What went wrong for the Raptors in Game 1, and how they can respond | Raptors HQ
Another problem for DeRozan on Saturday was that instances like the one above, in which the Raptors worked to get DeRozan open with a head of steam, were fewer and further between as the game went on. Instead of persistently battering George with a series of off-ball screens, the Raptors asked DeRozan to go one-on-one with George far too often. DeRozan has a fancy array of post moves that work against most wings. George is a different beast, though. Asking DeRozan to create against him yielded the expected result more often than not.
Raptors: It’s our turn | Toronto Sun
“I’m not shying away from it. It’s just at that point where it’s like, ‘all right, whatever.’ You know what? I know what everybody’s going to say: ‘Here we go again.’ I read everybody (including the media), there you go right there: That’s what they said,” Lowry said
Lowry insists the uproar and negativity on social media isn’t bothering him.
“No. That’s what it’s for. It’s for people to say their opinions. It’s for people to have an opinion. And that’s the world we live in. So I appreciate it, I love it, I mean I have my own opinion, I always comment on Twitter, I watch games, I say what I want to say. So that’s what it’s for. It’s for people to have a personality and have a voice. And you know, it’s part of the world. And for us, for me, I really just didn’t want to read it.”
Fellow all-star DeMar DeRozan loves the fanbase and having the entire country of Canada as potential backers, but wants the focus in the room to be on the brotherhood between the players and the staff alone.
“I don’t think we have (panicked) this time around,” DeRozan said.
“I think the outside people have. I’ve just been telling our guys, it’s all about us. It’s the guys in this jersey, the coaches, it’s one game. We understand what we have to do. We played terrible and still had a chance. We gave up 19, 20 turnovers, missed 12 free throws, we still had a chance. It’s a game. We’ve got another opportunity on our home floor to even it out. It wasn’t like we were going to go out there and sweep ’em. You know, that’s a tough team over there. Now it’s our turn to bounce back Monday.”
How The Raptors Can Fix Their DeMar DeRozan Problem | RealGM Analysis
One simple way Dwane Casey can make life easier for DeRozan: play him with Patrick Patterson. During the regular season, DeRozan was 4.1 percent more accurate in the restricted area with Patterson on the court, and more of his offense came from mid-range jumpers when Patterson wasn’t on the floor.
On a grander level, the Raptors’ offense rating was 104.7 when DeRozan didn’t have Patterson by his side and 110.7 when he did. In Game 1, the difference was astronomical. It’s all about spacing. Have Patterson set screens/run handoffs for DeRozan and watch how uncomfortable it makes defenders who have to worry about the stretch four popping out for an open three.
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan stay confident despite Game 1 struggles | ESPN
“Yeah, I erased my Instagram, my Twitter, all of that,” DeRozan said. “I just don’t want to accidentally click on any of that.”
Still, Lowry has an idea of what the naysayers are saying.
“I’m not shying away from it. It’s just at that point where it’s like all right, whatever,” Lowry said. “I know what everybody’s going to say, ‘Here we go again.’ I read everybody. There you go right there: That’s what they said.”
The thing is Lowry, DeRozan and the rest of the Raptors don’t want to hear it. They already know what’s at stake, how much is riding on their performance. And they’re ready to bounce back.
“You’re fighting for your life,” DeRozan said. “If you were drowning in the water, you’re gonna figure out something to hold onto, to float on, right? You kind of have that natural instinct when you’re a competitor, and that’s the beauty of this game — when things get rough, you kind of find enjoyment in it and trying to overcome it. That’s the great thing about basketball.”
So are the Raptors drowning?
“No, we’re in a puddle right now,” DeRozan said. “A little puddle. We have some new shoes on, and they got a little wet. That’s all.”
Raptors need more mintues from Carroll | Toronto Sun
Head coach Dwane Casey was asked after practice on Sunday whether Carroll is ready?
“We’ll find out. DeMarre is one of the best wing defenders in the league,” Casey said.
“Paul George is one of the best offensive players in the league and we need him to guard him, to be in front of him, to make him work. You’re not going to stop a guy like Paul George. You want to make him work and make him expend energy to score those points and make it difficult to give him different looks, we’ve changed up some things as far as how we want to guard him to make him think that … there’s not a rhythm play for him. We’ll see if our adjustments are good. The whole series will be about different adjustments, whether it’s personnel or scheme driven for the next game.”
Can Carroll act as life jacket for Raptors’ DeRozan? | Sportsnet.ca
“DeMar is not used to it,” said Carroll. “Guarding a guy on one end and then coming down and having to score and still play 40 minutes is kind of hard for a guy who has never done it before.
“Am I capable of taking my minutes restrictions off? Basically that is up to the medical staff and [Raptors general manager] Masai [Ujiri] and the coaching staff,” Carroll said. “We will see what happens [Monday]. Hopefully it will be taken off.
“[But] I feel good. I could play way more than 20 [minutes],” he added. “I feel I could help the team in a better way if I play more minutes. I can make it more difficult on him but it’s up to coach. I’m just here to do my role and do my job.”
DeMarre Carroll wants to guard Paul George: ‘That’s what I live for’ | CBSSports.com
“He wasn’t tired,” Carroll said. “There was no fatigue on him and that’s what you don’t want.”
The question is whether or not Carroll is physically ready to take on this matchup. He played 19 minutes in Game 1, including a late stretch defending George after Indiana’s star had already heated up. According to Carroll, he is on a 20-minute restriction, but he feels like he can play “way more than 20.”
“I can play how many minutes they give me,” Carroll said. “It’s just about getting out there. And I’m the type of guy, if I get fatigued I will look at coach and tell him I’m fatigued. I’m not one of those guys who’s going to stay out there and stand out there and keep being tired and keep playing. I feel like it’s up to the training staff, coach and [general manager] Masai [Ujiri], whenever they’re ready to lift my minutes.”
Our team is Kyle Lowry, and he is injured /hurt | RealGM
I hardly make any new threads, and this is far from reactionary.
But it’s safe to say that our team goes as far as Kyle Lowry , he is our franchise player and the main reason why we have played well these past 3 years.
However, watching him today I realize something is completely wrong and of course the blame is to be put on the whole team, however this is going unnoticed and dates back to the Washington series.
I watch Lowry play all the time, and today the way he played , Differing the basketball a lot, playing off ball more than usual, missing clutch free throws as well as having his dribble penetration Drive stopped completely got me worried. He did not even attempt to lead this team when it counted , and completely folded in. For someone who gets ranked as an MVP, and someone who is a starter for the Eastern conference All-Star team, this is completely unacceptable .
And what I believe is the case is that he is rundown and injured. A lot of the shots he took, unlike demar, where not as tightly guarded. Kyle actually had a lot of room to operate. He also was making ridiculous passes and turned over the ball a lot.
This is been happening at the later part of the season as well, Where Kyle has it been struggling because of that elbow injury.
Unlike demar, lorry’s game is much more versitaile – he can’t be shut down. And watching those missed free-throw’s it just seems like Kyle is not playing 100%
I want this thread to be a complete analysis of Kyle’s play, especially on the offence end.
I might be wrong but he looks completely different then the guy we are all used to.
Any thoughts?
The Raptors need All-Star Kyle Lowry back | Raptors Rapture
Using shot tracking data from NBA.com, we can see that Lowry’s favorite shots have abandoned him. Kyle shot pull up jumpers most frequently in the regular season. Shooting 10 feet from the basket ranked as his second-most used range. He shot an effective field goal percentage, which measures all field goal attempts and provides an adjustment for 3 point shots, of 43.2% on pull-up shots and 50.5% on less than 10 feet shots throughout the regular season. After posting those respectable numbers, Lowry shot 9% worse on pull-ups and 24% worse from 10 feet or less since March 23.
Injured or not, Lowry’s shooting has declined precipitously in the past month – a trend that has continued into the playoffs. If the struggles are the result of injury, perhaps the Raptors should consider using Cory Joseph more frequently, who led the team in scoring in game 1 against Indiana and has been effective off the bench this season. If Lowry’s shooting stumbles have nothing to do with injury, perhaps he can shoot his way out of the slump. Either way, Toronto needs All-Star Kyle Lowry back.
Post-Game 1 Breakdown: Well, That Was Awful | Raptors HQ
Rotation Oddities
What was going on with those rotations?
There was the obvious problem that we’ve all seen coming, with Luis Scola staying with that starting lineup. But it was not the biggest problem in this game.
That award goes to the all-bench unit Casey trotted out in the first half. Lowry and DeRozan racked up heavy minutes for 82 games because Casey smartly wouldn’t take both off the floor at once, creating two of the most potent lineups in the league in the Lowry-plus-bench and DeRozan-plus-bench lineups. Those two lineups posted net ratings of +16 and +14 points per 100 possessions for the season. We saw 4 minutes of the Lowry-plus-bench lineup and none of the DeMar-plus-bench lineup at all.
What could have been for Big V in Game 1 | Toronto Sun
“That happens sometimes,” he said. It’s the not the first time that happened. You have to handle that. You have to not let it frustrate you. It’s hard because you want to do good. You cannot let the frustration get you.”
And in every respect, Valanciunas already appears to have put Saturday’s Game 1 loss and the frustration of not being able to finish what he started behind him. He doesn’t care to talk about the good that was those first 12 minutes or the bad that was at least two foul calls he didn’t deserve.
Valanciunas is not even interested in responding to the ‘Here we go again,’ cries that have been filling up the Twitter verse ever since the game ended.
“I don’t say anything (to those people) because we got to prove it,” Valanciunas said. “It’s not a talking time. We got (Monday) and we have a game Thursday and we’ve got to prove it. It’s easy to talk and sit at home or track to with you after practice sand say ‘We are going to win this’ or ‘We are going to do this now.’
“That talking is not worth anything,” he said. “You’ve got to show it on the court on Monday or the game after that or the game after that.”
Hustle Plays A Big Part in the Indiana Pacers Winning Game 1 | 8 Points 9 Seconds
While Toronto had a similar number of hustle plays in Game 1, what might have been the difference in the game was the way Indiana hit their mid-range and 3-point attempts. Sometimes luck, or whatever you’d like to call it, ends up mattering. Some days players struggle to hit shots even when they’re wide open. While both teams looked to putting out the same effort defensively, we saw Indiana’s shot’s falling, even on the contested ones.
Pacers’ Myles Turner going the distance | Toronto Sun
“He’s going to make rookie mistakes, but our player leadership does a great job of teaching him and keeping him encouraged,’’ Vogel said.
Paul George remembers his playoff debut when he had to defend Derrick Rose.
Turner went up against the like of Jonas Valanciunas and Bismack Biyombo.
“I think he did well,’’ George said of Turner. “There’s a lot of growing up. He had a tough task of guarding Valanciunas and Biyombo, who are very good, and they are very physical.
“Myles, I think, is growing up. The biggest part of growing up is learning how to play physical and be physical down there. He’s playing against grown men. I thought he did a good job, I thought he was poised late in the stretch.
“It says a lot when coach puts you in late in the stretch. He’s ready.”
Myles Turner Shines in Playoff Debut as Pacers Beat Raptors | 8 Points 9 Seconds
Shots by both Jonas Valanciunas and DeMar DeRozan picked up some frequent flier Myles, and Turner earned himself a nice little record in the process; he’s now the youngest player to ever record 5 blocks in a playoff game. Turner also went an efficient 56% (5-of-9) from the field and had a plus/minus of +15, second only to George and tied for Turner’s third best plus/minus game in his career.
The only real gripes you can make about his game were the unacceptable number of offensive boards the Raptors got while he was on the floor, two botched free throws, and getting suckered into 4 fouls in about 7 minutes. The rebounding effort, by him and everyone, must improve but you cannot put that all on Turner. The number of mistakes he made in Game 1 were fewer than you would say about most 20-year olds. For Turner’s only playoff experience being, ironically enough, a loss to the hometown Butler Bulldogs as a Texan Longhorn, he sure looked like he knew what he was doing.
Turner takes the hits, grows up in Pacers’ playoff win over Raptors | Indy Star
“Sometimes when you’re inexperienced, you lose your focus in a moment like that and he was very focused,” Mahinmi said. “For me, that’s great. It makes me feel better, especially after a rough start to have Myles coming in and being ready to play like that.”
Raptors by the numbers: How much does Game 1 loss hurt? | Eh Game – Yahoo Sports Canada
So based on their own history the odds are stacked against them, but what does history of the NBA say? According to WhoWins.com, the team that goes down 0-1 has rebounded to win a seven-game series 23% of the time. When that loss comes at home, however, the percentage jumps to 46%. Good teams, the ones that have earned home-court advantage, are in a better position to bounce back.
Why the Raptors lost Saturday is less of a mystery. Toronto turned the ball over 20 times and shot 21.4% (4-of-19) on three-pointers. Needless to say, that’s not a recipe for success. NBA teams went 65-135 (.325 winning-percentage) this season when turning the ball over 20 or more times and 42-123 (.255%) when shooting 21% or worse from three.
Pacers know Raptors will bring their best in Game 2 | Toronto Sun
“It’s not over,’’ Pacers star Paul George said of the series on Sunday. “We’re not satisfied with getting a win and being up 1-0. We got a job to do and we have to try to leave this trip at 2-0. It’s going to be tough. This Game 2 is really going to be the toughest game thus far.”
That’s the mentality players of George’s ilk always take to the court, especially at this time of the season when every game, regardless of which team has the lead in the series, means so much, the slightest slippage potentially leading to some series-changing momentum.
The fact is the Raptors will bring their best in Game 2 following a very poor performance in Game 1.
Whether it was the 12 missed free throws by the Raptors, the 20 turnovers Indiana parlayed into 25 points, the combined 8-for-32 shooting from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, Indiana knows what’s coming and how important it is to match Toronto’s aggression early.
With George on the floor, any close game will favour the Pacers given his ability to create on his own or create for his teammates.
Game 2 will test Raptors’ resolve | TSN
There’s a lot to improve on going into Game 2 but, to their credit and unlike last year, this team has shown the ability to correct issues quickly, before they fester into bigger concerns. All season, they’ve prided themselves on being able to bounce back and overcome adversity, and the results have reflected that. The Raptors have only lost consecutive games three times since Jan. 1, something they did seven times over that span the year prior, leading up to a predictable playoff meltdown. They haven’t dropped back-to-back contests at home since early December.
“We have to have the sense of urgency,” Casey said. “You get your butt kicked in the first game three years in a row, you want to come out with a sense of urgency, that sense of desperation; we can’t come out cool. That’s the mentality we have to come out with, is a sense of urgency.”
Now, whether they like it or not, they’re back in a familiar spot. They’re the underdogs, a look they feel better suits them, as crazy as that might sound.
“I think that’s our nature, our players’ DNA,” Casey pointed out. “If you look at each of our players, most of them have come from somewhere, from something, from some situation. They didn’t start out known as superstars. Myself included, we all have come through struggles and I think we all function better when our backs are against the wall and somebody is hitting us upside the head. I think that’s our DNA throughout our team, if you look at our team.”
Lowry knows he must be better for Raptors in Game 2 against Pacers | Toronto Sun
“My confidence is unshaken,” he said. “Do I look shaky? I look strong, don’t I?”
Sitting at a desk behind a microphone in a room full of relatively friendly local media, he does look strong. He does sound confident. He does appear more relaxed than ever in a circumstance that used to make him rather tense.
But where he needs to look strong is on the court, hitting open looks, not turning the ball over, pushing and prodding the offence to be better. And snarling when necessarily. Because snarling is what he does and who he is and it’s all part of the show. His show.
“At the end of the day, I still gotta be me,” he said. “I still got two kids at home. I gotta be a dad.”
And he has got to be better for the Raptors to succeed.
“We know teams are going to try to take us out,” said Lowry of the necessity that he and DeRozan rebound. “I shot 3-for-13. I got some good looks. Some looks I know I’m going to make the next game. And DeMar got the same opportunities … so we got to find ways to be effective, with the ball and without the ball.”
Game 2: Indiana Pacers at Toronto Raptors | Toronto Star
Key matchup: DeMarre Carroll vs. Paul George. Carroll is battling a minutes limitation, but he is clearly needed to pick up George for Game 2 and the rest of the series, so that DeRozan’s workload isn’t as heavy on both ends of the floor. Will Carroll’s knee allow for the matchup?
Why the Toronto Raptors will have a better Game 2 vs Pacers | Raptors Cage
The Pacers’ second half offense was completely unsustainable
In the second half of yesterday’s game, Indiana pulled ahead on the back of Paul George, who went off for 27 points in the 3rd and 4th quarters. This was on 76% shooting and 100% from 3-point range. Meanwhile, the rest of the Pacers shot a combined 6 of 20 in the half for 30 points in total. PG13 scored 50% of his teams points while his teammates chucked up bricks.
George is going to get his shots, but he can’t be expected to shoulder that same offensive load each game. He would need both the energy of 10 players, as well as an insane amount of good fortune.
George was the best player on the court yesterday, and is arguably the best overall player in this series. But if his team expects him to carry them the whole series the way he did last night, it would require one of the greatest individual playoff performances in sports history.
Game 2: Raptors future on the line | Raptors Rapture
For me, the biggest letdown is the failure of the offense to rise to the challenge. That’s also the most worrisome issue, because it’s possible to fix defensive shortcomings. In this last off-season, Dwane Casey prevailed upon his General Manager, Masai Ujiri, to bring in players who were already wired to defense. That also entailed dumping scoring-first players like Lou Williams. The result was a significant improvement in the Raptors team defense statistics, and a franchise-record win count of 56.
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