The Raptors offense is historic, and wonderfully divergent – Raptors HQ
Right now they’re ranked eighth in offensive rating by Basketball Reference, comfortably ahead of famous offensive teams like the 69-win 1990-91 champion Chicago Bulls (#11), the 2005-06 “Six Seconds or Less” Phoenix Suns (#13), and — believe it or not — the 73-win Golden State Warriors from last year (#14).
This isn’t a fluke either. We’re now 20 games into the season, and the sample size is getting bigger and bigger. How have they managed it? Well, the Raptors are certainly diverging from league trends to put the ball in the bucket. While it’s become vogue to speed up the tempo, and while the Golden State Warriors continue to be lauded as the pinnacle of offensive basketball, the Raptors are percolating low and slow.
Of those top eight offenses of all-time, only the 1991-92 and 1995-96 Chicago Bulls played at a slower pace than the Raptors are at right now. Those teams, you might remember, had the benefit of Michael Jordan.
Indeed, Toronto is part of a small set of maverick teams like the Jazz and Spurs who are managing to be top ten offenses without a humming pace. Instead, they’re scoring methodically, and by maximizing their efficiency. The Raptors are doing this by running everything through DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, both of whom are playing as selflessly as they ever have.
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How the Toronto Raptors’ Cory Joseph thinks the game of basketball – Sportsnet.ca
“I kid you not,” Joseph says, “there are times when something might happen in the game and I’m thinking, ‘Man, it feels like I’ve been here before.’ That’s because I’m on my visualization. It brings everything together.”
This is an indication of how much Joseph prepares. And this is why Dwane Casey calls the 25-year-old Torontonian one of his team’s core workaholics. The Raptors head coach has asked Joseph to fill one of the most demanding, fluid roles on his team. On a nightly basis, Joseph will play and guard multiple positions. He’ll alternate between being a distributor and a scorer. He’ll run the point at times and space the floor at others. He plays a more varied range of roles than any other Raptor, and without his versatility, the team’s systems and rotations might just fall apart.
“A lot of it’s just his DNA and the way he approaches the game,” Casey says. “He’s done such a good job with that situation because of his intelligence. He’s a very valuable piece for what we’re doing.”
Here’s how a typical game might unfold for Joseph. He’ll start his night on the bench, carefully watching Kyle Lowry run the offence and taking mental notes on how the opposition is trying to disrupt the Raptors’ schemes. Then, late in the first quarter, Joseph will take over as the floor-runner for a spell, giving Lowry a rest as he commands Toronto’s second unit and tries to sustain offensive momentum. Ideally, the hyperactive guard brings an injection of energy that carries over to when Lowry retakes the floor midway through the second quarter. Then Joseph covers for Toronto’s primary scorer, DeMar DeRozan, as DeRozan takes a breather. That gets the Raptors to halftime. And that’s when things get interesting.
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Raptors’ trouble on defence begins on the boards | Toronto Star
There are many reasons the Toronto Raptors are struggling defensively this season and they are all somehow connected by one glaring deficiency: getting to missed shots.
The Raptors began play Saturday night among the worst rebounding teams in the NBA, which exacerbates other issues with the team’s defensive woes.
Only four teams had a lower percentage of defensive rebounds than Toronto. The Raptors were in the middle of the pack in second-chance points given up and 24th among 30 teams in total rebounding.
Some of it can be chalked up to the relatively few defensive rebounds that are available — teams shoot 45 per cent against them on average — but it’s also an effort issue.
“(It’s) bigs carving out space, being big, physical, going to get it, guards helping to sandwich rebound, getting on the back of the bigs and making it a double-team on the boards,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said, citing a litany of problems. “We’ve got to do a better job of that.”
Some of it is personnel driven. Rookie Pascal Siakam and still-raw Lucas Nogueira are hardly time-hardened rebounders with the necessary bulk and smarts to corral misses, and Patrick Patterson is limited on the glass.
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Raptors have no time to gloat | NBA | Raptors | Sports | Toronto Sun
The defending champs, a reeling group with three straight losses, will be looking to make a statement against the team it beat in the conference final back in May.
Dwane Casey had a laugh when questioned post-game Saturday about whether he relished the reality check the Cavs surely will provide coming now, while his club is riding high, pulverizing every opponent on offence.
“Is that a question? No. I’d rather be playing Toronto university. The schedule gives it to us. It’s coming, it’s going to be here, the schedule goes on,” Casey said following the 128-84 blowout of the Atlanta Hawks at the ACC on Saturday night.
“It’s a big picture, it’s a long season. There’s going to be ups and downs. You reminded me we have a team coming in Monday. Wouldn’t let me enjoy this game,” Casey smiled.
“We’ve got some tough teams coming in and this team is tough so you can’t relax in this league.”
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Game Preview: Raptors vs. Cavaliers | Toronto Raptors
Raptors looking for seventh straight win, Cavs looking to snap a three-game skid
Cleveland comes to Toronto hungry for a win. Having lost its last three games, this is the first three-game losing streak for the Cavaliers since Tyronn Lue took over as head coach midway through last season. After losses to the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Clippers, the Cavs fell in Chicago to the Bulls, prompting LeBron James to say the defending champions need to get out of the honeymoon stage and play the game the right way.
Toronto enters the game having won six straight, including the first four games of a season-high six-game homestand. The average margin of victory in those four games is 29.8 points and Saturday’s 128-84 victory against the Atlanta Hawks marked the team’s largest margin of victory in franchise history.
The two teams enter Monday’s game atop the Eastern Conference. Despite the ease of their previous four home victories, the Raptors know to expect a much different game on Monday against the Cavaliers.
“We played them twice already,” DeMar DeRozan said. “It came down to the wire [both times] and it’s fun when you go up against teams like that so we’re looking forward to Monday.”
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If the Cavs are to turn things around, they’ll need to prevent the Raptors from getting into the paint. Like Wade in Chicago, or Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee, DeMar DeRozan will relentlessly attack the rim at will. While rim protection is a term that gets thrown around a lot, it’s the penetration the Cavs have been allowing that is most concerning. Wings have been getting into the paint at will, and have been allowed to feed their bigs with drop-off passes in deep position. Preventing players from getting to the rim and limiting their attempts was a large part of the Cavs success in the postseason. While Thompson has improved his rim protection numbers this season, over this losing streak the amount of penetration they are allowing is a team-wide failure.
Like previous match-ups between these teams, how the game is officiated will determine the feel for the game. In the second meeting of this season, there was a tremendous amount of contact that was allowed on both sides. The holding lead to turnovers from the Cavs, and frustration from a Raptors squad that often relies on getting to the line. While there’s no telling how it’ll be called, playing the Raptors requires discipline defensively and attention to detail. Not leaving your feet on pump fakes, resisting the urge to reach in on drives all is required to keep them from getting to the line.
Offensively, things don’t need to change too much for the Cavaliers. It comes down to focus and execution. Cut down on the turnovers, and things will fall into place. When the team had struggles early in the season, they were running sets, getting open looks, but failing to convert. What makes this losing streak different is that outside of a few stretches, the team has looked disjointed and settled for lazy looks too frequently. They must get back to executing and maintaining the dedication to getting quality looks that got the team off to their strong start.
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Game day: Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors | Toronto Star
KEY MATCHUP
Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers, vs. Kyle Lowry, Raptors. The American Olympic teammates go at it in another matchup of premier point guards. Lowry has been lights out from three-point range over the last week, going 24-for-33 in his last five outings.
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