TrueHoop Presents: DeMar DeRozan’s quest to take up Kobe’s mantle – ESPN
The jujitsu of drawing fouls hardly gets you on SportsCenter. It doesn’t lend itself to hero worship. But it does come with the admiration of Rockets star James Harden, the NBA’s reigning free throw king. In fact, DeRozan and Harden spend summer study sessions in Los Angeles, where they examine every little opportunity to earn a whistle — like bringing a very low dribble into traffic. This often forces active-handed defenders to make an exaggerated reach to swipe at the ball and creates the kind of reach a referee just might notice. They also hone the fine art of tracking defenders in transition and finding inadvertent-looking contact with them while shooting, which DeRozan calls “body hunting.”
Last March, when Harden’s team visited Toronto, he and DeRozan dined together. The night before, DeRozan had gotten to the line 25 times in a win over the Portland Trail Blazers — making his first 24 and missing the last on purpose to kill the clock and secure the win. In baseball, pitchers have perfect games. In golf, there’s the hole-in-one. For what Harden and DeRozan do, this was the top of the mountain, and Harden wanted to compare notes, maestro to maestro.
A nightmare matchup: Three reasons Cavaliers keep beating Raptors – Sportsnet.ca
Big, traditional, plodding centres like Jonas Valanciunas simply cannot hang with a Cavaliers team that often goes small, rotating Frye and James into the position throughout the game.
It’s an automatic mismatch defensively, especially when those players pull Valanciunas away from the glass where he does his best work. And when you mix in a less than stellar offensive game from Valanciunas you end up with what you got Monday—a 1-for-8 night from the field and a seat on the bench for the entire fourth quarter.
Backup centre Lucas Nogueira offers more mobility than Valanciunas, and actually played one of his better games of the season Monday. But he too was essentially hopeless when the Cavaliers went small.
“It’s a matchup league,” Casey said. “I thought Lucas did a little bit better job of guarding Frye, which is a hard matchup for any five in this league. Not just Jonas and Lucas. He’s really a four playing the five. You give up something.”
James leads Cavs over Raptors – again | Toronto Sun
The Raptors seemed to spend a good part of the night focussed on the lack of calls going their way which, even if it were warranted, did them no good in the end.
The biggest surprise was that head coach Dwane Casey somehow avoided getting a technical.
Casey felt it was just a matter of too many mistakes or lapses early on that put his team in a hole.
“When you play a team like that … you can’t have mental mistakes because they’re going to capitalize on them every time you don’t get a 50-50 ball or you don’t get a defensive board, they’re going to cash in.
“If you don’t execute a play, if you don’t set a screen, if you’re not in position on your pick and roll defence, they make you pay.
“The margin of error for us on both ends of the floor is very small and against a good team like that, they’re going to take advantage of it,” Casey said.
In short the Raptors have to play a near perfect game to get the better of the Cavaliers. They weren’t close to that Monday night despite the four-point difference at the final whistle.
Court Squeaks: Raptors still can’t get over Cavs’ hump – Video – TSN
Three games against the Cavaliers have resulted in three losses this season for the Raptors. Josh Lewenberg and Kayla Grey discuss what went wrong, and what they need to do to get over the hump.
Cleveland’s Big 3 score at will to beat Raptors | Toronto Star
Toronto’s inability to guard big men who can stretch a defence was once again their undoing. Kevin Love made six three-pointers as part of his 28-point night and Channing Frye may have only made two shots from beyond the arc but he had a series of good looks. LeBron James scored a game-high 34 points for Cleveland and Kyrie Irving added 24. And Toronto’s inability to get stops consistently or find a hot third shooter was crippling.
“You concentrate on James and here’s Irving and then there’s Frye spaced out and then there’s Love,” Casey said. “You’ve got to pick your poison.”
DeMar DeRozan had 31 points for the Raptors, with Kyle Lowry pitching in 24. But Patrick Patterson went 3-for-12 from the field, Jonas Valanciunas was a non-factor and no one else came to the fore.
Casey ended up playing a hybrid lineup of Lowry, DeRozan, Terrence Ross, DeMarre Carroll and Patterson for a good chunk of the fourth quarter.
“If we’re not punishing them on the other end and inside . . . I thought their threes were more lethal than what we were going to get on the other end,” he said.
Game Rap: Raptors 112, Cavs 116 | Toronto Raptors
RAPTORS PLAYER OF THE GAME
DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors in scoring with 31 points in 39 minutes. He shot 12-for-23 from the floor, 7-for-7 from the free throw line and added four rebounds, five assists and three steals. Kyle Lowry followed up DeRozan’s effort with 24 points and nine assists to go with three rebounds and a steal. Lowry shot 7-for-14 from the floor, 4-for-9 from beyond the arc and 6-for-7 from the free throw line in 40 minutes of action, shaking off an early elbow to the face that required a shot of novocain to his lip.
DeMar drive and dish to DeMarre for the bucket #wethenorth pic.twitter.com/dRudOAPykS
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) December 6, 2016
Cavaliers 116, Raptors 112: J.R. Smith injured as Cavs end losing streak – Ohio.com
While it’s too early to start paying such close attention to the standings, it’s worth noting the Raptors have been clear in their mission to earn the top seed for the playoffs and homecourt advantage throughout the East. The Cavs have already won the first three meetings and now the two teams won’t play again until the regular-season finale in Cleveland. While the Cavs are 3-0 against the Raptors, the average margin of victory has been just 3.7 points.
Lue said before the game he thought the practice and film session the Cavs held on Sunday would do more to get the Cavs back on track than playing a top opponent. James seemed to agree.
“They’ve had our attention,” James said of the Raptors. “They’ve had our attention for the last couple years. I think they’ve had the NBA’s attention. You don’t need them playing well, us not playing well [to notice them] … I think it’s there.”
DeMar with the tear drop floater #wethenorth pic.twitter.com/UooryiRgsS
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) December 6, 2016
Final Score: Cavaliers end losing streak with 116-112 win over Raptors – Fear The Sword
As for the Raptors, it was another dominant performance from their backcourt – a combined 55 points – but a failure to contain James and Love at the wing inevitably did them in. A three-pointer from DeMar DeRozan almost cut the game within 2 points in the final minute, but officials ruled he had stepped out of bounds upon review.
The key takeaway from this game: the Cavs have got to stop letting teams back into games. Giving up 61 points in the first half is one thing but failing to maintain a double digit lead is a sign that the team is not quite comfortable with its rotations and is taking their foot off the gas a bit too quickly. Certainly someone like a third ball handler or a scoring option off the bench would help. Regardless, a win against the Raptors is important for Eastern Conference standings and gives the Cavs a one-game lead for first place.
Carroll with three on the break And1 (missed ft) #wethenorth pic.twitter.com/hEeM7aNFsY
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) December 6, 2016
Recap: Cavs 116, Raptors 112 (Or, Getting things fixed in the six) – Cavs: The Blog
Defensively, it wasn’t a terrible game, but there were some issues. The strategy when the Cavs play the Raptors is “let Patrick Patterson shoot as much as he wants,” and it has worked well so far — a lot better than it should, honestly, but that guy just cannot seem to put together a decent game against the Cavaliers. The Raptors made 40% of their threes, which looks bad on paper, but a lot of those were pretty well contested shots off the dribble, particularly from Terrence Ross, and one of them was a late-clock three from Kyle Lowry from freaking Winnipeg.
The big issue was how easy of a time DeMar DeRozan had — he finished with 31, and they weren’t coming on his signature midrange shots. (He finished 5-14 from outside 10 feet, and 3 of those makes were assisted.) He had way too easy of a time getting to the basket for layups and floaters and drawing fouls. J.R. going out early hurts there, but that’s something you simply can’t have happen. If DeRozan was feeling it from midrange, the Cavs could easily be on a four-game losing streak. At some point, I have to accept that this is a team that is counting on their ability to flip the switch defensively in the late rounds of the playoffs, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Lowry comes off the Bebe and sticks a three #wethenorth pic.twitter.com/AaD12U6wcS
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) December 6, 2016
Free throws – Every time the two teams play, Lue begs his team to keep Lowry and DeRozan off the free throw line. He wants to force them to earn points by making contested shots or finishing in traffic.
For the most part, the Cavs were able to do that. DeRozan, who averages 9.0 freebies per game, took just seven from the stripe, including three in the second half.
Lowry made seven trips to the line, with three of those attempts coming in the final seconds when Iman Shumpert bit on a pump fake and committed a silly foul. That’s the only time Lowry got to the free throw line.
On the other end, the Cavs attacked the Raptors’ defense, earning 27 trips to the stripe. James, one game after not attempting a free throw, took nine attempts.
Bebe blocks Irving at the rim #helpd #wethenorth pic.twitter.com/u7l0rYbvVc
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) December 6, 2016
Raptors fall short again to the Cavaliers, 116-112 – Raptors HQ
Which brings us to the true problem of the Raptors when they go up against the Cavaliers, or the Warriors (or even the Clippers or Spurs). Who is this team’s third best player? Ross, Carroll, Patterson, Cory Joseph — these are complementary pieces. All signs, as per usual, point to Jonas Valanciunas to be that guy. The problem in these situations is two-fold. As the game speeds up and the Cavs go small, Jonas is hopeless on defense. He can’t guard the pick-and-roll and he can’t deal with Channing Frye on the perimeter. To have any reason to keep him out there then, JV has to kill the Cavs on offense. But then comes the second problem: he went 1-of-8 from the field for four points (to go with 10 rebounds). Casey insists Jonas is fine — as in, not injured — but that’s no consolation. It means Valanciunas is just playing badly. Again.
When the Raptors start Jonas and Pascal Siakam — and God bless him for trying — it does put them at disadvantage. I know some have been ranting and raving about this very issue, but against most teams it doesn’t quite matter. Against the Cavs, it very much does. As Casey said: the Raptors need to play a perfect game — and with Siakam and Jonas taking turns getting overwhelmed on one end of the court or the other, there’s just no way for that to happen. DeRozan gets his points, Lowry pushes and pushes, Ross bombs some threes, the rest of the Raptors soldier on, but it all comes undone anyway.
The Raptors kept it respectable though, which we kind of expected them to do. They were down 114-109 when DeRozan somehow found himself squaring up in the corner for that three. It was the kind of out-of-nowhere miracle play that puts the Raptors in position to steal a win, even after they’d been outclassed for a sizable portion of the game (and all of the second half). That it was disallowed by inches really sums up the entire experience.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNpwL30AGCR/
LeBron reinforces distance between Cavaliers, Raptors atop East – Sportsnet.ca
“It’s always a tough place to play,” said James, who added eight rebounds and seven assists. “Their fans are incredible and their team is very good and well coached. It’s always tough to get a win in here and for us to do that twice already (this year) it’s big for our team.”
It’s a compliment of sorts, that basketball’s most dominant player has games in Toronto circled on his calendar. But it’s a problem too.
“I guess it’s a thank you,” said Lowry. “But you’ve got our attention too.”
The Cavs ended Toronto’s streak and halted the their own losing streak at three, but more importantly they proved a point that hardly needs making: as good as the Raptors have been lately, there is a distance they have yet to travel if they are going to catch Cleveland with James in the lineup.
“We’ve got to play a perfect game to beat a team like that,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “Whether it’s mental breakdowns or whatever … All those little things matter in the flow of a game. We’re a growing team but to beat a team like this it has to be close to 95 per cent, 94 per cent.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNp8cXfA-Ti/
Raptors have been on Cavs’ radar awhile: James | Toronto Sun
“They’ve had our attention for the last couple years. I think they’ve had the NBA’s attention. You don’t need them playing well and us not playing well or us playing well and them not playing well for them to get our attention. I think it’s there.”
It is possible that the four-time league MVP is simply trying to avoid providing any bulletin board ammunition for the Raptors to use as motivation down the line, but the respect seems genuine when you talk to James or other members of the Cavaliers organization. After all, the Raptors beat the Cavs twice in three regular-season meetings last year, then took two games from them at the ACC in the post-season.
“It’s a team that’s first of all well-coached. It starts with their two-headed monster, (DeMar) DeRozan and (Kyle) Lowry,” James said. “Their complimentary guys have been playing great. Their role players have been playing great. DeMarre (Carroll) and Patrick (Patterson), Terrence Ross coming in and giving them big minutes, obviously Cory Joseph being a solid backup point guard for them as well. Even some of the younger guys, they’ve been coming into the game have come in and played some good ball. We’ve got our hands full tonight in a hostile environment.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNqAVwTBsmi/
Are We Starting To See The DeMarre Carroll The Raptors Paid For? – Raptors Republic
With a bad season passed him, Raptors fans were hoping to get a huge bounce back year out of Carroll, and things didn’t start out pretty. Granted,both these sample sizes are small, but the splits are drastic enough that there’s an obvious pattern here. In his first 9 games of the season, Carroll was averaging 7.2 points per game, pulling in 4 rebounds, and getting less than one assist per game. In his 25.2 minutes per game, he was shooting an ugly 36% from the field on 6.7 attempts 4 of which were coming from three, 30% from three, and 71% from the line.
It really didn’t seem like Carroll had fully recovered from his knee injury from a season before, and was still playing his way back into game shape, not able to play in the second game of back to backs. Not only was Carroll just struggling offensively, some of these three point attempts were wide open air balls, his dribble moves to the basket would end with him getting stuck and passing back out, wasting valuable shot clock time. Defensively, Carroll looked a step slow as well, which lead to him not playing very important minutes down the stretch of games.
Even though it was early, people were panicking and thinking that this was starting to look like a really bad free agent signing. Since that time, it seems as though Carroll who is described as a resilient person has slowly played his way back into game shape. In the seven games since his rough start, he’s averaging 14.1 points on more than three more shot attempts per game than his slump, he’s making great back door cuts scoring down low while the defenders fall asleep, shooting 52% from the field overall, and hitting his three at 43% on 5.6 attempts per game. He also looks like he’s getting back to the stellar defensive play he’s known for, and seeing more crunch time minutes as a result.
The backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are always going to have the highest usage rates on the team. Having a very capable “three-and-D” player in Carroll, who doesn’t need the ball in his hands a ton to score, makes smart decision on offence, and can shut down scoring wings, is something of a must for the Raptors starting lineup.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNqc4zkg0SF/
Raptors’ DeMarre Carroll ‘in a better place’ | Toronto Sun
The Raptors signed Carroll to give the team a rugged two-way player at small forward, but have had to wait to see the real version.
“It makes all the world (of difference),” head coach Dwane Casey said in a scrum of Carroll feeling better.
“One, he can have leverage. It’s hard to do when you, not saying plant on one leg, but you are worried about an injury. You don’t have as much leverage, you don’t decelerate as well as you’d like to and against a guy like LeBron, you’ve got to have all facets rolling at the same time,” he said.
“It’s very important to have him healthy, very important for him to shoot the ball, which helps take the pressure off of Kyle and DeMar. He means a lot to our team, his veteran play. He’s seen it before, he’s been against these guys before.”
The team plans to keep Carroll from playing both games of back-to-backs until next month in order to help with his recovery.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNpI-7fFhPw/
Ujiri on PTS: Are Raptors in position to prepare for playoffs? – Sportsnet.ca
Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri joins Prime Time Sports to talk about the state of the Raptors and the development of Bruno Caboclo.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNqZGHKDanG/
The One Hurdle Preventing Each 2017 NBA Title Contender from Winning It All | Bleacher Report
Toronto’s frontcourt situation is unimpressive, if dire. No team relinquishes more shot attempts at the rim, and the defense on rolling bigs has been awful. Jonas Valanciunas is the lone big capable of consistently creating his own shots.
Any in-house solution the Raptors come up with doesn’t make enough of a dent. Playing Patrick Patterson and Valanciunas carves out additional space, but the defensive trade-off is unacceptable. Lucas Nogueira cannot get extra spin without cutting into Valanciunas’ share, and the offense won’t survive long stretches with him playing beside Pascal Siakam.
DeMarre Carroll doesn’t move the same way anymore and isn’t able to soak up as much time at the 4. The defense craters whenever he slides to power forward, according to NBA Wowy, regardless of which center has his back.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNpyjSxgdYW/
2016-17 NBA Predictions | FiveThirtyEight
Raptors have a 10% chance of winning the title; second highest in the league!
Toronto Raptors GM honors Nelson Mandela and stresses the NBA’s influence in Africa – The Undefeated
Ujiri, a native of Nigeria, said the main reasons for the event were to raise money for charity and to “make sure Mandela is never forgotten.”
“He’s the father of Africa. He’s the father that wasn’t your father,” Ujiri said. “His desire to help people, his selflessness, his passion for life, that means sacrifice. He was respectful to all people, women, children, everything you want to think of. He fought for the freedom for black people in South Africa and all people. Mandela spoke for everyone.
“That is what made him a special person. He passed away on Dec. 5 and I thought it was proper that we remember this great man every year. I just try to do as much as I can to make people talk about him and we try to raise money with this event.”
Along with speaking about Mandela, Ujiri spoke about the future of basketball in Africa, meeting President Barack Obama, the U.S. presidential election, respect for women, racism, the Raptors and more while giving motivational words of wisdom in an interview with The Undefeated.
Jonas Valanciunas Proposals – RealGM
DeAndre is intriguing; Casey’s system begs for a defensive anchor at the 5, Valanciunas will only remain underutilised here – used correctly, I have no doubt he can be a high efficiency 20-10 player in the league. The only issue I see with your proposal is that we lose our starting SF, DeRozan & Ross can not be on the court together, it leaves us too thin to guard 3s in this league. If this was to happen, we’d immediately be looking to flip Ross/Norman Powell + picks to land an upgrade at the SF.
Basically: Valanciunas, Ross, Norman Powell, Delon Wright, Jakob Poeltl, Clips’ 1st, Raptors’ 1st can all be used in a package to net us an upgrade at the C. DeAndre could be a great fit for our system, I’d be content with a similar trade.
