Game 2! The Toronto Raptors are still in the second round of the playoffs, in case you thought Sunday was some sort of fever dream and Tuesday was just the crash. This is still actually happening, and the Raptors have a lot on the line Thursday night. Not only do they need to even the series at 1-1 before it heads to South Beach, they also need to deliver their favorite blogger an appropriate birthday gift. The Game 1 loss swung Toronto’s implied win probability for the series from 60 percent to 40 percent, per oddsmaker lines.
High stakes, these.
The game tips off at 8 p.m. from the Air Canada Centre. ESPN has the game in the U.S., with Dave Pasch, Jon Barry, and Heather Cox on the call, while Sportsnet has the Canadian broadcast and TSN 1050 has radio rights. Ken Mauer, Derrick Collins, and John Goble are the officials.
Required reading
Here’s what you need ahead of Game 2, assuming you haven’t been keeping up.
*My game preview, which is nails, as per the usual, and contains links to the rest of out content since Game 1.
*Terrence Ross is fine with being leaned on more, because he is a bit of a robot.
*Game 2 could be the best night of the playoffs so far for a struggling gameops crew – halftime act Christian Stoinev (and Percy!) is a Raptors fan and is hoping to deliver big.
*If you need a refresher, here’s my deeper dive into Kyle Lowry’s shooting struggles.
My man EK’s piece on Kyle Lowry’s struggles for Vice is the best such story I read. Bruce Arthur’s is great, too, and necessary for the awesome Luis Scola quote. Still on Scola, Michael Grange explores his role as calm voice of reason.
Raptors updates
There’s nothing doing on the Raptors front. Dwane Casey has sounded pretty pleased with how the starting lineup defended in Game 1. He’ll try to get them to push the tempo a little more tonight, something the Raptors don’t really love to do despite the lip service they pay to it, but something that could help wear down the Heat’s seven-man rotation over the course of the compressed series.
DeMar DeRozan jammed his thumb fighting for a loose ball on Tuesday but is fine. Kyle Lowry (psychological) may or may not be fine. We’ll find out soon.
Assuming Casey doesn’t tweak and Lucas Noguiera and Bruno Caboclo draw inactive again (likely, since there’s little reason the Raptors would need a third center or a human victory cigar), here’s what the rotation will look like:
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, (Delon Wright)
SG: Norman Powell, Terrence Ross
SF: DeMar DeRozan (James Johnson)
PF: DeMarre Carroll, Patrick Patterson, (Luis Scola), (Jason Thompson)
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Bismack Biyombo
There’s not much to say about the rotations that I didn’t cover in the pre-game. Casey continued to say the lineup change was done with speed, defense, and pushing tempo in mind, specifically pointing out that Norman Powell brought that against Indiana.
“That was most of it, going that way, was the foot speed. Defensive matchups. Trying to keep speed on the offensive end, trying to push the pace offensively. That’s what Norm had given us during the Indian series, was a little bit of foot speed up and down the floor.
The Powell-T.J. Ross minutes load is probably the biggest point of interest in the rotation game-to-game right now. Here’s a little more from Casey on the up-and-down Ross:
“He’s more decisive with his shot. When he played, I thought he was coming off the screens locked and loaded, not hesitant, when he had his pin-downs and his shot opportunities. I thought he was active defensively, he was much better defensively for us.”
Asked if he can tell which Ross he’s getting, Casey laughed before basically shrugging and saying he believes in him but admitting you don’t get good Ross every night. So no, Casey can’t tell Terrence from Terry from T.J., either.
Heat updates
With Chris Bosh now officially out for the playoffs and Dwyane Wade downplaying any knee issues as general playoff wear-and-tear, the only note for Miami is with respect to Hassan Whiteside. Whiteside was hurt in Game 3 against Charlotte but was able to play through it, then strained his knee and aggravated his thigh in Game 1. He wound up playing 39 minutes Tuesday and, while limited at shootaround Thursday, is good to go for Game 2.
Assuming Bosh and Briante Weber are your inactives, the rotation will look something like this:
PG: Goran Dragic, (Tyler Johnson)
SG: Dwyane Wade, Josh Richardson, (Gerald Green)
SF: Joe Johnson, Justise Winslow, (Dorell Wright)
PF: Luol Deng, (Josh McRoberts)
C: Hassan Whiteside, Udonis Haslem, (Amar’e Stoudemire)
Spoelstra said he’s looking at things as if everyone in uniform is “in the playoff rotation,” including Tyler Johnson, though it seems wildly unlikely he goes deep. All playoffs, he’s stuck to basically a seven-man group and grasped at straws for spot minutes beyond that, rotating through pretty much everyone else when they needed an eighth or ninth (he only used seven in the second half of Game 1).
Pre-game notes/quotes
*Dwane Casey was generally happy with the team’s defensive performance, but not entirely. “I think we can contest shots better. We did force them into some late clock situations, but at the end of the day, they made two or three of them…I think in those situations, just contest them better. I thought on a couple of them we lost track of how many seconds were left.”
*”We got off to a good start, solid start. I still thought our disposition could have been better, more forceful.” So, there are still expectations for the starting lineup, which played to a draw in 16 minutes, to be even better.
*On how to slow Dragic: “Keep him in front of us. We’ve gotta contain him better, make sure we pursue him in his cross-grains…do a better job of pursuing him, staying with him, getting back in front of him, and then at the end of the day, challenge his shot. He was one of those guys that hit one of those late-clock threes.”
*Here’s a leftover Spoelstra quote on Bosh from shootaround: “We’ve had clarification, but I think this will put the storyline at ease out there. Look, I love Chris, everybody knows how I feel about CB. I feel for him not being able to participate in the playoffs right now, but he is still very much a big part of us and that leadership he showed in the huddle between regulation and overtime is absolutely CB at his essence, at his best.”
Here’s hoping Bosh stays healthy through the offseason and, well, the rest of his life. He’s a genuinely cool person.
*”Hey, uhh, everybody’s ready to go.” – Spoelstra before any questions were asked, trying once again to snuff out the pre-game media session.
*”We’re not a team, necessarily, that’s built to shoot 35, 40 threes,” Spoelstra said, when asked about the Heat shooting better from long range of late but doing so with a somewhat small number of attempts (they were 8-of-11 in Game 1).
Assorted
Raptors will match fan donations for Fort McMurray victims tonight (+ $50K). Text REDCROSS to 45678 ($10) or 30333 ($5).
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) May 5, 2016
Here’s your shirt/crowd update!
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) May 5, 2016
"We're well aware this is the no. 1 offensive rebounding team (Raptors) in the playoffs." – Erik Spoelstra pic.twitter.com/DNctkQnjG3
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) May 5, 2016
The line
Game 1: Raptors -4.5 (Heat 102, Raptors 96)
Game 2: Raptors -5
The line didn’t change much throughout the day for Game 1, but it’s nudged from 4.5 to 5 in favor of the Raptors here. I’m not sure there’s much to that beyond general confidence in the Raptors bouncing back, a confidence I share based on how well they defended in Game 1, and on my unwavering faith in the upcoming KLOE game.
Raptors 96, Heat 90
