The Kings and Raptors are intrinsically linked in my mind solely based on the Rudy Gay trade in December 2013. Toronto as a franchise has made so many positive steps since shipping Rudy to Sacramento for spare pieces, and yet Patrick Patterson is now the only one remaining. That day changed things for Toronto.
For Sacramento, Rudy Gay and Quincy Acy are the holdovers from that fateful day.
And here we are nearly two years later. The Raptors have hopes to improve on their record form last year, while also keeping an eye on the greater picture of winning a playoff series, and the Kings are…still as dysfunctional as ever.
Despite all their issues as a franchise though, I entered last night’s game with serious concerns. Chiefly of which was, of course, DeMarcus Cousins.
That man terrifies me and I fully expected him to eat the Raptors alive. A man that size should be able to dominate in the post…and he does. But it doesn’t feel like a man his size should have his passing instincts, or the ability to hit 50+ percent from three, or the speed to run the floor, or the handle to take someone off the dribble.
So what did we see last night?
First and foremost, we saw good DeMar DeRozan for most of the night. I often complain about him, but last night I loved almost everything that he did up for the first 3.75 quarters (I’ll talk about the last .25 later). He was jumping passing lanes at the perfect time, making the smart pass, baiting his man into fouls, and creating for himself and others. DeRozan was at his best for a good portion of the evening, and we got a sense of it right off the bat. The first possession of the game saw DeRozan drive baseline, only to find Lowry in the far corner for an open three.
In fact, the last few games have felt like the Raptors are using DeRozan to initiate the offence in the half-court, which I don’t mind depending on who is guarding him. With a solid man defender like Rondo guarding Lowry, DeRozan was used as the primary ball handler on several possessions, allowing Lowry to move off ball as a shooter. Not a bad look for spurts as it can help mitigate some of the issues caused by DeRozan’s lack of a three-ball, but more as a change of pace rather than a consistent look.
The first half ended with the Raptors down by just two, despite shooting a mediocre 37 percent and being outrebounded by 5. It wasn’t so much an issue of being outplayed or playing poorly, it was more so an issue of just missing shots. Toronto missed an incredible number of open shots that simply rimmed out.
Many of these shots were largely allowed by Sacramento. With bigs such as Cousins, Trilly Willie Cauley-Stein, and Kosta Koufos, Sacramento did an excellent job of packing the paint and daring the Raptors to beat them with the shot. Both Cousins and Trilly Willie are also mobile enough to guard on the perimeter when needed. The Kings entered last night having allowed 25.5 attempted threes per 100 possessions, good for the seventh most in the NBA.
Despite the slow start from three as a team, the second half was largely a different story. Led by Kyle Lowry, who briefly morphed into Steph Curry, and assisted in this regard by Patrick Patterson and DeMarre Carroll, the Raptors broke out from three in the second half.
In total, the Raptors finished with 15 three pointers and collectively shot 48.4 percent as a group.
While the team was led for most of the game by their all-stars in Kyle and DeMar, the bench provided key minutes and helped build a large lead early in the fourth quarter. Lowry was the lone starter to open the fourth quarter, and was joined by Cory Joseph, James Johnson, Patrick Patterson, and Bismack Biyombo. This line-up helped build a three point lead to start the fourth, into a quick 10 point lead almost immediately.
(Sidenote: What’s strange to say is that this was just the second weirdest line-up that Casey employed last night. Casey started the second quarter with an all-bench line-up of Joseph, Johnson, Patterson, Biyombo, and Norman Powell. At least we got to see Norm for a bit.)
Cory Joseph was once again an absolute stud. He is only 11 games into his time with the Raptors and is already making anyone who questioned his contract look silly. With the salary cap continuing to grow, Joseph is going to be an absolute bargain moving forward.
And now for the bad…
Where we saw good DeMar early in the game, we saw hero ball DeMar late in the game. He was forcing shots, fading away in isolation, and doing both with time left on the shot clock. What made him so successful early in the game practically disappeared and helped Sacramento to get back into the game.
DeMar wasn’t the only culprit who ended the game poorly. The hot shooting that ended the third quarter and started the fourth quarter, disappeared late in the game. Plenty of turnovers to end the game, missed shots, bad spacing, and a dominant Cousins was the story of the final few minutes.
Some shots didn’t fall early, and the Raptors did just enough to let Sacramento hang around. Toronto probably should have won, but Cousins justified all of the concerns I had going into the game.
