ICYMI from Raptors Republic
#419 – Raptors Weekly Podcast – Game 5 Looms Large | Raptors Republic
The Raptors blew a chance to take a firm grip on the series in Game 4, and find themselves facing dark prospects if Game 5 goes south. Good news: it’s at home. Bad news: Leo Rautins is calling it.
Pacers Daring Raptors to Beat Them From Outside | Raptors Republic
Fortunately there are easy adjustments for a defense that sends bodies to the paint to deter passing the ball to big men on their way to the rim: play your shooters to punish the collapsing defense with effective three point shooting and team them up with as many playmakers as possible so you know they’re getting the ball where and when they need it. The Raptors three point percentage as a whole has been subpar but most of that is due to the struggles of their all-star backcourt, who have shot a combined 14.3% from deep on 35 attempts. Their designated spot up shooters have actually come through so far – Terrence Ross, DeMarre Carroll, Norman Powell and Patrick Patterson are shooting a combined 40% on 50 attemps, with each of them hitting above 38.5%. If you get them looks their performance to date suggests that they’ll make them.
Unfortunately this might require some tough personnel decisions for the Raptors, who are light on both playmakers and shooters so long as DeMar DeRozan is playing heavy minutes. The Pacers have no respect for him as a shooter because he’s missed all 8 of this three point attempts in the series and his playmaking is generally limited to dump off passes and kickouts on his scoring drives – he’s not getting any drives matched up with Paul George. It might be a good idea to limit DeRozan’s minutes not just because of his own struggles with making his shots or taking care of the ball, but because the Pacers are essentially daring the Raptors to do so by loading the paint with bodies and leaving the perimeter wide open.
“I know Paul left and right. “I know what he’s trying to do. I know his personality. It is what it is,” Carroll said. “When I’m on the court, I’m nobody’s friend except these guys in the locker room. I don’t care who you are. You could be my pops, I don’t care.”
An underrated aspect of Carroll’s presence may be the additional playoff experience he’s bringing to the team, too, having made an Eastern Conference Finals run last year. That can help keep an even keel, and while the Raptors have been in the postseason the last two years, the team’s added experience of deep playoff runs can only help. In the case of Lowry and DeRozan struggling, Carroll even has experience with the supporting cast having to step up as star players shift into facilitating more.
“I been through it before,” Carroll said. “I been through it in Atlanta last year. We had guys like Paul Millsap and Jeff Teague, they had to use their selves for the team. it allowed guys like me and Kyle Korver and the other guys off the bench to play to our capability. That’s all we gonna have to do now, do the same thing that I felt we did last year.”
And then, of course, there’s the added toughness Carroll’s bringing, like backing his teammate up when things get heated.
“I just try to, when I see my teammate in a fight, I’ma go help him. I don’t care where he at. If we’re in an alley, I’ma go help him,” Carroll said of helping Jonas Valanciunas opposite George in Game 3.
DeMarre Carroll is a treasure.
Articles from the Internets
DeRozan and Lowry have been losing the numbers game: Arthur | Toronto Star
If Lowry and DeRozan break out, it’ll be in the face of some troubling trends. Ben Golliver of SI.com pointed out that among players who have taken at least 250 shots in the playoffs since 1984, the bottom of the field-goal percentage list is . . . unfortunate. There are mostly journeymen, and mostly guards, and a lot of guys who played for Toronto at some point. Lindsey Hunter (30.9 per cent). Flip Murray (33.9). O.J. Mayo (34.8). Anthony Peeler (35.3).
And then, Kyle Lowry. 35.4 per cent, in 27 career playoff games. After six more players — Stephon Marbury (35.5), Larry Hughes (36.1), Greg Anthony (36.2), Lou Williams (36.2), C.J. Watson (36.3), and Rafer Alston (36.5) — there’s DeRozan, at 36.6. They are both among the worst 12 playoff shooters in the three-point era, which officially began in 1979, but which didn’t take hold until later.
That list is undistinguished, though, so what happens if you filter it for the guys actually carrying the mail, as the focal point of opposing defences? Well, according to basketball-reference.com, among the 203 players with all-star appearances in the three-point era with at least 250 field-goal attempts in the post-season, Lowry has the worst career percentage, at .354. DeRozan is third-worst, at .366, ahead of only Lowry and Marbury. Adjust for the value of the three-point shot, and DeRozan ranks 203rd, and Lowry 199th, ahead of Marbury, Wall, and Micheal Ray Richardson.
In fairness, it’s largely a 15-game sample with them both as all-stars — but take away Lowry’s 13 games as a reserve in Houston, and he’s 37th in field-goal shooting among the 37 all-stars who have played in the playoffs in the last three years. DeRozan is 36th. Adjusted for the value of threes, DeRozan drops to 37th, and Lowry rises to 35th. Add the value of free throws, and they rise to 32nd for Lowry and 34th for DeRozan. But in this series they’re combining for 10.4 trips to the line per game. In the regular season, that number was 14.8.
Raptors’ DeMarre Carroll brings the ‘mojo’ | Toronto Sun
Nobody expected Carroll to be this impactful so soon.
“What DC is doing is incredible from not really being with us for half the season and now coming in and giving us all that he is giving us is amazing,” said Lowry, after what was said to be a spirited practice on Monday.
“He is bringing that toughness. He’s a guy who has been playing that way his whole career. If you don’t know DC he hasn’t always been this guy. He had to work hard to get to this position and he’s not going to give it up easily. For us we just love the effort and the fight he is giving us. Just the mojo he is playing with is good.”
That “mojo” includes an unwillingness to back down in the face of physical play.
“If I see my teammate in a fight, I’m going to go help him. I don’t care where you’re at. If it’s in the alley, I’m going to go help him,” Carroll said.
Carroll and George used to share an agent and workout in Los Angeles. Yet, he got right up in George’s face when he got into it with Valanciunas in Game 4.
“When I’m on the court I’m nobody’s friend besides the guys in the locker room,” George said.
“I don’t care who you are. You can be my pops. I don’t care. When we’re on the court I’m competing. I’m trying to compete at a high level, everything. I have the same thing at stake that you have at stake.”
Raptors’ confidence not waning in DeRozan, Lowry: Feschuk | Toronto Star
“Eventually, everything goes back to what you do, what your averages are,” said Scola, a career 49% shooter who’ll turn 36 Saturday. “So we can have a couple of bad games, they can have a couple out-of-the-ordinary good games. Those things can happen.”
Still, that they’re happening now has to be maddening to some on the inside.
“Feast or famine, that’s the same with all of our guys right now,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “One thing about it, you don’t forget how to shoot the basketball . . . Our shooters should shoot the ball.”
Still, no leash is endless. And Scola’s tentative play has many around the team speculating on potential rotation tweaks in response. Perhaps the Raptors should start Patrick Patterson in Scola’s place — or, if Casey is loathe to break up a successful second unit, at least play Patterson more than the 27 minutes he saw in Game 4. Patterson, after all, has made five three-pointers in the series on 12 attempts, the same number of three-balls Lowry has provided on 27 heaves.
Pacers Silent About Silencing Toronto Guards | Indiana Pacers
One would think George Hill and Paul George deserve some credit for all that deflation, along with others playing cameo roles in the defense of Lowry and DeRozan, but you won’t hear anybody taking it.
“No comment,” coach Frank Vogel said following Monday’s practice at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
After a pause, Vogel’s cooperative nature got the best of him. But so did his desire not to invoke the laws of karma.
“We’re working hard,” he said. “They’re great scorers. Every time they shoot it, I feel it’s going in, so we have to be sure we make it difficult for them.”
Hill, meanwhile, is making no claims.
“We can’t take credit for what we’re doing,” he said. “Our bigs are doing a great job, and our other wings are doing a great job of being in the gap.”
The best storyline behind the Pacers’ defensive effort belongs to George, who was in the same high school class as DeRozan in the Los Angeles area in 2008. DeRozan was by far the more highly-regarded player, ranked first in the country by one service and in the top eight in virtually all of them. He attended USC for one season, then was taken ninth in the draft by the Raptors.
“They’re our guys. We’re going to ride or die with Kyle & DeMar.” – Casey
A photo posted by Toronto Raptors (@raptors) on
Raptors will ‘ride or die’ with DeRozan, Lowry | Toronto Star
Lowry said that he and DeRozan have to trust in what’s gotten them to this point.
“You have to still trust and believe in the habits you have created all your career or all your life. You have to still believe in those habits,” he said.
“For me, and I’m sure for (DeRozan) also, it’s believing in the habits we have created this season.
“Through four games I am shooting 31 per cent and he’s shooting 30 per cent. It hasn’t been pretty. We have two wins and that’s a positive but we still have to play better for our team to go further on.”
After the Raptors squandered a chance to go up 3-1 on Saturday, Lowry sees Game 5 as another opportunity, not a game that’s a must-win.
“For us, two years ago, we had a Game 5 and we won (but) lost 6 and 7,” he said, thinking back to the 2014 series with the Brooklyn Nets. “It’s not really the end-all, be-all but for us, it’s home court, and we have take advantage of that opportunity we have upon us.”
That opportunity is a lot more seizable if Lowry and DeRozan finally have the games they’re capable of having.
Raptors need more from DeRozan and Lowry in Game 5 | TSN
If you thought watching Saturday’s lopsided Game 4 loss was painful the first time, the Raptors have spent the better part of the two days leading to Tuesday’s Game 5 reliving it, breaking it down. What they call strategy some might call torture, but perhaps that’s their punishment for a truly embarrassing effort, a missed opportunity to take a stranglehold of the series.
One of the things they will see when they watch the tape is that all 15 of DeRozan’s shots were contested. Over the course of the series, he and Lowry have attempted 40 per cent of Toronto’s shots, yet 79 per cent of them have come with a hand in their face.
For all the talk of adjustments, a word that is thrown around more than the ball this time of year, that’s where Toronto’s most important players have to start: shot selection. There is a fine line between continuing to play your game, something that DeRozan and Lowry are both encouraged to do despite their recent slump, and continuing to force your game.
As good as Indiana’s defence has been, maybe it’s not the matchup that needs adapting to, it’s playoff basketball in general. Last year it was Washington that held the Raptors’ backcourt tandem to 36 per cent, en route to a four-game sweep. The season before that, they shot 39 per cent in the Brooklyn series. The playoffs test you in ways the regular season can’t. Opponents have days or, in some cases, weeks to prepare for you, to study your tendencies, identify what you do best and devise a game plan to take those things away. Then it’s on you to, yes, adjust.
Game halted to argue about the score. Been there, bro.
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Raptors relying on DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry in pivotal Game 5 | CBSSports.com
DeRozan’s difficulties are particularly alarming. At his best, it looks like he can get 20 points in his sleep. Against Indiana, his typical smooth glides to the basket have largely been replaced by awkward, forced jumpers. The most obvious sign of his development is how comfortable he has become handling the ball, surveying the defense and making smart plays. The most obvious sign of his need for improvement is how he’s handled playoff pressure.
Over the years, DeRozan has often talked about the game slowing down for him. He studies film obsessively and has seen every type of defense imaginable. Against George and the Pacers, though, he seems a beat or two behind. The same is true for Lowry, who is usually relentless with the ball but has had trouble finding openings to attack.
“Me and DeMar, we talked,” Lowry said. “They’re playing defense on us and rushing us into things, making us speed up our shots, and the shots that we normally take with patience, we’re taking a little bit — if it takes us 0.9 seconds to usually shoot ’em, we’re shooting them in 0.4.”
Lowry said that some of this is mental: He needs to relax and play his game. He said he’s taking the same shots he’s used to, but he’s not taking them on balance and on target. The Pacers have both he and DeRozan out of rhythm, but they’ve both done their best to avoid showing signs of frustration.
“I’d be lying to you if I said I’m not upset at how I’m playing,” Lowry said. “But I’ve got to be positive. At the end of the day my teammates bank on me to be positive and lead these guys, and that’s what I’m going to do no matter how I’m shooting the ball.”
After three games, it appeared that the Raptors had solved Indiana. After four, an upset once again feels possible. If Toronto can just take care of the ball and take advantage of it depth, Lowry and DeRozan don’t have to be superstars to advance to the second round. They just have to be more like themselves.
Raptors can advance even if DeRozan and Lowry continue to struggle | Toronto Sun
The odds are that eventually both Raptors will break out. Casey again points out correctly that these two haven’t just happen to forget how to score.
But what if Indiana is that good defensively? What if the pair never get back on track in this series? Is it over?
Casey was asked after Game 2 if the Raptors could win without DeRozan scoring. He admitted it would be hard, but not impossible.
On Monday he was asked about them again and once again backed his all-star duo to the hilt.
“We’re going to ride or die with DeMar and Kyle,” he said. “They haven’t shot the ball great, but it’s still basketball. We’re going to go with them, they’re our star players, they’re all-stars for a reason and we’re trying, as a coach and as a staff, to try to put them in the best position to be successful. They are our guys.”
You would expect nothing less of Casey. He knows a huge part of the team’s success has come because of the abilities of that pair to score. And they will be given every opportunity to show those talents again. But that doesn’t mean they can’t advance without that scoring.
Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan making it hard to believe he’s worth max money | Toronto Sun
Do you keep him and swallow hard on the contract, or do you let him go? Or do you sign him and trade him?
DeRozan plays his own kind of game, forcing shots, taking shots off-balance, driving, get fouled, rarely facilitating anyone else on the court. It isn’t always pretty but often it’s effective. Just not right now. Not when it matters most. Not when the bright lights come on.
Some might think he’s wilting under the circumstances, letting his nerves get to him. But those who know him best say differently. They’ll tell you he’s stubborn. They’ll tell you he knows how to play his game but doesn’t necessarily have the wherewithal to adjust to changing circumstances in a game.
This is the Raptors’ biggest week since May 2001 | TSN
BIGGEST WEEK FOR RAPTORS SINCE MAY OF 2001: I’ve been broadcasting Raptors games for 18 years now and there is no doubt that this is the biggest week for the franchise since May 2001, when the team faced the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference semi-finals. The Raptors earned back home-court advantage with a wonderful win in Game 3 at Indianapolis, but showed a baffling lack of fight and understanding of how hard Game 4 was going to be. There is no doubt now that the Pacers feel like they can win this series. All of the pressure is now on Toronto and the Pacers have managed to frustrate Lowry and DeRozan and slow down Jonas Valanciunas.
It will be fascinating to watch how this Raptors team handles the scrutiny and whether it can show the killer instinct it lacked on Saturday. We’re down to the best of three and the Raptors have home court. They earned that right and now it’s time to take the next step. I picked the Raptors in six in this series and I stand by it. Anyone who thought this series was going to be easy was wrong. It’s a brutal matchup for the Raptors, yet both sides have shown their hands now. Which team is better? It’s time for the Raptors to play like the team that was the fourth best team in the NBA this season. This group is good enough. The word team is important — play like one in every respect. The moment of truth has arrived.
Raptors need to find the edge again | Toronto Star
Carroll knows George ‘left and right’
After their fiery altercation late in Game 4, DeMarre Carroll said on Monday he’s known Indiana’s Paul George a long time.
“We had the same agent, Mark Bartelstein. Unfortunately, Paul left, I guess he went with another agent,” Carroll said. “We were all out in L.A — myself, Nick Young, Danny Granger, Paul, and so on. We always used to play. I’ve been playing with Paul for three or four years. I know Paul left and right. I know what he’s trying to do. I know his personality, so it is what it is.
Carroll has no problem putting friendships aside on the court.
“I don’t care who you are. You can be my pops, I don’t care. When we’re on the court, I’m competing,” he said.
Scola could be at centre of Raptors’ Game 5 adjustments | Sportsnet.ca
And for all the heat that Lowry and DeRozan have taken, it’s worth pointing out that the only reason that teams have gotten away with sending multiple defenders at both of them is because the rest of the lineup hasn’t made that strategy risky.
It’s a catch-22, really. The Raptors’ all-stars are required to produce, but if they force their offence they’re playing into the Pacers’ hands. But what’s the point of relinquishing their scoring responsibilities if their teammates aren’t going to make shots?
This may be even more difficult now that the Pacers have made a project of taking away opportunities from Jonas Valanciunas, the Raptors’ most effective player through four games.
The ideal solution is for Toronto is to move the ball to those who are going to be effective with it. In the short term, the solution might be to take the 15 or so minutes Scola gets and distribute them among players who can take more pressure off Lowry and DeRozan.
That could take a number of forms. It could mean Patterson starting for the first time this season, or at the very least a bump in the 28 minutes he’s been averaging so far this series. It could mean more minutes for Terrence Ross (38.5 per cent from three in the series, same as during the regular season) and rookie Norman Powell (43 per cent from three in the series; 46 per cent in his previous 22 games).
Patrick Patterson Key To Raptors’ Success | Today’s Fastbreak
is production dropped considerably in Game 3 (just 7 points on 2-of-7 shooting) yet Toronto “stole” a 101-85 victory, mostly due to Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combining for 42 points after struggling mightily through the first two games of the series.
In Game 4, Patterson was once again limited. He finished with just eight points and had a team-low rating of -22 for the game, a 100-83 Pacers win that tied the series at two games apiece.
But the team’s return back to Toronto for Monday’s Game 5 and, despite the disappointing loss, there’s a sense that the Raptors will be able to bounce back with their return home. In an interview on Sunday, Patterson spoke to reporters and broke down the keys to taking a lead in the series.
Raptors notebook: Spotlight shifts ahead of Game 5 | Sportsnet.ca
“When you take away something you’re going to give up something else,” Casey said in reference to the rest of his roster. “When you commit two [defenders] to Kyle, or two to DeMar like they’ve been doing, it’s going to open up something else.”
As the Pacers defence hones in on the Raptors’ starting backcourt, it’s opened up the chance—need—for other players to step up, and the saving grace for Raps fans is that the rest of the team has been playing really well.
DeMarre Carroll is clearly working his way into a nice rhythm as he continues to establish his role. He’s nearly averaging double figure scoring, and made his presence known during a brief scuffle between Valanciunas and Indiana’s Paul George on Saturday. Carroll and George once shared an agent and often play each other in rec games in Los Angeles during the off-seasons.
“I know Paul left and right, I know what he’s trying to do,” Carroll said on Monday. “I know his personality. It is what it is. When I’m on the court I’m nobody’s friend except for the guys in the locker room. When I see my teammate in a fight I’m gonna go help him. But my biggest thing is: I just want Jonas to keep playing physical and do what he’s doing.”
Doyel: DeMar DeRozan shrinking in matchup with Paul George | Indy Star
Thing is, DeRozan is one of the nicest stars in the NBA. He is shy and unselfish, standing and cheering on his team in the fourth quarter of Game 2; he’d been benched because the team was taking off without him on the court to screw it up. He is completely without guile, cutting his toenails in front of the media after Game 4 and then scraping the clippings off the floor so the locker room attendant at Bankers Life Fieldhouse wouldn’t have to deal with them.
But what Paul George is doing to DeRozan, it is brutal and embarrassing and it looks like DeRozan is starting to crack. For four games he has said he is not concerned with his shooting – 29.6 percent from the field, without a 3-pointer in eight tries – but after Game 4 he showed frustration when he was asked about his game-high six turnovers, twice as many as anyone on either team.
DeRozan decided this was the time to mention his playmaking ability.
“I had four assists,” DeRozan said, looking down at the stat sheet. “I found guys and we missed a lot of easy shots we normally make, so with that I could have had eight or nine assists.”
Everything is fine, say the Raptors, so why don’t we believe it? | Raptors HQ
From the sidelines, coach Dwane Casey knows there are things the Raptors can and should do better. (And, uh, there are things he could probably be doing better, but we’ll save that for another day.) His assessment of DeRozan and Lowry’s play is succinct, but not without the usual coach’s addendum. There are always other ways to help the team win. “Give Indiana credit, they’ve done a good job on DeMar and Kyle,” said Casey. “But we haven’t seen their best. They know that. And it may not be by scoring points, it may be by moving the basketball, it may be by helping defensively.”
A fair take. So, is all this pressure and attention wearing DeRozan out, coach?
“I don’t think so.”
What’s left to say at this point? When the Raptors win, everything is fine. The ball moves, the shots fall, they don’t turn it over, and it feels like there are no obvious weaknesses on this team. The fanbase soars high. But then, there’s that other side, the drop off the cliff that brings everyone back into some sort of distressed reality. It’s hard not to feel in those moments like this Raptors team is circling back to where they began. And it’s in these moments when everyone wishes we could just get off this roller coaster for good. As has been the case all season, there doesn’t always appear to be an easy explanation.
“We have to play desperate. We have to be the hungry team. We were 2-1 but we haven’t done anything,” said Casey. “Our franchise, our team, we haven’t done anything. We should be hungry.”
It’ll either happen, or it won’t. Everything is fine. Let’s all just relax, right?
Insider: Vogel has had to unlearn a lot of what he believes in | Indy Star
Now tied 2-2 with the Raptors, Indiana prepares for a momentum-shifting game in Toronto. But in a season defined by revolution and revisions, the biggest shift just might have happened within the man who has to make the decisions.
“I’ve had to unlearn a lot of what I’ve believed in with offensive spacing because of the way the league plays today,” Vogel said. “That’s a challenge on the defensive end as well.
“So I’ve enjoyed this breaking (of) the mold.”
The five full years on the job have not tainted Vogel — as well as his split personality between fierce competitor and doting daddy. He’s still the same guy who spits fire at officials one minute, then waves hello to his two daughters sitting courtside in the first quarter at home games. But look closer; because this season, as the Pacers have advanced into the playoffs without having a true identity, Vogel has changed.
This year, Vogel has implemented new designs that were foreign to the smash-mouth Pacers with the goal of marrying both styles. Additionally, he has been more willing to reverse course at the first sign of trouble. Vogel has changed the starting lineup five times, all at power forward, including twice in the past month. Two seasons ago, as then-starting center Roy Hibbert struggled in a playoff matchup with spread-lineup Atlanta, Vogel stuck with him. Then, he held a white-knuckled hold on the rotation that had proved itself to take the top seed in the conference. Now, as this year necessitates adaptability, Vogel will remix his lineup plans as early as the first moments after a tough loss.
8p9s Roundtable: Can the Indiana Pacers Beat the Raptors? | 8 Points 9 Seconds
What word sums up the Indiana Pacers’ chances to win this now-best-of-3 series?
Donahue: Decent. The Pacers still have to win one in Toronto, and the Raptors are still favorites. However, in a series where all four games have been decided by 10 or more points and neither team has established clear dominance, chances for an upset are … decent.
Raptors need big game from Big V | NBA PLAYOFFS | Toronto Sun
Valanciunas and his personal big man coach, Jack Sikma, were in the lab working that out following practice on Monday.
His teammates are very much aware of what he has come to mean to their success.
“Super important,” Lowry said when asked about Valanciunas’ need to adapt going into Game 5. “Now those guys are tagging him really hard, making sure he’s not getting any rolls. They’re up a little higher on the pick and roll and staying below us to make sure JV doesn’t get on a roll and have those monstrous offensive games he’s had before. And also on the rebounding they’re sending two guys at him, three guys at him, making sure they hit him with bodies.”
Valanciunas and Sikma and likely two or three other members of the coaching staff have had two days to go through all that and now they have to counter.
Head coach Dwane Casey knows he needs Valanciunas to get back to being the beast he was earlier in the series.
“He has to establish deep post position and for whatever reason, (Ian) Mahinmi was pushing him, getting him off his sweet spot and again, Jonas can’t allow him to do that,” Casey said. “He hadn’t been, but for whatever reason in Game 4 he did and Jonas can’t allow that. You have to adjust to the way that officials are calling it. If they’re going to allow you to push him, you have to fight for that space, fight for that spot, and I don’t think he did as good a job as he’s been doing on Saturday and he’ll do a better job (Tuesday) night of that.”
Can Raptors Jonas Valanciunas Adjust For Game Five | Pro Bball Report
“I didn’t do anything,” Valanciunas explained. “I wasn’t trying to hit him. It was an in-game situation. It happens trying to be physical in the low post.”
Make no mistake, that incident was no accident. George and the rest of the Pacers were trying to get into Valanciunas’ space and get him off his game and it worked.
“They had the energy from the start,” Valanciunas said. “They were running. They were pushing. We were not ready.”
Valanciunas had a similar start on the glass in his first ever NBA playoff series against the Nets two years ago when he had double-digit rebounds in his first three games but couldn’t do it again over the final four games of that series. The Nets, like this year’s Pacers, weren’t known for their rebounding either, but that veteran team adjusted and Valanciunas couldn’t come up with a response.
It should be different this time. This is Valanciunas third trip to the postseason. He’s been pushed around before and he should know how to respond.
“I’m just going out there and battling,” Valanciunas said. “Nobody is going to take that away from me. I am going to battle for every single ball.”
Dwane Casey wins PBWA’s 2015-16 Rudy Tomjanovich Award | Raptors HQ
Casey’s passion for basketball often comes to the fore, but he’s shown there’s more to him than just the sport. On the light side, he’s been known to let loose a sly pop culture reference or joke here and there to keep people on their toes. And, more seriously, when the Toronto Star’s Doug Smith was away from the team for a bit for health reasons, Casey was sure pay his respects upon the long-time beat writer’s departure and return.
All in all, Casey’s presence has made the Raptors a more fun and better team to cover. He has definitely earned his reputation as a good guy.
Casey led Toronto to a franchise-best 56-26 record and the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. He will be presented the trophy Tuesday before the Raptors host Indiana, with their series tied 2-2.
Indiana Pacers at Toronto Raptors: Game 5 preview | Toronto Star
Key matchup: DeMar DeRozan vs. Paul George.
The importance of Game 5 in a knotted series is a no-brainer and so is the importance of getting star performances from your star players. George has used every bit of his six-foot-nine frame and every drop of his ability on both ends of the floor in this series to lead the Pacers in scoring and reduce DeRozan to a shred of his all-star self. A 20-point showing from the Raptors’ top scorer would likely mean a win for the Raptors in a game that often determines the series winner.
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