Last night’s loss in Chicago was a very strange game to watch as the Raptors dropped their sixth straight game to the Bulls. I’m still trying to make proper sense of what I watched last night, so let’s just try and recap what happened in a breakdown between good things, and bad things. Here goes.
Good thing:
Kyle Lowry- Lowry played an exceptional game last night. He put 28 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals on 9 of 15 shooting. Lowry never subbed out during the second half and did so without ever shifting lower than fourth gear. Lowry played 40 of the 48 minutes of the game and finished with a +12 rating in a game the Raptors lost by 7, which tells you…
Bad thing:
The Raptors without Kyle Lowry- The bench got absolutely clobbered last night. They took a double digit lead after the first quarter and promptly turned it over to a Bulls advantage. Valanciunas was the lone bright spot for the reserves, though that’s misleading because he played most of his minutes with the starters after Biyombo, a zero on offense, got into foul trouble on defense.
Good thing:
The Raptors starting 5- Valanciunas came off the bench, but the group looked best when he came in for Biyombo and freed up space and offered a hand that can finish outside of an inch from the hoop. The Carroll-Valanciunas-Lowry-DeRozan-Scola lineup was a net positive in it’s minutes together.
Bad thing:
The Raptors Bench- The Bench unit was a monkey poop-flinging show at the zoo in the first half. They gave up points handily while looking discombobulated on offence. The problem wasn’t a lack of ball movement but rather a complete lack of motion at all. Whoever had the ball seemed to wait for a screen or somebody, anybody to do something to free themselves for at least a pass. If that small miracle happened, that player seemed to realize that they had to create some sort of shot, because there was nothing else happening. That didn’t work out so well. After giving up a double digit lead in about 7 minutes of play, Casey yanked the unit and put the starters back in. James Johnson didn’t see the court in the second half as a result, and the bench unit wasn’t trusted as a group again, with Casey riding Valanciunas, Lowry and DeRozan heavily in the second half.
Good thing:
Ross in transition- Ross had a pair of nasty blocks coming from behind his man in transition. Ross has this freaky ability to manipulate gravity at times, and he launched himself into the air to swat down a pair of what would have been easy layups off of turnovers.
Bad thing:
Pau exploiting Valanciunas- Pau Gasol was able to exploit the Raptor’s pick and roll scheme with Valanciunas. The Raptors try and force everything to the side, away from the direct driving lane to the basket on middle pick and rolls. They also have had Valanciunas hanging way back, leaving him in better position to challenge the ball handler’s shot, shift to the roll man if need be or be in position for a defensive rebound. This leaves the pick and pop game wide open and Pau was the recipient of several clean looks from the foul line area on such plays last night. It’s a schematic flaw that has Valanciunas looking like he’s out of place. The help was never able to rotate from the weakside in time to challenge the shot and Gasol reigned fire on this play in the second half. It’s a problem for Valanciunas, who in rushing out to offer a challenge to his man’s shot completely takes himself out of position to rebound, which is exactly what happened on the only such shot that Gasol missed, turning into a Bobby Portis rebound. Speaking of…
Good thing:
Bobby Portis stink face- Portis’ jump shot and his feel for spacing and rebounding are very promising. But his stink face game is already elite. Portis repeatedly strut around the court last night after getting fouled, grabbing key rebounds in traffic quickly followed by whistles or after hitting big jumpers. He’s got the whole look down: walk slowly with purpose, leading awkwardly with one shoulder at a time. Don’t look at any one person on the court, but rather off into space but with focused intensity. Finally, contort your face into an expression like you’ve just walked into someone else’s fart, like you’ve just sucked hard on a lemon and you’re not happy about it. That’s how you nail the NBA stink face, and Bobby Portis lives on that corner.
Bad thing:
Randomness- in 2015, if an opponent is going to try and beat you solely on difficult, contorting, in traffic attempts from Derrick Rose and Aaron Brooks at the basket and 3 point attempts from the aforementioned firm of Brooks and Rose along with Tony Snell, you’ll live with it. Those are all largely inefficient shots. Unfortunately, they seemed to all drop for Chicago last night. They were bad shots that would have had the ghost of Thibideau writhing in discomfort, but that didn’t stop what felt like every single one of them from going in. So it goes.
Good thing:
DeRozan’s growing patience- DeMar has long struggled against the Bulls. But what I’ve been seeing from DeMar more and more this season and especially last night is an improved patience in his game. He’s forcing less bad shots, and rarely put up any last night. Instead, he’s driving to the basket with a Harden-like purpose. He knows he probably can’t get a clean shot up against the smothering of Jimmy Butler with the solid help defense of Gibson or a 7-footer waiting to block his shot, but he steers himself into their path and repeatedly fakes or moves his attempt around just enough in the takeoff portion of the shot and while hanging in the air to get the foul call before putting up the last second shot. It’s savvy play, and part of why he’s averaging a career high in free throws.
Bad thing:
Tony Snell, cheating- Tony Snell used one of his 3 magical wishes from the Genie he recently found to be able to shoot the absolute lights out in the second half of a random December game against the Raptors. I mean, hats off, you looked like a boss out there ballin’ Tony, and I guess that’s cool. But you could literally wished for anything else. A whole game, an important game, heck, why not the whole season? Why use the wish on basketball at all, there’s more to life than just that. Use those last two wishes more wisely dude.
