lowry of Toronto Raptors on struggles — ‘I’m trash’ | ESPN
In his past 12 games, the 28-year-old All-Star is averaging 13.4 points and 5.9 assists with 36.3 percent shooting, including 26.2 percent from 3-point range. “I don’t know,” Lowry replied when asked why his numbers have dropped. “That’s why I’m in here working hard and trying to figure out what to do and trying to get [myself] back on track.
Is Kyle Lowry running out of gas? | /r/nba
Kyle Lowry’s per. month averages this season: November: 19.7 points, 6.4 assists, 5.2 rebounds – 44.7% shooting December: 22.3 points, 8.9 assists, 4.2 rebounds – 46.3% shooting (DeRozan was injured all of December) January: 16.6 points, 6.8 assists, 5.1 rebounds – 37.4% shooting February: 12.8 points, 5.9 assists, 3.2 rebounds – 35.4% shooting
Let’s Measure Raptor Performance by Synergy Play Type Statistics | Raptors HQ
Kyle Lowry has proven that he’s one of the best point guards in the NBA, but these Synergy stats aren’t all that kind to him. He ranks 24th in the league in points scored in transition (181), but only does so at a rate of 0.98 points per possession (PPP). That places him in the lowly 26.8 percentile of the NBA in terms of efficiency on the break. He fares slightly better in isolation (0.92 PPP, 72.6 percentile) and pick-and-roll situations as the ball handler (0.83 PPP, 66.5 percentile), but doesn’t really stack up to other All-Star guards in those areas. He does well coming off screens (1.07 PPP, 81.6 percentile), but that only makes up 5.1% of his offensive possessions. In other words, volume is Lowry’s friend, but he’s not overly efficient in the most common situations point guards generally find themselves in.
Toronto Raptors: Who Should be Starting? | Raptors Rapture
With Johnson on the court, the Raptors do quite well. This unit outscores its opponents by 10.4 points, shooting 8% better from the field. That’s huge. There are two big reasons for why the first goal difference is so large. First, Johnson does not shoot a ton of 3-pointers. Instead, he is a graceful finisher around the rim. Second, Johnson is one of the team’s best defenders, which can be dabilitating to a foe’s offence. This unit has also outshot their opponents by a whopping 20% from the charity stripe. I don’t really have an explanation for that, aside from simply noting that Johnson has touch. This unit also exemplifies strong ball-security, coughing up the rock 2.4 less times per 100 possessions than their opponents.
Toronto Raptors vs. Golden State Warriors: Friday NBA game preview | Toronto Star
The Warriors are in the middle of a six-game road trip that has already seen them play worthy opponents such as Indiana, Washington and, on Thursday night, LeBron James and the Cavaliers. Heading into that contest, Stephen Curryall-star guard Stephen Curry had scored at least 20 points in 12 straight games, anchoring a steamrolling offence that’s averaging an NBA-best 110.4 points.
Warriors-Raptors Preview | Yahoo Sports
“You’ve got Steph and Klay coming in here, the No. 1 team in the league so the buzz in the arena is going to be around and I think we’re just trying to get back to our winning ways,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said. Lowry is averaging 14.7 points on 29.8 percent shooting in this slide, which is one game shy of a four-game skid Dec. 30-Jan. 8 for the Raptors’ worst. Toronto has been outscored by 27 and shot 32.3 percent in the fourth quarter of the three defeats, which capped a four-game road swing. Lowry is 2 for 8 for six points in that quarter. The Raptors’ last two opponents have combined to shoot 64.9 percent in the fourth quarters. “We always could depend on the fourth quarter defensively to get stops, to get on a run and close it out in the fourth quarter,” coach Dwane Casey said. “So we’ve got to look at who’s on the floor at that time to put a finger in that dike.”
I can haz yo linkz??! rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
