It’s a bit of a cliché at this point, but did the Toronto Raptors win last night’s game, or did the Los Angeles Clippers lose it?
The Raptors showed up to play, sort of, in the first half. They made 51.2 percent of their shot attempts, outrebounded the Clippers 26-17, and dished out 11 assists with only three turnovers. That was good.
The Clippers, on the other hand, shot 38.2 percent in the first half and dished out 10 assists with 13 turnovers.
At the half, the Raptors led 63-34. Great, right? It depends on how you look at it.
In the first half, the Clippers were a mess. There was essentially zero communication on defense, no urgency on cuts or screens, and plenty of hasty, questionable decisions on both ends of the floor. The Clippers haven’t been good lately. They’ve won just three of their last 10 games, with some of their losses to good teams but most to average or bad teams. Why they’re in this slump is anyone’s guess, but it’s real. Something’s going on.
From just after last night’s game:
Loud commotion inside the Clipper locker room. Can hear it through the walls.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) November 22, 2015
You could certainly make the argument that the Raptors capitalized on whatever’s going on with the Clippers, or that they came to play with Jonas Valanciunas, or even that they held on when the Clippers made a run in the second half. And you’d be right. But there’s so much more to this game than that.
If you watched the Clippers’ game against the Golden State Warriors a few nights ago, you saw a completely different team. They were active, aggressive, and incredibly polished. That game alone reaffirmed that the Western Conference is much, much better than the Eastern Conference. Teams in the west play with an intensity you simply don’t see in the east.
So to see the Clippers as lackadaisical, unengaged and careless as they were in the first half was a surprise. Thankfully, the Raptors took advantage of that with good but not great basketball.
They relied heavily on Luis Scola, who finished the first half with 12 points, four rebounds and a sweet assist to Bismack Biyombo for a reverse dunky-layup thing. He even dove to the floor and fought for loose balls a couple of times. Scola’s 35, by the way. Kudos to him for a fantastic game.
Something must have happened in the Clippers’ locker room at the half, however, because the second half was a completely different game.
The Raptors seemed content to coast, relying on their seemingly insurmountable 29-point led. The Clippers, on the other hand, looked much more like the team that took it to the Warriors. They were focused and energetic, a far cry from whatever they were in the first half.
The Raptors scored just eight points in the third quarter, where they shot 18.2 percent from the field. Only DeMar DeRozan shot better than 50 percent in the third quarter, but he only took four shots. The Raptors were also out-rebounded by the Clippers, 17-11, in the third.
In the fourth, the tone of the game changed dramatically. Honestly, it looked a lot like playoff basketball in the Eastern Conference. Or Western Conference basketball in the regular season. Same thing, really.
Both teams played with an intensity not seen in the first three quarters. Cuts were crisp and efficient. Jump shots were jump shots, not set shots. All passes were bullet passes.
And when that happened, the Raptors were the inferior team.
Luckily, their 29-point lead from the first half was enough to keep them afloat, as the Clippers were only able to cut the lead to six when Wesley Johnson hit a 3-pointer in the corner off of an Austin Rivers pass. The Clippers outscored the Raptors 26-20 in the fourth quarter, and 46-28 in the second half as a whole. The Raptors ultimately came away with the win, 91-80.
This is what concerns people about the Raptors. Sure, they’re a good regular season team. They’re a talented bunch with depth at every position. But when push comes to shove, when the game is on the line, when your opponent is, well, good, can they win?
The answer is probably no, though we’re only 15 games into the season and the Raptors have a winning record of 9-6.
There were certainly some highlights in last night’s game. Three Raptors – DeRozan, Scola, and DeMarre Carroll – finished with 20 or more points, Biyombo snagged 15 rebounds, and Carroll scored in every way imaginable, finishing the game on 8-13 shooting (he actually made his first eight shots and missed his next five, but let’s stay positive).
We hear it a lot: the Western Conference is better than the East. Perhaps we don’t take that as seriously as we used to. The gap is still there, and it’s huge. The top Western Conference teams are considerably better than the top Eastern Conference teams.
The Raptors weren’t bad last night. They just weren’t as good as they need to be if they expect to make a deep run in the playoffs.
Still, a win is a win, and we’re one step closer to our third consecutive playoff berth.
Go Raptors.
