The Toronto Raptors made a series of important adjustments following a Game 1 loss to the Indiana Pacers. The result was a decisive Game 2 victory, evening the series at one game apiece as it heads back to Indiana. It was an important win given the team’s recent playoff track record, and their confidence should be high after closing out a playoff game without their top scorer.
But they’re not getting too confident, because as the added experience in the locker room can tell you, that can be a death knell early in a playoff series.
“It’s always good when you get a win. It always boosts your spirit, of course,” Cory Joseph, he of 43 games of playoff experience, said at practice Tuesday. “But like I said, like I’ve been saying, you can’t get too high, you can’t get too low. It’s human nature to relax after a win and it’s easy to come back after a loss. We’ve gotta challenge ourselves to come out the same way as we did.”
That was a common refrain at the BioSteel Centre. The Raptors are in a bit of a strange spot, having surrendered home-court advantage as the favorite but also earning a split despite a combined one good game from their two All-Stars. There are reasons for optimism and confidence given how well they played Monday, and with their faith in DeMar DeRozan eventually bouncing back.
At the same time, like the Raptors got to adjust to everything Indiana did well in Game 1, the Pacers now get the benefit of two days of practice – and home court – to counter. They’re unlikely to change their primary coverage plan for DeRozan, which includes a bodies-close, hands-off approach to his drives that’s kept him off the free-throw line for the most part, at least as long as it’s working. They will, however, change something about their approach to Jonas Valanciunas, who has absolutely killed them through two games.
That’s something Valanciunas is ready for. For as much as he’s dominated physically, Valanciunas is ready for the mental aspect of this playoff war, too.
“The playoffs is a different game. You get more attention from the opposite team preparing way more than the regular season,” Valanciunas said. “They know what you’re doing, they know all your plays, they know your next step. It comes to the little details…It’s more of a thinking game, not a physical game. Yeah, we have some experience, we’ve got a couple years in the playoffs. But it’s a total different game. You’ve gotta just be prepared. It’s a different game. Every game is a different game. Game 3 is going to be different, they’re going to try to take something else from us.”
It’s unclear what, specifically, the Pacers may try against Valanciunas. They simply don’t have an answer for him on the offensive glass, and that problem could be exacerbated if Ian Mahinmi, who is day-to-day with a back issue, can’t play Thursday. So the Pacers may accept the rebounding disadvantage and look to make Valanciunas uncomfortable in other ways, like going smaller and forcing him out of the paint on defense. They could send a third body into the paint on his dives and forcing the Raptors to use ball movement around the perimeter to beat them, especially when Luis Scola shares the floor with Valanciunas. They could also throw a double at Valanciunas on post-ups and dare him to beat them with passing, which is improving but is still the biggest weakness in his offensive game. There are options. There are few that don’t risk opening up an advantage for Toronto somewhere else.
It won’t be easy for Indiana, and head coach Dwane Casey did a really nice job varying Valanciunas’ looks in the pick-and-roll, even adding in some wrinkles to some of the team’s pet plays to make hedging on to Kyle Lowry or Cory Joseph a more difficult proposition. Lowry did a great job going at Indiana bigs in those situations, which created space or mismatches for Valanciunas, and both point guards found the big man with some terrific passes. Indiana might be able to trap those initial actions if they go smaller, but Toronto might be even better off in this series if the chess match moves in that direction, and Valanciunas would continue to exploit his rebounding edge.
Whatever the Pacers do, the obvious hope for Toronto is that the additional attention on their center opens things up for Lowry and DeRozan.
“We gotta do whatever it takes to win the game. By doing that, we’re gonna open something else,” Valanciunas said. “They take away the rolls, maybe the penetration is there.”
That might be the key to getting DeRozan going, creating additional breathing room in the paint. The Pacers have hedged on to the ball-handler on high ball-screens and blitzed DeRozan’s off-ball actions, but those strategies may be deemed untenable if Valanciunas continues to parade to the rim unimpeded (and if impeded, with a great chance at getting a second opportunity). Lowry turned in a much better Game 2 than Game 1, and he could be in for one of those typical KLOE nights Thursday if he’s getting more space to operate in.
“I think that with JV’s play, finding that third option, and if we have another fourth option, it’s gonna be really big to take the pressure off of them loading up,” Casey said. “Everybody talks about, they load up off of Biz. They load up off of JV, too. They were loading off. I’m sure they’ll make adjustments for JV in Game 3, but that does take pressure off DeMar and Kyle. Kyle did a good job finding JV on rolls, on post-ups. If they’re gonna commit two to Kyle, he did a good job picking them apart. Now they’ve gotta pick their poison, JV on the roll or take Kyle out or whatever they wanna do.”
This is the kind of thing that swings playoff series, or at least makes them so interesting. As Valanciunas noted, the proceedings are a lot more cerebral when teams see each other seven times in a row. The Raptors’ depth can be paramount in this series, because their added versatility this year let’s them play so many different ways. Valanciunas has quietly been improving all season, and that adds an additional layer of versatility, too. He’s establishing himself as the third option in this series, and it’s exactly the kind of breakout that’s necessary for teams to make a deep run. Even if Valanciunas’ offense were to dry up in Game 3, it would likely be because he forced Indiana to loosen the shackles on the team’s primary options.
“That’s what it’s all about. That’s exactly what it’s all about, honestly,” DeRozan said. “When it comes to me and Kyle, we did so much all season to open up things for other guys, I think it’s the right time for other guys to open things up for us. That’s the beauty of our team. Anybody can get hot, anybody can do the things that JV’s doing these first two games. And that’s big. It’s definitely going to open up a lot of things up for us because I’m pretty sure they’re going to be worried about JV next game.
“That’s the beauty of the depth we have on this team. All guys step up. From all angles.”
At some point, the Raptors are going to need a big night from their stars. That might just happen because of the groundwork Valanciunas laid early in the series.
Other notes
*Patrick Patterson received a single third-place vote for Sixth Man of the Year. I had him third on my ballot. He’s also been terrific through two playoff games.
*Terrence Ross is undergoing the league’s concussion protocol after being removed for precautionary reasons Monday. He was set for further testing Tuesday, and his status probably won’t be known until closer to Game 3.
*I was juggling covering practice for both RR and Sportsnet today. Here are my Sportsnet notes & quotes, mostly focusing on DeRozan’s justifiably unwavering confidence.
