The Toronto Raptors beat the Washington Wizards largely thanks to their defense on Friday. At the other end of the floor, the Raptors scored a pedestrian 97 points on 100 possessions, in part because they only totaled 11 assists.
That’s symptomatic of a Raptors’ attack that ranks seventh in offensive efficiency despite a perceived lack of ball movement – the Raptors rank 11th in passes made per-game (309.3; they’d rank higher if we had per-possession numbers) but dead last in potential assists per-game, the number of would-be assists if all shots dropped (37.6). They’re second-last in assists per-game (18.2), too. Friday saw the Raptors tally just 23 potential assists and 261 passes, which is bad. When you have as many turnovers as potential assists, the offense isn’t flowing the way it should.
I had a handful of plays marked for clipping because the Raptors ran a few nice actions, mostly ones to involve Luis Scola and Jonas Valanciunas. Since I had them clipped, I thought I’d drop a few quick hitters, even though none on its own is particularly special.
James Johnson finds Valanciunas
Kyle Lowry stole an outlet pass in the second quarter and the Raptors were able to immediately reset, having not come back up the court yet. Valanciunas comes up to set a screen and the play has all the makings of a quick reset because the Raptors have terrible poor balance.
But Johnson’s man shades to help on Lowry, somewhat unnecessarily, and Johnson smartly attacks the second the ball hits his hands. Look at the hole Johnson has because of the over-help – he’s either going to have a clear lane, meet a back-pedaling Marcin Gortat, or suck the help out of the strong corner, creating an easy kick-out.
The defense collapses on Johnson, sealing off his drive, but he’s got DeMar DeRozan in the corner with the closeout assignee moving in the wrong direction or Valanciunas on the dive.
Gortat commits to Johnson, nobody comes from the weak-side corner in time to body Valanciunas, and he winds up missing an easy and-1 opportunity when Jared Dudley fouls and Valanciunas can’t convert the dunk.
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There’s nothing here action-wise that’s special, but it’s this type of attacking and passing that leave many so enamored with Johnson.
Valanciunas can pass, too
Valanciunas didn’t have his best night scoring or rebounding, but I thought he played well defensively in the second half, particularly in the pick-and-roll. He also had three assists, one on a really nice dish to a cutting Scola.
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I know the Wizards’ strategy was a lot of fronting, ball-denial, and jumping cut lanes, but I’m a little confused as to why Dudley was so aggressively coming up to prevent a big-to-big ball rotation. (Elsewhere, I love when Lowry screens for the indbounder when he doesn’t get the initial pass. The Wizards switched it fine here but that produces easy cuts underneath the basket sometimes.)
Flying Scola
While we’re on Scola, this play is the best. There’s not much going on other than a cross-screen from Valanciunas where he barely even touches Dudley, but Scola somehow gets the edge on him and finishes against help for an and-1.
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That play couldn’t be much simpler (I’m very unclear on what Johnson’s assignment is here; he should probably be pulling his defender out of the paint toward the weak corner with a full 24 seconds if he’s not screening or cutting), and it couldn’t be much simpler to defend: Don’t let Luis Scola outrace you. Hard times, Dudley.
DeRozan curls for easy dunk
Here’s one the Raptors run fairly often when DeRozan’s playing with the second unit, as it’s a good way to create a driving lane on a switch without the hindrance of Bismack Biyombo’s man over-helping in the paint. It starts with a corner dribble hand-off from Biyombo to Cory Joseph, while Patrick Patterson and T.J. Ross man the weak side of the lane and DeRozan patiently waits for what the Wizards probably know is an incoming screen.
Patterson sets the screen for DeRozan and Drew Gooden pays his man little mind, shading the middle of the floor. Ross, meanwhile, comes across to screen for Biyombo.
DeRozan comes off the curl and catches the ball in motion with Gooden isolated, a major mismatch. The Wizards would like to have Nene abandon Biyombo to help at the rim, but Ross is about to eliminate him with a nice screen. Ross’ man, meanwhile, can’t switch to help at the rim too early, lest Ross slip his screen to become a corner option for DeRozan (Biyombo’s in a position to set a screen for just that, or dive to the rim for a dump-off), who has improved leaps and bounds passing off the bounce.
Using Ross’ gravity as a shooter and having him screen Biyombo’s man just outside the paint is a nice way to clear up a restricted area that often gets packed with Biyombo on the floor. In this case, Nene gets around the screen way too late and opts not to get crowned on.
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One more that didn’t work
Here’s another common Raptors play with a short clock on a sideline out-of-bounds. Lowry runs past the inbound once the Wizards prevent the easy pass, then continues into a long curl around Scola. Nearby, Valanciunas is screening for DeRozan.
In this case, DeRozan’s man fights through really well, enough to get back into contest position if DeRozan receives the pass. Valanciunas is at the elbow as a safety valve, and Lowry’s opted not to aggressively curl to the weak corner.
DeRozan ultimately forces a tough shot that misses, but watch Scola closely – had he broke for a cut to the rim just a little earlier (he had the chance), DeRozan may have had an option other than a tough long two.
Did I mostly just want to move Scola around in MS Paint? Maybe.
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None of this is particularly interesting or exciting, because the Raptors didn’t do much interesting or exciting on offense Friday. Happy Saturday, everyone.
