There’s a lot of hand-wringing over the late-game execution of the Toronto Raptors, in general, and in their Game 4 loss to the Miami Heat on Monday. We covered some of this off in general terms in a critique of head coach Dwane Casey’s performance. Now, we’ll look at some play-call specifics.
The final play of regulation
For the second time in the series, the Raptors have had a chance to win on the final possession of the game. They had that opportunity in Game 2, and they also had the opportunity to tie in overtime at the end of Game 1.
In Game 2, the Raptors went mega-conservative and had Kyle Lowry dribble out the clock and heave a 28-footer without so much as a screen.
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In Game 1, the Raptors had designed a play to get Terrence Ross a weak-corner three, but DeMar DeRozan lost the handle on a crossover.
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Here’s what the Raptors went with in a tie game at the end of regulation on Monday.
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This looks pretty bad – at first blush, it seems like a mid-range version of what the Raptors asked Lowry to do in Game 2. There’s at least a little more going on here in theory, it’s just executed poorly. First, it takes the Raptors nearly six seconds to get across half court. From there, the Raptors seem to rush the set up. Patrick Patterson is going to try to set a pin-down for Terrence Ross, but Ross is going to have very little momentum coming from where he starts, and Patterson is going to have to nail the screen.
Patterson whiffs on the screen and Ross gets almost no separation. This was the first read on this play – they wanted a Ross look off of this action, or possibly for Ross to come up and set a screen for Joseph, failing that.
There’s still enough time to get something going, but a lack of Plan B for Ross clutters the space Joseph is going to have to drive into, and Patterson gets little separation on his dive to the rim. The weak side is quiet, and both players are on that wing – Joseph can go left and test if Miami will abandon a strong-side shooter, but he’d be driving into traffic.
Wade helps and Joseph tries to split, but Justise Winslow does an excellent job staying in front of him. Patterson is essentially erased by Joe Johnson as an option or a tip-in threat, and DeMar DeRozan’s late curl off some misdirection with DeMarre Carroll doesn’t get him free in time for Joseph to find him. Ross, meanwhile, isn’t in a position to do anything – be a last-ditch kick-out option, draw a defender, nothing.
It’s not great, but at least they tried a few things? Sigh.
Not every play-call was bad
The Raptors get heat for running stagnant sets at the end of quarters, but they ran a nice one at the end of the first. Remember HORNs Flare (the “Frye Flare” for Patterson) we covered yesterday? In that post, I suggested that the Raptors might try it with a guard in a “big” spot in the HORNs formation, and they tried just that.
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The set up here is similar to the play from Game 3 – DeRozan screens for Joseph, then Lucas Nogueira screens for DeRozan, allowing him to flare out beyond the perimeter.
There’s not a good pass to make there, so DeRozan shoots up top even higher, and that gets Josh Richardson leaning the wrong direction. The re-screen Nogueira provides for DeRozan is known as a “fan” action, for your records.
Joseph makes a great drive through Goran Dragic help but gets swatted at the rim. The Raptors spacing is a little off here, but with 10 seconds left on the clock, the Raptors very nearly had an opportunity at a Ross corner three. Not that an attempt at the rim is a bad look.
Why not run Old Reliable late?
We’ve talked a fair amount about the Raptors’ Ram pick-and-roll work lately. Cooper Smither wrote about it recently, and then I broke down a new variation of the Ram Stagger in the Indiana series. The Raptors went back to that well a couple of times in Game 4. As a refresher, “Ram” is a screen-the-screener action, and the “Stagger” part is when the screener’s screener then steps up to set a second screen for the ball-handler.
As they often do, the Raptors came out of the half with a few plays scripted (it seems, anyway – I don’t know for certain that they do this). They go right to Ram Stagger. After Patrick Patterson and DeMarre Carroll cross on the baseline, Bismack Biyombo sets a screen for Patterson, who will in turn come up to screen for Kyle Lowry.
Biyombo then sets a staggered second screen for Lowry, which gets him a switch on to Amar’e Stoudemire.
From there, Lowry is going to “midget,” or “Nash.” We’ve mentioned it a few times here recently, and I have a bunch of video ready to go in the event Hassan Whiteside returns in the series (it’s far less interesting against someone else). Midgeting or Nashing is when the ball-handler comes down one side of the lane and continues under the basket and out the other side. You’re looking to draw the big man out of the paint for a dump-off, find a shooter or cutter, or, if there’s a miscommunication, get a quick look at the rim.
Here’s a good example of how it can work – Stoudemire follows Lowry’s drive because it’s now his man, and Dragic tries to recover on to his initial assignment. That leaves Biyombo free to roam. Teams normally leave Biyombo open, but this is a little obscene, no matter how tough the pass.
Here’s the whole play.
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Again, I’ll save the midgeting stuff for Whiteside, but if there’s general interest in the strategy, let me know and I’ll put it up whether he returns or not.
Sticking with Ram Stagger, the Raptors went back to it on their very next possession. This time, there’s no baseline cross, Patterson just comes right up around a Biyombo screen and the bigs stagger quickly (although neither screen is particularly effective), and Dragic successfully ICEs, with Stoudemire zoning up Lowry.
What’s different this time, though, is that instead of spacing out to the 3-point line, Patterson comes across to set a screen for DeRozan. Biyombo is going to do the exact same thing, giving this play more Stagger than your local lush at last call.
DeRozan catches the ball in a decent spot, Biyombo re-screens Luol Deng, and DeRozan attacks with an up-and-under floater. It’s not the greatest of shots, but it’s a look in the paint.
Here’s the whole thing.
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The Raptors came back to it again early in the fourth with DeRozan on the bench. This one’s very similar to the first, with Lowry “midgeting” against Josh McRoberts and then finding Biyombo for a (tough) lob.
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Bebe, what the hell, man?
The Goran Dragic four-point play drew a ton of groans in real time, with Joseph and Carroll hurtling towards him and hitting a double-spear to try to contest late. It looked bad on them, but they were both trying to cover up for a bizarre Lucas Nogueira decision on this sideline out of bounds play.
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Bebe hedges on to Dragic as the Raptors try to force him baseline, which is good. He then squares Dragic up, and his length should leave him capable of at least handling Dragic for a second, or funneling him back to more help. Dragic probes just a little, and Nogueira completely freezes, lost in no man’s land as Dragic steps back. This isn’t some great move, either, not to the degree of clearing out an ocean of space.
OK, the subheading overstates it. But still, not great.
