Toronto Raptors fans will be asking questions of NBA officiating yet again after a bizarre ending to their first-ever game at the Golden 1 Centre in Sacramento.
Terrence Ross banged a deep three to tie the game at 102 and send it to overtime. Except, he didn’t, according to the officials. DeMarcus Cousins deflected the ball on the inbounds, but that was only picked up on the review. The officials ruled that the clock started late, so they waved off the shot and the game was over. I’m sure the league will send out a “last two minute” report to clarify, which is somehow supposed to absolve them of any responsibility.
From the outset, this game had no rhythm. Toronto asserted themselves in the first quarter, pushing the ball up court and trying to exploit mismatches. They got easy scores off lazy play from the Kings. After the ball went out of bounds, Kyle Lowry ran over, got the ref to inbound it quickly, passed to DeMar DeRozan, who pitched it cross-court to Carroll for an easy three. This play looked like a group who was ready to take care of business against a dysfunctional, directionless team.
Except it was the Raptors who looked dysfunctional on the other end. Toronto was killed by dribble penetration, letting Ty Lawson and Darren Collison kill them and send the defence into rotation. There were late pick-ups in transition and not a ton of effort fighting through screens. Toronto was down 36-28.
Toronto looked more comfortable in the second quarter. Patrick Patterson hit two threes and Terrence Ross nailed a floater and a pull-up jumper to key a run that put the Raptors up one. The Lowry-Joseph-Ross-Patterson-Nogueira line-up looked good, especially with the length of Bebe providing some rim protection. Future Raptor DeMarcus Cousins took a seat after picking up three fouls in ten minutes of play, and Lowry immediately pounced. Willie Cauley-Stein, for all his physical gifts, has likely not received the coaching or playing time necessary to learn the nuances of defending the pick and roll at this level, and Toronto exploited this. Lowry and Joseph ran pick and rolls constantly and hit a rolling Jonas Valanciunas for easy scores. JV had 14 points in the first half, looking aggressive and decisive every time he had the ball. Lowry sat at the end of the half, allowing the Kings to get back into it and go to the locker room only down five.
The third quarter was one of the worst stretches I have seen from the Raptors this year. On defence, Toronto was ball-watching. Cousins would get the ball in the post and the weakside defenders locked in on him and Boogie would kick it out to guys open for three. Offensively, the squad was scrambling for options. The Lowry-JV pick and roll was no longer effective because Cousins was back in the game, and DeRozan was having an off-night. The scoring issues were compounded by turnovers that are a shared blame. Lowry was forcing the issue, trying to make too much happen. But there was no room to operate. The Pascal Siakam-JV frontcourt is work in progress; as the shot clock runs down, there are a handful of times where the two players are standing next to each other and pose no real threat. Toronto’s offensive woes resulted in a 18-point quarter and an 86-81 deficit.
This is where things got truly weird. Patterson, Lowry and Cory Joseph hit a trifecta of threes to grab a one-point lead with nine minutes remaining. But Lowry picked up his fourth and fifth foul before the eight-minute mark and that sent the Raptors into a tailspin. Ball movement was an afterthought as the team just gave the ball to DeMar every possession in hopes that he could create. Yes, DeRozan is The Guy, but he struggled all game long because of the length of Rudy Gay. Some Cory Joseph-JV pick and rolls could have provided a different look.
Lowry came back in with about four minutes left but Toronto never looked themselves. A turnover gifted Rudy Gay another dunk – the bucket that proved to be the game-winner – and Lowry couldn’t hit open shots. Then, the refs just lost control of the game. Patterson tried to take the intentional foul on Cousins with 9.5 seconds left as the Raptors were down three. The refs did not call that so the Kings committed a shot-clock violation as a Collison heave didn’t find the rim. Raptors were down three with the ball and 2.4 seconds left.
With new life, Terrence Ross hit a deep three off a busted out-of-bounds play. It didn’t count, as explained above, but this is a ridiculous way of officiating. As William Lou noted in his game notes, Ross can only operate under the clock that he sees. If the referees miss a call — which happens all the time — then play should just resume because all players are playing under the same conditions. The NBA doesn’t make a ton of calls in hindsight. That’s what the (toothless) last two minute report is for. Fans want to see outcomes decided by the athletes, not a minutes-long video review at the end of the game.
This loss is frustrating as anything, but the positive is that we saw Dwane Casey throw a clipboard. Here’s a screengrab, enjoy your Monday.
