This was a typical late season Toronto Raptors performance: scrappy and inconsistent but with just enough to eke out the victory. That’s more or less how the entire season has gone, and that may play out exactly the way this game did with the Raptors pulling within a game of the conference leading Cleveland Cavaliers – they don’t seem like they’ve played quite well enough to be in this position, but they’re somehow in striking distance. The Raptors are an annoying team to play against, pesky and persistent and difficult to put down, which is why they’ve only experienced 8 double-digit losses all season. Even when they aren’t playing particularly well they manage to keep games fairly close. Being a scrappy team that never goes away is probably the second best thing to being a truly elite team – if you don’t have the power to win by KO you need to go the distance and that’s what the Raptors do night in and night out. They’re usually the ones left standing at the end, especially in front of their home fans.
This game followed that model, the Raptors won it by sheer force of will. They were shorthanded, running an eight man rotation featuring two of their Raptors 905 call ups. They weren’t making their shots, both from the floor and the free throw line. The defense was porous for long stretches, surrendering shots at the rim or from the outside despite the best efforts of backup centre Bismack Biyombo. Without their usual floor spacers they had a congested paint to deal with and their free throws weren’t falling but they didn’t let that deter them, they just kept driving straight to the rim so the volume could make up for their decreased efficiency. They made mistakes on the defensive end but made up for them with an unrelenting hustle that seemed to wear down the Magic – openings that would have been exploited for drives in the first half were jump shots by the fourth quarter. The grind was familiar to the Raptors, who have been there time and time again this season, the Magic just didn’t seem to be able to handle it and in the end the Raptors were left standing.
That $^#@ I Like:
Raptors 905 Validation – Most people already believe that Raptors 905 was a good investment but it’s still nice to see it paying off. Norman Powell still needs to get some consistency with his outside shot, Delon Wright still struggles with knowing when to shoot and when to pass and gets a little lost on defense and Bebe seems kind of out of shape at times but there have been times when each of them has been called on by the parent club to fill in gaps in the rotation and they’ve all been able to step up. Powell remains in the starting lineup while DeMarre Carroll and James Johnson are on injury reserve and today Wright got to replace an injured Cory Joseph in the rotation and performed admirably. Early in the season he would struggle with getting inside the defense, something he excelled at while playing college ball but doesn’t always translate to the faster, more physical NBA game. Today he had no such issues despite the trouble the Raptors had spacing the floor, using a deceptive first step and some crafty change of pace to get inside. This is a really good sign because the Raptors could use a third point guard sooner than later with Cory Joseph and Kyle Lowry sharing the floor so often.
Nobody Beats the Biz – with Valanciunas out the Raptors have had to simplify some things they do on offense for the sake of their stone-handed backup centre and it’s really paid off. The biggest thing is the guards ignoring tight windows where they have to make difficult passes, the ones that Valanciunas is usually able to catch but Biyombo has a tendency to bobble. Up until recently the guards would throw the same passes to both centres and get visibly frustrated when Biyombo wasn’t able to hold on, like it was his fault that his teammates didn’t understand his limitations. Those passes are rarely made now and it’s made life easier for everyone involved. I’d much rather see Biz throw down some monster dunks than see him bobble passes out of bounds.
Jason Thompson Fitting In – the gap between Thompson and Scola on the defensive end is so large that he can be a net positive while contributing almost nothing on the offensive end so his crashing the offensive glass and scoring a basket or two in the post is just a bonus. He’s already shown enough to wrestle the starting spot from Scola or to make it a little more feasible to start Patterson with Thompson taking over as the primary backup PF. Scola has been contributing on offense over the last two games but he’s a +2 over those two games combined while Thompson has been +23 despite playing one fewer minute. If the Scola-Valanciunas combo continues to struggle the Raptors have options.
That $%&@ I Don’t Like
Luis Scola’s Defense – I feel kind of bad for saying something negative about him when he had another good offensive showing but his defense was a problem. The Magic big men were able to get free for outside shots whenever they wanted to and that was one of the main contributing factors to the lead they were able to build up. In the second and third quarters it really didn’t seem to matter which big men the Magic would target in the pick and pop, they were getting wide open looks whether it was the Biz or Jason Thompson or Scola, but at least the other two offered something in the way of rim protection. Scola is too slow to get to shooters and lacks the size and athleticism necessary to protect the rim. If he’s playing in the postseason teams are going to target him over and over and over again and most prospective playoff opponents have big men who can stretch the floor.
Making Bad Shots, Missing Good Ones – according to Sportvu the Magic got 39 uncontested field goals to the Raptors 24. The number for the Raptors is really low, it means that 70% of their shots were contested compared to 53% for the Magic. This was made even worse by the fact that the Raptors only converted 42% of their uncontested attempts, which was actually slightly lower than the 43% they shot on their contested attempts. They still had a fairly good overall showing on the offensive end but it was almost entirely because of their advantage at the free throw line, which doesn’t bode well for them should they come up against a disciplined defense in the playoffs. They really need to figure out ways to generate offense without help from the referees, hopefully the return of some of their outside shooters will help with that.
Overworking Kyle Lowry – Lowry wouldn’t need to miss entire games to rest if the Raptors didn’t play him 40+ minutes every other night. Right now he’s second in the league in minutes per game and is the oldest player in the league averaging over 36 mpg, beating Kevin Durant by two years. With DeRozan currently at 6th in the league in minutes per game the Raptors are the only team with two players in the top 10 and the only other playoff team who relies on two player so heavily are the Charlotte Hornets, with Kemba Walker ranking 8th and Nic Batum occupying the 13th spot. I have no doubt that the Raptors will endeavour to find them some rest before the playoff start, especially with the last two games coming against the Nets and the Sixers, but if you look at the home/away records for both the Raptors and the Cavaliers homecourt will be important should they face off and I hate the thought of the Raptors sacrificing games at the end of the season to get Lowry the rest they should have been giving him all season long. This is another reason the Raptors need an offensive system that is not centred around the one on one play of their guards, it forces them to carry more weight than their peers. They shouldn’t be playing Lowry this much but the team is so dependent on his skills to carry the offense because they have very few plays that can generate offense without him that they can’t afford to sit him. This is why they need plays to get shooters like Ross and Patterson open looks that aren’t kick outs from dribble penetration and why they need more plays designed to get Valanciunas post touches with cutters: making everything dependent on the guards makes it impossible for the team to function without them which makes it impossible to get them the rest they need.
It wasn’t pretty but it was a win, one that puts them that much closer to yet another franchise record and puts them within striking distance of their first Eastern Conference title. Whether they get there or not it’s just nice to see them in the running this late in the season. The team looks to continue their current win streak when they kick off a short road trip in Boston on March 23rd, hopefully with a nearly complete roster on the floor.
