Raptors 109, Magic 79 | Box Score | Quick Reaction | Reaction Podcast
Sometimes, the best story that could be told is so obvious that the world just has to acquiesce and let it play out. Bismack Biyombo squaring off against the Toronto Raptors for the first time since leaving to sign a four-year, $72-million deal with the Orlando Magic on Sunday was such a story.
The Raptors, of course, couldn’t keep Biyombo. With four years and $64 million committed to Jonas Valanciunas, trying to retain a second center who can’t play with the first would have been far too difficult, requiring Valanciunas to be jettisoned or too substantial a portion of the salary cap be invested in redundancies at a single position. Toronto would have needed to strip their depth to clear the requisite space, Biyombo would have had to take less than his full market value, and it’s hard to fathom that the entire shake-up would have left the Raptors in a better place than they currently find themselves.
But Biyombo’s absence has been obvious despite Toronto’s hot start to the season. A shot-blocking, finger-wagging, switch-everywhere rim-protector, Biyombo helped lift the Raptors defense beyond respectability last season. Entering Sunday, the Raptors found themselves in desperate need of a defensive spark (and help on the glass), and it would be quite easy to draw a line from the defensive drop-off to the departure of Biyombo, regardless of his performance in Orlando so far. That Lucas Nogueira has emerged as a quality shot-blocker and rim-protector with a terrific defensive rating off the bench, or that the Raptors’ primary defensive issues are at the point of attack, or that Biyombo would have surely hurt the league’s No. 1 offense (possibly more than he helped the defense), don’t matter much, because the team is still missing some specifics that Biyombo brought.
That Biyombo is among the most quotable and loveable players the fan-base has gotten to watch, and that he was crucial in helping further develop a terrific chemistry around the team, only leave the heart even more wistful. Thinking about an ex and all the ways they’d fit in your current life without them is painful. Seeing that ex can be damned near impossible.
For the first quarter of Sunday’s game, it looked like Biyombo had taken the breakup as a rallying point, gotten a gym membership, cut back on the post-breakup drinking, and was doing just fine without the Raptors. The game opened with Biyombo turning the ball over but he quickly responded with a cutting dunk, a pair of free throws, and then an alley-oop pass to Aaaron Gordon. The Raptors looked as bad defensively as they have for a couple of weeks, trailing by five when Biyombo first subbed out and ultimately surrendering 30 points to a bottom-five offense in a single quarter.
The thing about Biyombo’s move to Orlando, though, is that while he more or less had to do it and everybody on both sides understood the situation, the Magic are bad, and the Raptors are good. The mutual breakup analogy falls apart really quickly in this case, because for as much as Biyombo is missed and is getting paid handsomely in his new home, from a purely basketball perspective, Toronto’s doing just fine, and it will be some time before Biyombo experiences a run like he did with the Raptors.
Maybe the story would have kept going on its original path if it weren’t for Jodie Meeks. After a first quarter in which only DeMar DeRozan could find a groove for the Raptors, Meeks decided he’d, in the words of Kyle Lowry’s mother on Twitter, poke the bear. After crashing into Lowry and giving Pascal Siakam a scare in the process, Meeks opted to just hurl the bulk of his weight at Lowry at the top of the key, earning a flagrant foul in the process. A warning to other teams around the NBA: The Raptors almost always shake out of their malaise on their own, usually in time to still beat you. It’s probably not in your best interest to urge them to do so early, especially when you’re the freaking Magic. (Meeks also may have had his life saved by Biyombo playing peacemaker.)
From there, Orlando didn’t stand much of a chance. DeRozan was masterful, scoring 31 points in 30 minutes before retiring at the end of the third quarter. That included a step-back jumper against Biyombo after which DeRozan gave his former teammate a hearty slap on the rear. Fuelled by Meeks’ bone-headedness, Lowry scored 11 points and dished eight assists over the final three quarters, finishing with 16 and 10. Valanciunas shook off a terrible opening frame to drop a double-double in the second quarter alone, completely tilting the game inside in what was one of his better performances on the season. He finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes, and he, too, gave Biyombo’s backside some dap at one point. And after another poor start to the game, head coach Dwane Casey opted to roll with Patrick Patterson as the starting power forward coming out of half time for a third game in a row, and that group responded by going plus-nine in eight minutes to further extend the lead.
Defensively, the Raptors finally – FINALLY – locked in for a more extended stretch, and while the Magic exist as a giant caveat in such situations, it was still encouraging to see. Orlando shot 35 percent over the final three quarters, going 3-of-17 from long-range with just four free-throw attempts and 16 turnovers. Orlando scored 83.8 points per-100 possessions for the game, Toronto’s best defensive mark in some time, and the 61-34 thrashing across the middle quarters turned the fourth into mostly run-out-the-clock time. (Poor Norman Powell can’t find minutes in the regular rotation and is also too good for these late-game scenarios.) Biyombo finished with eight points, 12 rebounds, and three blocks, a solid showing against his former team.
There’s really not a ton else to say, because the Raptors have played this exact game a few times lately (but shout out to Fred VanVleet for filling in capably for a down-with-the-sickness Cory Joseph). They’re significantly better than the dregs of the East and show it on most nights. DeRozan and Lowry were the two best players on either team, the defensive effort got ratcheted up, and Valanciunas took the edge in the interior. That’s a pretty straight-forward formula for Toronto most nights, to the point that just how incredible DeRozan’s been scoring the ball is almost just accepted as the standard now.
Beating the Magic by 30 doesn’t prove anything for the Raptors, beyond affirming that they’re quite good while engaged. Biyombo still made the right choice for himself and nobody can fault him, and its similarly tough to fault the Raptors for not gutting their depth to make room to keep him. If a breakup is genuinely mutual, then you hope it turns out a win-win and you both wind up happy, and better for having loved each other.
In the words of Nogueira on Instagram after the game, “You always gonna be my dad, thanks for everything, @BismackBiyombo.”
Biyombo makes his return to the Air Canada Centre on Jan. 29, by the way. The story will probably similar, just with a rather rousing ovation to get it started.
