Coming off a tight win against the Charlotte Hornets, the Raptors passed the test of the first back-to-back of the season Saturday night when they hosted the New York Knicks on Huskies night. Debuting the new Blue court to go with the throwback jerseys, the home team managed to overcome an impressive 31 point night from Carmelo Anthony when it felt like no Toronto defender could slow him down to move to 7-2 on the year.
There has been no shortage of praise sent in the direction of DeMar DeRozan for the impressive fashion in which he has started the season, and this game certainly won’t reduce that. Another impressive outing with 33 points, to go with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals, DeMar continues to rack up the accolades as he simply looks unstoppable on offense, finding his shot with ease and confidence, and also finding his teammates for easy shots. This felt like another night where the assist total could’ve been much higher, as there were plenty of open looks that just didn’t go down tonight from long distance, where the team has struggled thus far in the season.
DeMarre Carroll got the night off, purportedly for rest, and Norman Powell started in his stead. Powell drew the initial assignment on Carmelo, and would find himself guarding the Knicks star throughout the night. Powell did his earnest best on that end to slow down Anthony, but this matchup simply was too much for the second year Raptor, he gives up too much size and strength. This isn’t intended as a knock on Powell, he brings a lot to the table on the defensive end and works hard every possession, but he’s still small for a wing player, and Carmelo is one of the toughest matchups in the league for even some of the best players. Despite the matchup issues on the defensive end, Powell contributed 19 points and had a solid outing. It’ll be interesting to see going forward whether this brings an increase in his minutes on nights Carroll plays, and how Dwane Casey sorts out the wing rotation, as Terrence Ross also had a solid night, scoring 11 points in 18 minutes off the bench. There’s a lot of talent on the wings, and often it feels like not enough minutes to go around. Powell has often been the man getting the short end of the stick so far, but he clearly needs more opportunities and has the trust of Casey, having closed out games on several occasions to start the season.
Another bright spot for the home side was Lucas ‘Bebe’ Nogueira, who delivered another strong performance. Coming off the bench and ending up with more minutes than starting center Jonas Valanciunas, including the closing stretch of the game, Bebe showed his strengths on both ends of the floor, running in transition and setting solid screens for the Raptors guards while pulling down 4 offensive rebounds, as well as giving an impressive defensive performance with 3 steals and 5 blocks, including several crucial blocks down the stretch. Despite Jakob Poeltl having some strong outings early in the year and showing he belongs in the league, at this point it appears the job of backup center belongs to Bebe. He’s so long, and quick, and he’s shown good defensive instincts, and as long as he can keep this up, any perceived weaknesses on the roster from the departure of Bismack Biyombo during the summer simply aren’t present.
On the negative side, for the Raptors, it felt like throughout the night Derrick Rose simply had a free lane to the basket, and he scored frequently on these line drives inside. The Raptors guards need to do a better job slowing down guards off the bounce, and at least direct the drives into the defensive big men to give them a chance to get the stop at the rim. Also, Toronto struggled keeping the Knicks off their own glass, giving up 17 offensive rebounds, and particularly the frontcourt of Patrick Patterson and Bebe struggled in this area. It’s something that the team will have to pay attention to as the season progresses, but getting Valanciunas back to full strength and later in the year, getting Jared Sullinger, should help in that area. All in all, this was a strong win over a team that the Raptors should beat.
It’s good to see the bench stepping their game up in the last few games to go with DeRozan’s strong play, because the next week brings some stronger tests for the Raptors, with a back-to-back in the middle of the week visiting the defending Champion Cleveland Cavaliers followed up by the Golden State Warriors at the ACC the next night.
