Another means of appreciating Kyle Lowry| Raptors Republic
What this second table shows is that the Raptors only “win” stretches without Lowry 25 percent of the time. They manage to hold serve once in a while, too, but excluding garbage time, opponents have gone on a run against Lowry-less units 59.4 percent of the time. The issue grows even worse when isolating for runs greater than one possession – on 37.5 percent of non-garbage occasions when Lowry’s sat in the postseason, the opponent gains more than a full possession on the scoreboard. That’s unbelievable, even if expected.
There’s no solution to this, really. Lowry’s leading the postseason in total minutes played and is averaging nearly 40 a night, and that’s probably the upper end of what you want to play him so he’s fresh late (you could probably nudge it to 42 and be alright, but he’s close to capped out. Casey has done well to keep his rest periods short, generally around the two-to-three minute mark, and he’s tried to switch up the timing of the breaks to better suit the game flow. Lowry normally takes his rests at the end of the first and third, and Casey opted to rest him at the start of the fourth in Game 5, for example, to ensure the team closed the third well. Casey has also done a good job of matching Lowry’s breaks up with quarter breaks and timeouts to extend the “real” rest period over minimal game time.
The options when Lowry sits are imperfect. Cory Joseph is a great backup, but with DeMar DeRozan struggling, there isn’t a lot of offensive firepower when Lowry hits the pine. If DeRozan gets going – Wednesday was a nice start – then maybe that accounting changes, as the DeRozan-plus-Lowry’s-reserves group was pretty effective in the regular season. If he doesn’t, and maybe even if he does, the Raptors are left with one solution: Bludgeon teams when Lowry’s on the court and simply stem the bleeding when he takes a breather.
Looking at the center matchups in Raptors-Heat | Raptors Republic
A few things stand out immediately: Valanciunas was winning the Whiteside matchup in the only one-to-one battle there’s significant data for, the Raptors are decidedly losing small-against-small battles, and both teams should probably retire a few center options (Scola, Thompson, Stoudemire). The most interesting note might be that the Raptors have been a minus-4 when Biyombo plays against small groups, but it’s important to remember context there – if the Raptors have a lead, a small net-loss might be tenable if it slows things down and puts defense ahead of offense.
Just be big: Stars find themselves as Raptors take 3-2 series lead over Heat | Raptors Republic
Nevermind that no matter who the Raptors call on has stepped up, that rookies are contributing, that Valanciunas was finally dominating, that the Raptors are allowing 1.8 fewer points per-100 possessions than in the regular season, that they’ve shown every last damn intangible on the cliche checklist in gutting out ugly win after ugly win. There’s long been the sense that if Lowry and DeRozan didn’t step up, the Raptors would only get so far, their depth already providing as big a boost as it possibly could. The playoffs to date had been unseemly and strange, but as DeRozan and Erik Spoelstra keep suggesting, beautiful. Despite abhorrent shooting from their two best players, the Raptors kept finding a way, and they’ve learned a ton about themselves because of it.
Those lessons and those moral – and real – victories are important, but they’re only positives so long as the Raptors are winning. The playoffs are a time of short windows and small samples, and the Raptors were running out of time for their stars to regress, all while fighting off potential impending regression from continually reaching deep into their quiver in the second round of the playoffs and finding contributions. That they were managing was incredible, but eventually they need to be at their best.
“I think I’ve played well overall I just haven’t shot well,” Lowry said defiantly, and correctly, before Wednesday’s game. “We’re in Game 5, second round. We’re both doing something right, I think. So we’ve just got to continue to try to score better…Even right now, we’re not playing well and I still think we have the opportunity to do something special and that’s the scary thing.”
In Game 5, in the most important game the Air Canada Centre has played home to in over a decade, the series and the season in the balance, Lowry and DeRozan broke through. If DeRozan warned of what the team would look like when they were clicking, they showed it here. If Lowry thinks they just had to score better, they did so here. DeRozan turned in his best scoring performance of the postseason, dropping 34 points on just 22 field-goal attempts. Lowry shot a shaky 9-of-25, but that line’s much better when the four threes, six assists, and game-high 10 rebounds are factored in. Lowry maybe didn’t shoot well inside the arc again, but it was a KLOE game, his second in three outings and a mighty encouraging sign about how this series may play out.
Biyombo holds down defense to allow Lowry, DeRozan to shine | The Defeated
The knock against Biyombo will focus around his shortcomings on offense. He can’t shoot. He can barely catch the ball. He makes things very difficult.
There’s ways to make Biyombo useful — it’s just damn hard — but Casey played it smart. He leveraged Biyombo’s incredible screening ability to generate offense for his guards.
Some of it was basic stuff, like when Biyombo flattened Dragic to pop Lowry open for a three. Other times Casey had to get more creative. He had Biyombo set a screen for DeRozan at the high-elbow area for a pick-and-roll that negated the defenders’ ability to sag, while also getting DeRozan open for his bread-and-butter in the middle of the floor.
Biyombo had eight screen assists (baskets made after a screen) in Game 5. That’s twice as many as the Heat had as a team. He also chipped in with three offensive rebounds (two for putbacks), and threw in two tough layups for 10 points on 4–5 shooting.
Again, nobody would confuse Biyombo for a talented offensive player. But he truly morphs into a dominant force when he can create extra possessions, catch lobs, and get his guards open with screens. He did that tonight.
Ability to defend small lineups keeping Raptors’ Patterson on the floor vs. Heat | Sportsnet.ca
The process of putting Patterson out on the perimeter to guard has been gradual. Patterson got a brief shot against Johnson in 2014, but the Raptors put that experiment into motion much more seriously this year. With Carroll’s knee surgery and James Johnson’s continuing James Johnsonness, Casey was looking for anybody go guard the league’s thicker perimeter scorers in the league. Patterson did a particularly good job on Carmelo Anthony, and also had notable cameos against LeBron James.
“He’s proven the fact that he can guard those guys,” Casey said. “Throughout the season he’s done it in certain situations, probably not for as long of a period of time as he’s done with Joe Johnson. He’s been very effective. But there are going to be different people on [Johnson]. It’s not going to just be Patrick. It’s going to be different bodies, different sizes when he backs us down into the post.”
In a nice bonus, Patterson and his frontcourt partner, Bismack Biyombo, both have the necessary speed and height to switch defensive options with each other. Biyombo even had to guard Wade in certain situations in Game 5, and no disasters occurred.
The irony is that NBA executives are in Chicago this week for the NBA’s Draft Combine, measuring players to try to determine what they might be able to do and what their limitations could be when they get to the league. However, just think of what has happened to the Raptors on defence this post-season. Norman Powell — another player who fell through the cracks in last year’s draft because his skill set did not match his body type in the traditional NBA manner — passably defended Paul George last round despite giving up five inches in height because of his foot speed, smarts and wingspan. Patterson has leveraged his size and lateral quickness to defend Johnson well.
It is not one skill or measurement that matters most. It is all of them.
Night. See you guys tomorrow. #WeTheNorth
A photo posted by Toronto Raptors (@raptors) on
DeRozan and Lowry Finally Do the Heavy Lifting Together | VICE Sports
It has taken all sorts of procedures to get DeRozan and Lowry, the Raptors’ two struggling offensive fulcrums, right. The work has targeted the body, with DeRozan’s thumb and Lowry’s elbow being the biggest issues, and the minds, with Lowry admitting that he was turning down shots and DeRozan having the opposite problem, eschewing a plan B. All regular season long, the Raptors thrived with Lowry and DeRozan as twin pillars of a guard-oriented offence, dispatching opponents with pick-and-rolls, pindowns, transition 3-pointers and free throws. When the defence collapsed on them, then the supporting cast picked up the slack, with a big man filling the lane on a roll or a shooter reigning in a 3-pointer.
That is the order it is supposed to go in, though: Stars shine, defence adjusts, the world opens up for everyone else. That, obviously, has not happened in the playoffs. Wednesday night was not a pure version of that, but it is certainly as close as the Raptors have come in the postseason.
Lowry was everything as the Raptors sprinted to their best start of the series. In fact, it was disturbing how important he was: The Raptors outscored the Heat by 24 points in his more than 20 minutes on the floor in the first half, and gave 14 of those away in the remainder. He was taking 3-pointers when the defence went under screens, reading every passing lane and making the right reads in transition.
Bismack Biyombo is breaking out at the perfect time | Hardwood Paroxysm
Where Biyombo really made his presence known, however, was on the defensive side of the ball. This season, the Raptors gave up 100.6 points per 100 possessions when Biyombo was on the floor, but that number climbed to 104.5 points per 100 possessions when he was off the floor. Biyombo is perfect for his off the bench rim protector role, because that’s always been the part of his game he’s had the most success with. Even in the early years, where having him on the floor was the equivalent to a 4-on-5 offense, he still provided solid rim protection. Now, with experience on his side and a chip on his shoulder, Biyombo has pulled everything together and turned into one of the better defensive bigs in the league. What’s hard to believe is he might not be having this breakout series had he ended up staying with the Hornets.
Biyombo should probably still be in Charlotte. The Hornets had a chance to offer him a qualifying offer, which he likely would have signed had they not even given him one and made him an unrestricted free agent. With his value low, Biyombo took a two year contract for $6 million with a player option for the second year. He was gambling on himself to succeed in a new environment. The result has obviously worked majorly in Biyombo’s favor, with the entire NBA taking notice of his play this season.
That begs the question: Would Biyombo be playing this same level of basketball if he were still with the Hornets?
The situation is more context heavy than a blanket yes or no answer, but it’s unlikely that Biyombo would have found this level of success in Charlotte. Not because of the Hornets having an inability to develop, but just because of fit with that team compared to his current one. The Hornets defense is reliant on perimeter players more so than rim protectors, and they prefer big men with more offensive versatility than Biyombo had shown in the past. Charlotte also completely abandons offensive rebounds, coming in at last in the NBA in that category, which is a skill Biyombo has shown time and time again this season. None of this is to say that Biyombo wouldn’t be playing well in Charlotte — he’s clearly shown this season that he is a solid big that can come off the bench and provide good defensive minutes. But Toronto is just a better fit for his skills.
Stay Together, Stay Focused, Stay Positive!!! 💯💯💯 #WeTheNorth #JYD2Point0 #TeamCarroll #RTZ
A photo posted by DeMarre Carroll (@demarrecarroll1) on
Miami Heat ready to put chill on Raptors’ plans to advance | Toronto Star
The Heat players are steadfast in their belief that even if Deng can’t go or is limited — and Hassan Whiteside is listed as out as he tries to make a miraculous recovery from a strained knee ligament — they have enough to win.
It comes from the veteran presence of Dwyane Wade, the only consistently player in the series from either team, and Joe Johnson, who hasn’t had a tremendous impact.
Both have been through enough big games to know that it’s will more than Xs and Os that determines many playoff outcomes.
“If someone cannot be out there, you have to be able to plug them in and hopefully they help you,” Wade said Wednesday. “So it’s nothing you can do. A lot of things happen just by the game being physical. So it’s unfortunate, but we will continue to move on, get ready for Game 6 in Miami. Hopefully Luol is with us.
“If not, the next guy will have to step up.”
Heat need Dwyane Wade to come up big on Friday. | Sports on Earth
It’s still a remarkable sight to watch Wade work, pirouetting around defenders on his way to the rim, baiting perimeter defenders into silly fouls, getting to his spots on the floor and hitting difficult shots in the most crucial moments. He can’t do it all by himself, but Wade is still one of the best closers in the league, especially in the playoffs. As the Heat face elimination in Friday night’s Game 6 against the Raptors, therein lies the problem: The only way the Heat win this series might be with Wade carrying them for two games.
With Hassan Whiteside — who is officially listed day-to-day with a sprained knee — presumably out for the series along with Jonas Valanciunas for the Raptors, Toronto versus Miami will be determined by the matchup on the perimeter, where the Heat have been coming up short. As a team, they’re shooting 30.4 percent from 3-point range in this series. Joe Johnson is shooting 37.2 percent from the field, including 1-for-17 from beyond the arc. Luol Deng has been quiet and is doubtful for Game 6 with a left wrist injury. Goran Dragic has been the only other reliable contributor next to Wade, and even then, he’s disappeared for stretches on the offensive end. Meanwhile, Wade is leading the team with 25.8 points per game and shooting 48.5 percent from the field, making 58.3 of his 3-point attempts.
The Heat can still win this series, though. In Game 5, Miami trailed by 20 in the first half and 13 after the third quarter, their offense putting on a horrific display. And yet it was still a one-possession game late in the fourth quarter.
The Raptors have shown in these playoffs they are more than willing to let their opponents back into games, and back into a series. In the first round against Indiana, Toronto got blown out on the road in Game 6 with a chance to advance, and would have lost Game 7 if the Pacers had made a few more shots and committed fewer turnovers in the fourth quarter. The Raptors have looked uncomfortable when the moment has gotten too big. Their late-game offense involves mostly dribble hand-offs on the perimeter and praying one of their guards can shoot them to victory.
The Heat are on the brink of defeat, but winning the next two games isn’t an improbable task despite indications Toronto is trending upward. Kyle Lowry has shot the ball well in two of his last three games. DeMar DeRozan, who is dealing with a thumb injury, scored 34 points in the Game 5 win. Those are encouraging signs for Toronto, but it is still taking the floor on a nightly basis without a clear idea of what it’s going to get from its starting backcourt.
Yahoo! reports Luol Deng has a severe contusion in his L wrist with no fracture. That likely means he’ll play Game 6.
— Jason Lieser (@JasonLieser) May 12, 2016
Kelly: Raptors’ manly-man rhetoric shows how desperate they are | The Globe and Mail
The amplification of Toronto’s usual up-and-down ride through any playoff series has extended itself wildly during the past month. One day, disaster. The next day, euphoria. ‘Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are finished!’ followed by ‘Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are back!’ Repeat repeatedly.
That narrative isn’t a media creation. The players have been enthusiastically selling it. Lowry’s into-the-wee-hours public shooting practice was the ne plus ultra.
The Raptors aren’t just a team discovering new territory – they look like one, too.
All the doubt inside the camp has been on full display. No one has seemed calm and purposeful. Not consistently. This has been a clawing, scrambling effort.
Despite the record number of regular-season wins, they haven’t earned the right to win in an aesthetically pleasing way. Slow-motion uppercuts are for the Golden States of the world. The Raptors are eye gougers and rabbit punchers. They have to win any way they can.
Casey sees it. He also sees that all sins will be washed away by a victory on Friday.
No one will remember how ugly this was if they win. And no one will care how badly they’re beaten in the next round.
We’ve moved beyond tactics and adjustments. We’re into hard-man basketball – physically and mentally. Get a body on someone. Make your shots. Then trust to luck. No one’s going to coach their way out of this series. At best, you survive it.
ASK IRA: Can Joe Johnson do more? Does he have to? | Sun Sentinel
Q: Ira, it appears to me that Joe Johnson is playing more minutes than his body will tolerate. He’s probably a 20-minutes-a-night guy at this stage of his career — Cap, Fort Lauderdale.
A: That’s why I found it so curious that Johnson and the Heat, when he was added at the buyout deadline, mentioned that this could be more than a short-term relationship. Look, with this postseason, it has become clear that Dwyane Wade isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So that effectively rules out shooting guard as an option for Johnson. So if the Heat do find the fiscal means to make a move in free agency for a small forward (even as Kevin Durant becomes a longer shot amid the Thunder’s postseason success), then that would lead to the type of role with the Heat going forward for Johnson that you mention, as a reserve. But what you would pay for a small forward off the bench certainly is nowhere close to what you would pay a starter. To me, the only way it makes sense for Joe to stay beyond this season would be as the starting small forward. Otherwise, you would have Justise Winslow as the backup small forward and perhaps Tyler Johnson as the backup shooting guard, with more long-term upside than casting Johnson in such a role. Ultimately, it will come down to Johnson’s price point. He essentially is the one who will dictate his Heat future, based on his economics. But he has to show more than what he has shown this postseason. While he had eight rebounds in Wednesday’s Game 5 against the Raptors, it was a night he was needed for more than 11 points, more than 5 of 13 from the field and 1 of 4 on 3-pointers. Friday could be a defining moment for Johnson amid the uncertainty with Luol Deng’s wrist. He had to do more. Has to do better. Has to give the Heat a reason to follow up on that pledge of something beyond this season.
Heat rookies Richardson and Winslow learning to cope with playoff pressure | Miami Herald
“We’re young guys that play really hard, so we just tried to bring energy, change the game a little bit,” Richardson said after the 99-91 loss to the Raptors. “We went on a little run.”
They’ll need to provide even more Friday for the hobbled Heat — now down 3-2 — to extend its postseason run. Even if the Heat don’t, this has been invaluable for “Rook 1” and “Rook 2,” drafted 10th and 40th overall. It may prove the most productive aspect of this postseason.
Richardson (326) and Winslow (266) rank first and second in playoff minutes among NBA rookies; Indiana’s Myles Turner and Charlotte’s Frank Kaminsky, since eliminated, are third (197) and fourth (190). Of the top 10 picks, only Detroit’s Stanley Johnson (eighth, 81 minutes), Kaminsky (ninth, 190) and Winslow (10th, 266) were on playoff qualifiers. Toronto’s Norman Powell (175 minutes) is the only second-round pick other than Richardson to play more than 12 minutes.
Dwyane Wade played 510 minutes as a rookie.
How much will this help?
“Oh, a lot,” Wade said. “They might not even know it yet. This level right here is so different from that regular-season level.”
Wade said rookies who play in the playoffs tend to dominate the next summer league because “it will seem so easy to them.”
“There’s nothing better than getting playoff minutes, especially the games that we’ve played, three overtime games,” Wade said. “I don’t know how much tighter your butt cheeks can get than this series.”
3 frustrating things about the Miami Heat this series | All U Can Heat
Toronto is in the postseason for a reason, there is no doubt about that. Finishing the regular season with a 56-26 record, No. 2 in the Eastern Conference, they are a talented group of guys. Lead of course, by All-Stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
But they are not doing so hot in this series.
Their shooting woes are real.
Before Game 5, Lowry and DeRozan were shooting a combined 33.1 percent (the worst percentage by a starting backcourt in 20 years). They were totally off their game, getting rushed looks at poor shot selections. It was…bad.
And yet, Miami still could not get ahead.
Of course, the stars got it together on Wednesday night when the two finished with 59 points, going 20-for-47 from the field and 5-for-10 from three. But that does not make up for their production levels in the first four games.
It would be aggravating enough if the Heat were struggling against a team playing their best version of basketball. But for us to be constantly trying to outlast a group of guys whose best players are having their worst games to date? That is devastating.
We should have been able to take advantage of their poor shooting from the start, taking a commanding lead over the series and finishing the second round out.
Hyde: Heat are tough — but do they have ‘enough’? | Sun Sentinel
“Whatever it takes,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We have enough.”
What else would he say? “We don’t have enough at this point.” Or: “Hey, you go try to win a second-round playoff series without your starting frontline.”
Maybe still they do have enough to grab Friday’s Game 6 in AmericanAirlines Arena. Maybe the Raptors, with those injuries of their own, get another of those wobbly games from their two stars, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
They finally broke out Wednesday night, with DeRozan scoring 34 points and Lowry 25. This is the stage when scoring and stars win for you, not strategy or surprise, and the Heat look like they’re down to a lone superstar in Wade.
So what has to happen for the Heat to stretch the season to another Game 7?
Well, what has to happen is they need to find an up-tempo gear on occasion. They need Dragic and Joe Johnson to play like they’ve shown in spurts these playoffs. Deng, too, if his wrist heals enough for him to be functional.
Rookies are nice. But this is the time for the veterans. This is the point when Joe Johnson needs to rewrite the narrative from someone struggling. (He’s made just one of his past 14 3-point attempts.)
This is the time when Dragic, too, needs to find the consistency gene his game has lacked these playoffs.
How the Raptors advance or the Heat force Game 7 | Yardbarker.com
There’s an old saying in hockey that in the playoffs your best players have to be your best players. It seems redundantly obvious, but it holds remarkably true year after year.
Not shockingly, this adage is also true when it comes to the NBA postseason. That is unless you’re the 2015-16 Toronto Raptors prior to Game 5 of their second-round series with the Heat. Up until Wednesday night’s game at the Air Canada Centre, both Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan had not been getting the job done for head coach Dwane Casey on a nightly basis. In fact, both have been downright awful at times.
Through his first four games against Miami, DeRozan, Toronto’s leading scorer during the regular season, had been averaging 17.5 points per game on 35 percent shooting. Kyle Lowry has been struggling all postseason. Even after his 25-10-6 performance Wednesday, the All-Star point guard is still averaging just 15.8 points on a lowly 33.5 percent shooting from the field, along with three turnovers per game.
Obviously, that type of production from your top two players just isn’t good enough, which is exactly why the Raptors’ Game 5 win sets up a simple template for the team to follow to win the series: Just have your best two players looks like themselves!
Look, it’s far from earth-shattering analysis, but it doesn’t need to be any more complicated than this. I’m well aware Bismack Biyombo has stepped up and played what is probably the best basketball of his career in the absence of Jonas Valanciunas, but the Raptors didn’t have their best regular season in franchise history because of a player like Biyombo. It happened because both DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry played like absolute studs.
With both Chris Bosh and Hassan Whiteside sidelined, the Heat is a wounded animal. If the Raptors’ best two individual players can be as competent as they were Wednesday night, they’ll have a tough time finding a way to lose in Miami.
Raptors Heat Series Is Like A Hockey Game Says Cory Joseph | Pro Bball Report
“It’s playoffs,” Patrick Patterson told Pro Bball Report. “I take it we’re dishing just as much as we are receiving. At the end of the day, the playoffs are a very physical game. You do whatever it takes to get a loose ball, a rebound, to get a stop, to stop your man from getting to the basket or scoring.
“A lot of pushing. A lot of shoving. A lot of stuff going on out there on the court.
“It’s a lot of fun. You are able to bang, push and shove, no calls being made. It’s just playing free out there.”
This isn’t regular season basketball anymore. Nothing that has been happening on the court resembles what went on before the playoffs and both coaches are loving it.
“A big part of it is how both teams are defending,” Heat head coach Eric Spoelstra said after Game Five. “Neither team played like this during the regular season and it’s just coming down to how many plays you can make during the course of the game. How efficient you can be with your offense even if you aren’t scoring big and inevitably it comes down to those final possessions coming down the stretch.
“I don’t know if the offense is going to trend for either team.
“Our guys love this, love this kind of competition.”
The defense being played in this series is over the top and at a level that isn’t often seen even in the postseason (anymore). Both Toronto and Miami averaged over a 100 points per game during the regular season, but only Miami has been able to crack the century mark with overtime in Game One and since then the Heat has averaged just 92 points per game. The Raptors are only averaging 94.6 points per game.
Thumbs up to Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan and the red shoestring | Toronto Star
With the Raptors just a win away from reaching their first conference final, Biyombo said he and his teammates remain focused.
“I talked to a few other guys — it almost feels like you’re down by one and we’ve just got to go in there to do whatever it takes,” he said.
“I think when we’re sitting here, when we’re in this situation like going into Indiana (up 3-2) it was going to be (treated like) a Game 7, and obviously we didn’t do it.
“So at this point it’s just whatever it takes. The mentality is great, the energy is great. That’s what’s exciting about being around these guys. We all look forward to tomorrow. We can’t wait for tomorrow to be here.”
Toronto Raptors: Miami Heat Series Becoming a War of Attrition | Tip of the Tower
Obviously if the team’s best defender can’t play in Game 6, it will be a massive blow for the Raptors. Carroll only returned recently from a knee injury, which limited him to 26 games during the regular season.
Coming so soon after losing Jonas Valanciunas to a sprained right ankle only increases the frustration. The big man had been Toronto’s best player during this postseason and there are no guarantees he will return, even if they advance.
Of course, the issues with Carroll and Valanciunas wouldn’t matter as much, if Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were replicating their regular season form with more consistency. Unfortunately, the Raptors All-Star backcourt duo are also dealing with injury problems of their own.
Lowry has been coping with an elbow issue going back to before the playoffs started, which – no matter what he claims publicly – is clearing affecting his shot. DeRozan is being similar compromised, after twisting the thumb on his shooting hand during Game 1 of the Miami series.
There is some hope for the Raptors duo, as evidenced by their performance on Wednesday night. DeRozan equaled his playoff high of 34 points, while his teammate added 25 of his own.
However, given the playoffs as a whole up to this point, there are no guarantees either or both of them will repeat their efforts in Game 6. Again, this is where the loss of Valanciunas and potentially Carroll becomes so important, with Lowry and DeRozan unable to defer to them, if their shooting is off again.
Heat’s Luol Deng (bruise) questionable for Game 6, but Whiteside out | Sun Sentinel
An encouraging MRI means Luol Deng is likely to play Friday against the Toronto Raptors in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, but center Hassan Whiteside will miss his third straight game of the series due to a sprained right knee.
“I texted with him,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Whiteside. “All that he’s doing right now is therapy and rest. I anticipate that will be the same [Friday].”
With Whiteside out, the Heat are fortunate to have Deng listed as questionable. The MRI determined he sustained a bruised left wrist, and not a fracture. It’s a good bet Deng will be on the court for the Heat, who trail the best-of-seven series 3-2 and are facing elimination.
“I want to be positive,” Deng said before the MRI results. “If there’s nothing serious, I’ll be playing. As long as there’s nothing wrong with it, I’ll play.”
Raptors’ DeMarre Carroll questionable for Game 6, but plans to play | CBSSports.com
“All guys are in play,” Casey said.
Carroll is is not only the Raptors’ best perimeter defender, but with Hassan Whiteside sidelined, he has been able to switch onto any Heat big man without a problem. In Games 2 and 4, he gave Toronto an offensive boost, too. If the Raptors are going to close out this series, it would help to have him as close to 100 percent as possible.
“It’s all about how I can tolerate my pain, but I’m [not] the junkyard dog for nothing, right?” Carroll said. “So we’ll see what happens.”
Expect Carroll to suit up for Raptors in crucial Game 6 | TSN
“I will have a lot of say, let’s put it that way,” Carroll said, sporting a brace on his left hand 14 hours after the Raptors’ took a 3-2 series lead over Miami. “I talked to my so-called dad, Alex McKechnie (Raptors director of sports science), and let’s see what happens. He said let’s take it day by day. Me being who I am, I’m pretty sure I’m going to fight him to play.”
“If it ain’t broke, with me, I’m ready to play.”
That’s music to the ears of Raptors fans around the nation. Since opening the postseason on a minute restriction, Carroll has been one of the team’s most valuable players.
Game 6 Preview: Raptors @ Heat | Toronto Raptors
Movement matters
After the Raptors got caught holding onto the ball, resulting in stagnant offence down the stretch of the team’s Game 4 loss in Miami, head coach Dwane Casey stressed the importance of movement. With and without the ball.
“The key is we’ve got to move,” Casey said. “We can’t stand. There are so many clips, if you watch where we were standing. When we pass the ball you’ve got to move, move the ball, move your body.”
Toronto got off to a good start in the first quarter of Game 5, getting out in transition for easy buckets, as well as racking up 11 assists in the first half, after managing just 12 total in Game 4. Looking ahead to Friday’s game, the Raptors need to continue moving the ball — and moving without the ball — to ensure open looks.
Raptors-Miami Heat: Game 6 game preview | Toronto Star
Key matchup: DeMarre Carroll vs. Dwyane Wade.
This matchup is the perfect example of how injuries have come to dominate this series.
If Miami is missing Deng — they already are missing Hassan Whiteside in the paint — the scoring burden will only increase on Wade. That’s why who the Raptors have guarding him will be so important. If it’s Carroll, he’ll have a long night, especially with a sore left wrist. If Carroll sits, a heavy responsibility shifts to a combination of players, including Norman Powell, who has looked his most rookie-like in the playoffs guarding his idol. Patrick Patterson has chipped in on defence and Carroll’s injury could see the return of James Johnson, who got in for five minutes in Game 2.
Raptors at Miami Heat, Gm 6: Preview keys to victory | Raptors Rapture
Everybody has to defend. If you don’t know your rotations, if you are being beaten off the bounce or not boxing out, you can’t stay on the floor. The Raptors have created a bunch of points off turnovers, and will need to continue to harass Miami.
Did I miss something? Send me any Raptors-related article/video to rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
