The Toronto Raptors earned their franchise-best 50th win of the season with a 105-97 victory against the Atlanta Hawks Wednesday night. The win followed a stretch of three losses in the Raptors’ last four games, essentially halting a skid and reestablishing the Raptors as a top team in the Eastern Conference. Prior to Wednesday, the Hawks had won nine of their last 10 games and settled comfortably in the third spot with eyes on the Raptors’ own second seed. A long shot, sure, but certainly within the realm of possibility.
Especially with Elbowgate and whatever’s going on with DeMarre Carroll. A quick note on Kyle Lowry’s elbow situation: Despite being a game-time decision and wearing a mini protective sleeve to start the game, Lowry played 40 minutes against the Hawks. He eventually ditched the sleeve, telling reporters after the game, “It didn’t protect me, so f— it.” The sleeve noticeably affected his shot, so I guess we’re done with sleeved Kyle.
And onto the game itself.
The Raptors and Hawks played jittery basketball to start the game, with both teams playing a fast-paced, rushed style of basketball that resulted in far too many bad shots, many at the rim. Noticing that the Hawks were playing off of him to help on DeMar DeRozan and Lowry, the Raptors began to dump the ball inside to Jonas Valanciunas, who responded well and scored 10 of the Raptors’ 25 first-quarter points. Valanciunas scored in a myriad of ways, with his signature hook shot, face-up jumper, and easy under-the-basket layups all on display. Valanciunas finished the night with 19 points and nine rebounds and eventually fouled out of the game late in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks, on the other hand, relied on balanced scoring to stay in the game. At the half, 10 Hawks players had scored with no player scoring more than 10 points. The Raptors found balance, too, with 16 of their 19 first-half field goals being assisted, and four Raptors scoring nine or more points by the break. While you might assume the Raptors’ backcourt duo was assist-hunting or being bailed out by teammates, that wasn’t the case at all. The majority of those assists came within the flow of the offense, with the ball rarely sticking to either star for longer than a couple of seconds.
It was glorious, perhaps even some of the best basketball I’ve seen from the Raptors this season. The Raps finished the game with 26 assists, tied for their fourth-highest total this season, on 36 made field goals. Yeah.
Defensively, the Raptors were good but not great. They did a terrific job defending the rim, limiting Atlanta to just 26 points in the paint by the end of the third quarter. There were a handful of mishaps, like Jeff Teague weaving his way to the rim with relative ease and a Paul Millsap dunk, but for the most part the Raptors rotated well, with many thanks going to Jason Thompson, Bismack Biyombo, and Valanciunas. The Raptors did struggle to contain the Hawks from deep, allowing them to shoot 42.4 percent on 33 attempts, though I’d credit those figures to stellar passing from the Hawks — which is unbelievably difficult to stop if you can’t keep your assignment in front of you — before I’d crucify the Raptors’ team defense. In fact, the Raptors’ 14 steals against the Hawks, a season high, is a testament to how well they were defending the Hawks’ passing game. You can only do so much with what you have.
Performance of the night goes to DeRozan, who finished the game with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting, five rebounds, six assists, and three steals in 37 minutes of action. Rather than be the focal point of the offense, DeRozan often blended into the system, picking his spots and making the right play. I was genuinely impressed with a couple of the passes DeMar dished out, including two no-look passes to trailing bigs. A pass to Valanciunas led to an easy layup in transition, and while Thompson stymied what should’ve been DeRozan’s seventh assist, everything you’d want to see from DeRozan was there. His situational awareness was on another level Wednesday.
A flagrant foul from former Raptor Kris Humphries nearly killed DeRozan, by the way. Biyombo got’im back for it.
A little payback by Bismack on Humphries after the flagrant on DeRozan. #ATLatTOR pic.twitter.com/J75UVmDTVn
— Tas Melas (@TasMelas) March 31, 2016
Speaking of Biz, the Raptors center donated $6000 to the Eastern Congo Initiative with his six rebounds against the Hawks. He surely wishes that figure was much, much larger, but considering he played just 17 minutes, I think he did just fine. That $6000 will go toward training former child soldiers and providing legal access for victims of sexual assault in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You can contribute to the cause here.
And finally, allow me to leave you with the highlight of the night — a wicked crossover and dunk from Norman Powell. Powell’s really good, guys.
Welcome to #TheSix, Norman Powell! #NBAVine https://t.co/pEfKcHr2XY
— NBA (@NBA) March 31, 2016
All in all, this was a good win for the Raptors, but one that should be taken with a grain of salt. No Hawk played more than 25 minutes last night. Not a single one. Should these two teams match up in the playoffs, I highly doubt that’ll be the case. The two teams also play each other once more before the regular season ends, on Apr. 7.
The Raptors’ next game is Friday, Apr. 1 against the Memphis Grizzlies. They’ve fulfilled fans’ rather arbitrary demand for 50 wins, and should hopefully now be able to rest. Lowry’s health is paramount to the team’s success, and with the Cleveand Cavaliers continuing to keep the Raptors at bay and the Hawks likely being a game or two short of catching up, there’s no reason to risk injury or re-injury.
We’ll see what happens.
