After another disappointing loss to open yet another playoff series for the Toronto Raptors, fans, players and critics alike were left scrambling for answers. What to make of a team that was expected to challenge to win the Eastern Conference struggling so much? Was this simply the team’s identity, that they were meant to struggle and, with this core of Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Dwane Casey, simply unable to do things the easy way?
Kyle Lowry at least, seemed to have some answers when he spoke to the media on Sunday and said, “Put it this way: I guess I’mma have to force shots.” If this feels like a familiar refrain to Raptors fans, that shouldn’t surprise anyone. After all, last year against the Pacers we heard much the same all series while Lowry and DeRozan struggled to score. Last year it was Lowry, after the Raptors beat the Pacers in 7 games, saying about DeMar, “I’m answering that question for you so I don’t care if he shot 40 times. He emptied the clip and we won. That’s all that matters.”
The Raptors won that series, sure. The next one as well, when it was much the same story until DeRozan’s shot came to life late in the series against the Heat. But it took 14 games for the Raptors to get to the Eastern Conference Finals, versus the Cleveland Cavaliers who made it in 8. The difference in wear and tear showed, too, as despite the Raptors winning two games during their series, the net point differential in the ECF was +91 in favor of the Cavaliers. Winning is the most important thing in the playoffs, but not making it as hard as possible on yourselves before progressing can pay dividends later on.
You put this together with other quotes coming from players as well as coach Dwane Casey, and it aught to be clear, this is Lowry and DeMar’s team and they’ll determine whether this playoffs is a success or failure. In fact, that was never in question, that this was their team. The only question is which part of that is more important, that it’s theirs or that it’s a team. Because the Raptors fall into a trap at times where the emphasis is way too much on Lowry and DeMar instead of on the team as a whole.
Maybe it’s telling that during game 1, Toronto had their best stretches with only one of their All-Stars on the floor, a stretch to open the second quarter where the team closed the gap with Lowry out there and DeMar sitting, and then a stretch to close the second quarter where DeRozan played as Lowry sat. Perhaps having only one of the stars playing forced them to involve other guys in the offense, which increased the intensity from the team as a whole on both ends of the floor.
This team should be too talented to fail. They’re perhaps the deepest squad in the playoffs, with players like Delon Wright, Norman Powell and Jakob Poeltl relegated to garbage time, guys who would be rotation players on many playoff squads. Dwane Casey has the luxury of being able to match big or small with opponents by changing up his lineups with the depth that they have. Down the stretch of the season they had nights where they looked like a dominant passing team. In fact, in Lowry’s return, a narrow victory over the Detroit Pistons, the team won despite their All-Stars shooting just a combined 14/33 from the floor because they each had 10 assists, the first time that’s occurred during their time together with the Raptors.
As incredible as these two players are as scorers, and they’re some of the best in the league at that, they can be so much more. DeMar DeRozan has grown by leaps and bounds this season, and showed off his improved offensive abilities in that first half against Milwaukee, attacking what the defense gave him with ease while the Bucks struggled to take everything away. Yet what’s been most impressive, especially late in the season, hasn’t been his ability to score with ease against nearly any coverage, it’s been his willingness to defer and create for others, to keep them involved in the game even when he can get his own. It’s paid dividends, too, as guys look more engaged when they feel involved.
Kyle Lowry has to be better, and it’s hard to simplify that first playoff game more than that. But if we look at it as part of a larger trend, it’s about a different choice. It’s about whether this simply an organization that’s role is to support DeMar and Kyle as they try to progress through the playoffs as far as they can with their supporting cast. Maybe that’s all the Raptors will be, two leaders and a group of talented guys who try to make their lives easier.
As incredible as these two players are as scorers, and they’re some of the best in the league at that, they can be so much more. DeMar DeRozan has grown by leaps and bounds this season, and showed off his improved offensive abilities in that first half against Milwaukee, attacking what the defense gave him with ease while the Bucks struggled to take everything away. Yet what’s been most impressive, especially late in the season, hasn’t been his ability to score with ease against nearly any coverage, it’s been his willingness to defer and create for others, to keep them involved in the game even when he can get his own. It’s paid dividends, too, as guys look more engaged when they feel involved.
Or maybe it’s something more, maybe it’s a team, lead by Lowry and DeMar, where the stars serve the rest of the team as much as the other guys serve them. Where it’s not about forcing shots or emptying clips, but winning basketball games through a group effort. The Raptors can do that, we’ve seen flashes of it all season and they’re simply dominant when everyone’s involved. The defensive intensity is higher, the offensive execution is crisper, and they’re a lot more fun to watch. With the most talented team the Raptors have ever assembled, it shouldn’t even be much of a stretch for them to get there. But it has to start with the All-Stars. If they want all of the credit for the team’s successes, if they want to be the ones taking the lion’s share of the shots regardless of matchups because they’re the leaders, then they will also shoulder the blame when the team inevitably falls. It won’t stop being their team if they take this path, it just shifts the emphasis from ‘their’ to ‘team’.
