Raptors 106, Magic 103 (OT) | Box Score | Quick Reaction
On the rare occasions this season when DeMar DeRozan has struggled, good friend and backcourt mate Kyle Lowry has had his back. When Lowry’s gone cold, DeRozan’s lifted his pal. This is the case not just game by game, but on larger or smaller scales as needed. Lowry dominated November, DeRozan was ridiculous in December. They’ve been open about occasionally trading quarters within a game, and in their fourth year together, they’ve developed a terrific chemistry and feel for when to defer to the other.
It’s a luxury for the Toronto Raptors to be able to turn to either one when things are good, and oscillate between them as their play dictates. If someone suggested there would be a night when both were struggling, however, it would stand as a major concern – the Raptors have some nice pieces around them, but the team’s secondary scoring has been inconsistent at best, particularly off the bench.
Well, the bench stepped up in a major way in London, England, on Thursday as Lowry and DeRozan struggled, lifting the Raptors to a tight, ugly, but mostly fun 106-103 overtime victory against a spry Orlando Magic squad.
The potential All-Star duo combined to shoot 9-of-39 from the floor and 2-of-11 from long range, their composite output saved only by Lowry spending plenty of time at the free-throw line late and by both players recognizing the need to help elsewhere and combining for 19 rebounds. Lowry scored nine points across the fourth quarter and overtime, to be clear, it’s just that he shot 0-of-7 without an assist during that stretch, and only four of his 10 free-throw attempts came from shooting fouls. He didn’t play poorly overall, but he wasn’t at his best.
DeRozan, meanwhile, was hounded into a good number of bad shots, as the Magic game-planned incredibly well for him. They threw a few different looks at him on defense and, more notably, were ready for his endless array of curls and pin-downs, doubling him on the catch or even jumping the screen to crowd his space. He did well to try to create for teammates in response to the additional attention, and his three assists undersell his contribution in that regard thanks to a poor shooting night from his teammates (8-of-24 from outside) and a few “Gretzky assists” (shout out to Greg Smith wearing No. 99 with Raptors 905).
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Those are good examples of the Raptors using the pressure the Magic put on DeRozan against them. On the occasions he missed the easy pass or decided to make one too late, he put too much pressure on teammates late in the clock or simply fired up a bad look.
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There’s sure to be some justifiable hand-wringing given that those two examples came late in a tight fourth quarter. Some will take that as further (false) proof that the Raptors “don’t run plays late.” To me, it’s more frustrating because they can and do run plays late, like this pivotal play in overtime when the Magic blitzed DeRozan.
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Before we rewind, let’s stick with the end-game just for a second. The Magic were able to force overtime thanks to a late and-1 from Nikola Vucevic and a crucial 12-footer from Victor Oladipo (the Raptors didn’t score in the game’s final minute). The Raptors then got a major break when Oladipo then opted to pull up for a three despite having numbers in transition, passing up an advantage driving to the rim to shoot an open 27-footer. Oladipo is a 32.6-percent 3-point shooter and had time to get to the rim, and this was a pretty unforgivable decision.
It did set the Raptors up for one of the best Vines of all time, as Jonas Valanciunas’ inbound coverage with less than a second on the clock was epic.
The Raptors worked quickly in overtime, with Valanciunas knocking down a jumper, Cory Joseph scoring in transition after Evan Forunier coughed the ball up, and Patrick Patterson knocking down that triple above, quickly building a five-point lead. After two scoreless minutes, Oladipo finished over Bismack Biyombo help to cut the lead to three. With a bend-or-break defensive possession, Joseph, Patterson, and raelly everyone on the floor locked in for a terrific stand.
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Following that stop, Oladipo would hit a corner three on a beautiful after-timeout play, but Lowry would ice things by hitting 3-of-4 free throws and stealing the ball from Oladipo late.
As we’ve seen on occasion this year, the Raptors, even without DeMarre Carroll (congrats on the baby!), can win a game with their defense when the offense stalls out. Considering they scored 45 points on 31.3-percent shooting from halftime onward, they had to do that Thursday. Orlando was held to 38.2-percent from the floor, four threes, and three free-throw attempts over that same time, with Joseph and Patterson in particular having excellent defensive showings (both centers had good-to-great nights on that end, too, Biyombo with help at the rim and Valanciunas on Vucevic on the block).
It was the bench that lifted Toronto the whole game, really. The Raptors got off to a slow start, down 11-7, and head coach Dwane Casey went to the bench early to bring in Joseph and Biyombo. Patterson would join shortly after, down 16-12, and then Terrence Ross would come in stuck 17-15. Patterson’s substitution, a swing to what can be considered a “bench unit” with three reserves, marked a key stretch of the game – the Raptors went on a 19-2 run over the final 3:55 of the first quarter, with DeRozan the only starter on the floor for most of that.
Part of that has to do with a shaky Magic bench providing little resistance outside of Jason Smith’s ultra-wet first-half jumper. Elfrid Payton and Aaron Gordon were working there way through ankle ailments, Andrew Nicholson hasn’t hit a jumper since the dollar was at 80 cents, and the Swag God was uncharacteristically mortal. Casey would get even more bold late in the third, going with the dreaded full-bench unit for nearly three minutes, conceding just two points off their lead in the process. Those are important runs to have over the course of the game, to either dominate an opposing bench or hold serve while key players rest, and the Raptors’ reserves showed really well. Ross didn’t have a very good night despite the ridiculous team-high plus-minus, and Norman Powell didn’t get enough run to really register, but Joseph, Patterson, and Biyombo were huge.
They were rewarded with minutes late as a result. Casey opted to keep the Lowry-Joseph point guard duo on the floor for all of the fourth and overtime, keeping James Johnson on the bench. Patterson had earned the stretch-run minutes over Scola and likewise didn’t leave the floor. Biyombo stayed with the core group until late in the fourth, then platooned with Valanciunas the rest of the way. This type of performance from the bench affords Casey flexibility, which is particularly valuable with Carroll on the shelf and Casey’s pet closing lineup unavailable.
On most nights, as Lowry and DeRozan go, the Raptors will go. When they’re not going, the defense needs to step up, and the bench needs to produce. The Raptors are now 3-3 when the backcourt duo combines for a true-shooting percentage worse than 40 percent this season (an arbitrary cut off, to be sure; the other wins were the Clippers and Pelicans games, when the opponent scored 80 and 81 points, respectively). It’s not something the Raptors can rely on regularly, but they don’t need to – normally, DeRozand and Lowry have each other’s backs, like good friends do. Patterson, Joseph, and Biyombo showed Thursday why even if everyone has their road-dog, real squads run deep.
