Raptors 113, Sixers 105|Box Score|Quick Reaction|Quick Reaction Podcast
In the grand scheme of things last night’s game is not likely to matter much. 1st or 2nd place in the East is technically still possible but with each day that passes without the Raptors gaining ground on the Boston Celtics or Cleveland Cavaliers it becomes more unlikely and finishing 3rd or 4th is irrelevant unless you believe that the Raptors should prefer playing one below .500 borderline playoff team over another or care about when the Raptors face the Cavaliers. If the Raptors are as good as we think they are either of the first round options should look like a 5 game snack, and if they’re not then which playoff slot they end up in doesn’t really matter.
Even though this game was likely nothing more than a tune up for the playoffs it was good to see the Raptors come out with another solid all around effort and maintain it until the end of the game. That’s the kind of thing that will be crucial to the team in coming weeks and this makes two games in a row with a solid start to finish effort and contributions coming from every player on the team. If we forget about that awful 4th quarter against the Hornets this makes 5 games in a row where the Raptors got such a sustained, all-around effort from the squad and that kind of cohesion and continuity could not be coming at a better time.
That’s not to say that the Raptors just blew this game open from the start – they’re still playing against NBA teams and it’s rarely that easy. The opening of the game followed a formula that should be familiar to us all by now, with the team looking to involve the big men who will largely be ignored later in the game and DeMar DeRozan playing the role of facilitator. This isn’t DeRozan becoming Kyle Lowry in his absence – DeRozan still takes around the same amount of 1st quarter field goals on average – this is DeRozan taking on Lowry’s job in addition to his own, at least in the early part of the game. Last night DeRozan drove and kicked his way to 8 first half assists, content to use his size advantage over the Sixers defenders to create opportunities for teammates. This demonstrates the growth of DeRozan on the offensive end; there was a time when he would be inclined to stop looking for a teammate who had missed makeable shots like Serge Ibaka did in the early going in this game. Tonight DeRozan kept feeding him and feeding him and the Raptors were better off as a result.
DeRozan would not play that role all night, though. As is usually the case, once the second half rolled around he looked for his shot and, with nobody on the Sixers having the combination of size and savvy to contend with him, found it whenever he wanted. When the defense shifted to slow down DeRozan the Raptors countered by looking inside to their big men again, with Jonas Valanciunas and Ibaka combining to shoot 7-8 from the floor in the 3rd quarter. The Raptors defense stumbled a bit and let Sixers rookie Dario Saric heat up but Philadelphia couldn’t slow down the Raptors offensive attack and failed to gain any ground on them.
The 4th quarter opened with one of those stretches that makes you feel really optimistic about the Raptors future as four Raptors 905 alumni took the floor with veteran Patrick Patterson and put the game away. Jakob Poeltl was everywhere on defense, Delon Wright was getting into the heart of the defense at will, Fred VanVleet was hitting outside shots and making impact plays and Norman Powell continued his relatively steady play on both ends. They provided a great all around effort and broke the game open to the point where coach Dwane Casey – known for riding his regular contributors until the win probably is somewhere north of 99.999999% – felt comfortable bringing in Pascal Siakam with over 3 minutes left in the game and the Raptors nursing a 111-96 lead.
To sum it all up: nobody had a notably bad performance and everyone contributed, the game was never really in doubt after the Raptors pushed the lead to double digits in the 2nd quarter, nobody played more than 31 minutes and the game was so undoubtedly in hand that Casey went to the deep bench much earlier than normal. The game had everything positive you would want to see from a Raptors game outside of some minutes for Bruno Caboclo. It may not mean much in the standings this late in the season but that kind of performance is very nice to see as the playoffs draw near. This team is already playing great basketball and they should only get better when their best player returns from his wrist injury.
The Raptors have today off, then their stretch run continues with a two game road trip in Indiana and Detroit. The only thing up in the air at this point is whether they’ll be the 3rd or 4th seed and what condition Kyle Lowry will be in when he comes back. They probably shouldn’t concern themselves with jockeying for position while the positions of so many opponents is still up in the air and it ideally having little to no impact on how their postseason will actually play out, they should just concern themselves with getting Lowry reintroduced to the rotation when he’s ready while maintaining the cohesion we’ve seen over the last 5 games.
