Raptors 96, Heat 92 (OT) | Box Score | Quick Reaction
The Toronto Raptors are tied 1-1 with the Miami Heat in the second round of the playoffs despite their two All-Stars shooting a combined 32.5 percent in the postseason. That alone would be enough to make their playoff run strange, a rare display of depth and perseverance and, from the outside, a wholly unsustainable approach. Sustainability isn’t all that important in a postseason environment where the reset button is hit each series, and sometimes each game, and the Raptors’ stubborn refusal to lose two games in a row can be painted as a triumph of spirit as much as an impending cautionary tale.
The Raptors beat the Heat 96-92 in overtime Thursday, just the ninth time a series has started with back-to-back overtime affairs. In the process, they became just the second team in 30 years to shoot as poorly as they did and emerge victorious, per Mike Mazzeo of ESPN. That alone would be enough to make this particular playoff game strange, an unsightly occasion on which aesthetics are sacrificed in the name of grit or grind, ball movement laid at the alter of the basketball gods in the hopes of so many Kobe assists.
The way the Raptors have navigated the playoffs so far is, in a word, weird.
“For some reason, we always like to put ourselves in a little predicament,” DeMar DeRozan theorized before Game 2. “I think we just like the drama.”
There’s something to be said for the art of the counterpunch, but it’s ill advised to stick your chin out begging for a right cross.
The Raptors’ jabs to feel things out were sharp, crisp, and landing. They forced 11 first-quarter turnovers, ran off of them for quick looks in transition, and then got right back to pressure some more. The result was a 29-19 lead heading into the second quarter and an Air Canada Centre crowd that seems to be getting louder by the game, despite the best efforts of the Raptors’ game operations crew. Things never quite went awry, necessarily, but a fundamental shift in aggression at both ends set in, and the Heat began winning the battle on points. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, the Raptors had managed to work themselves into their most comfortable corner of the ring, backs against the ropes, down seven points.
“One thing was a sense of urgency was there,” Dwane Casey said of the closing minutes that followed. “I thought we started out the game with the deflections. If I remember correctly, we set a record as far as the number of deflections we had and we caused 21 turnovers for 24 points and I thought that was the difference in the game, especially at the start and down the stretch. In between, I thought our defencs was very average.”
The Heat, embattled in their own nine-game reimagining of Jekyll and Hyde, saw fit to simply raise their arms in the air in the closing minutes. Like they did with a six-point lead late in Game 1, and nearly with an eight-point lead in overtime of that game, the Heat went full Chris Jericho with a one-footed flexing pin. Just the adversity Toronto needed, in other words.
“You want an opportunity to win on the road and put yourself in a great position. And we did that. Seven-point lead going down the stretch, 77-70, you want to lock in right there,” said Dwyane Wade. “They got back and took a one-point lead so fast, which was tough. We had opportunities.”
The Raptors might be playing exceptionally weird right now, but weird doesn’t mean bad, and not even a team with the closing experience of the Heat can trust a lead without the requisite execution to guide it to the final bell.
Coming out of a timeout, DeMarre Carroll drew a quick foul, setting the tone for how the final minutes would play out. The Raptors engaged defensively, rediscovering their earlier pressure, and the Heat struggled to nine points over the final 6:35. Meanwhile, the Raptors’ chipped away with a Carroll tip-in around the rim, a Jonas Valanciunas steal, a Valanciunas put-back, and then another. If Lowry and DeRozan were “emptying the clip” once again, Valanciunas was Arnold Schwarzenegger swooping in with a fully-automatic helicopter drive-by in The Expendables 3. And sure, the Expendables has a loaded cast, but at some point you find yourself asking why the goddam Terminator isn’t playing a more prominent role.
“You can’t just be taking all the shots,” he said, surely angering commenters. “One day you have three shots and then all of a sudden the ball just falls in your hands. You have to keep playing. We are playing a team sport, not an individual sport.”
He may be right, but the Raptors should have at least sent him north for a high ball-screen on the closing possession of regulation, where Kyle Lowry dribbled out the clock and heaved his ice-cold jumper from 28 feet. Controlling for the final shot is an absolute necessity in a game-tied, clock-off scenario at home, but the Raptors essentially conceded the draw, holding up a fist for Miami to dap and waiting for the judges’ scorecards.
It was symptomatic of the Raptors’ struggles from the second quarter onward, and it continues to be a head-scratcher after games. For all the weird bounces and entropy and ugliness this series has welcomed, Occam’s razor rears its head post-facto: If you don’t move the ball, offense is a lot harder. The Raptors and Heat have combined to assist on 37.3 percent of field goals made, a rate that would make the regular season-worst Raptors (51.1 percent) play hot potato in shame. The Raptors, and particularly DeRozan, have been found guilty as usual, and the Heat have countered by trying to one-up them, preceding a shot with a pass less than a quarter of the time, per Tom Haberstroh. You’d be hard-pressed to pass the ball less shooting around by yourself in the driveway.
“We are not getting a lot of movement. That is one of the issues,” Casey said. “Pick and rolls, everyone is standing. It has been hitting us in the third quarter. Pace and tempo have been pretty good in the first half but third quarter it got stagnant. We got to get the ball moving a little more which also will help our shooting rhythm.”
That’s the chorus, alright. The Heat seem less concerned with their actual half-court execution, but they realize they’re doing the Raptors an awful lot of favors.
“I feel like if we don’t turn the ball over 20-something times, we’ll be fine,” Wade said. “Nothing wrong with our offense. We’ve just gotta do a better job taking care of the ball.”
In overtime, the Raptors managed, and that’s about as complimentary as you can be. They defended well, keeping the ball out of Wade’s hands and irritating Miami into late, contested shots, with Carroll and Cory Joseph factoring in prominently at that end. The offense existed, in the sense that it scored points, but it was the defense that carried them to the point where the Heat needed to start fouling, and the Raptors (barely) managed to hit enough at the line to pull through. Even in overtime, after the lessons of the first quarter and that giant flashing neon sign Valanciunas was bludgeoning Hassan Whiteside with during the fourth-quarter comeback, the Raptors were shaky.
“Nah I’m not concerned,” Carroll said of the offensive flow. “I think we just gotta go to film, man, and see what we’re doing towards the end of the game. We’re really coming down and we’re really playing hard, but we’re just not executing like we need to.”
Carroll mentions playing hard, as he’s wont to do. It could be argued, and it seemed to be implied after the game, that such an unsightly, grind-it-out game invites victory to be grasped by the team that wants it more.
“I feel like we were just more physical this game. We had more energy trying to get to the 50/50 balls,” Joseph offered. “Basically just playing with more energy. Nothing really, you know, huge adjustments…mostly just playing with energy.”
Or the team that executes better.
“I didn’t think we did a good job at all executing. I thought our offense was poor in the sense of execution in overtime,” Wade said.
Or senses the moment with a little greater urgency.
“I think we were just conscious of knowing how the last overtime went,” DeRozan said. “We told all the guys we know what not to do. And what we have to do this time around in overtime to get a win. And that’s what we did. ”
Those intangible explanations are convenient and might represent a nice rallying cry for the Raptors heading into Game 3, but suggesting winning this one because of those visceral factors implicitly suggests they lost Game 1 due to those same factors. The more likely answer is that a closely-contested game between relatively even teams invites some randomness and some variance, and both teams should be happy to come away with a 1-1 split despite not turning in their best respective efforts. Both teams can play better, and they might. Both teams can win this series, and they might do that, too.
And basketball fans, well, they might be owed an apology by the time this series is over, because there’s no sign things are going to get any cleaner, crisper, or prettier.
“It’s been ugly,” DeRozan said.
“Ug. Leeeeee,” Lowry interjected.
“It’s been ugly. I mean, when we do (play a normal game), I’m pretty sure you’ll know,” DeRozan empty-promised.
“IF we do,” Lowry corrected.
It’s probably best not to bet on that. Through two games, it’s clear both teams can defend each other and that both teams can pull a game out in the trenches. They’re evenly matched, and that’s going to make for a fun series. But it’s going to be a street fight, far more dirty boxing than sweet science.
