It is not time for a postmortem on the 2016-17 Toronto Raptors, or this core’s entire era. If it comes to that, and it almost certainly will, there will be plenty of time. Playoff series, however unevenly matched, run a best-four-of-seven format for a reason, and the Raptors have shown as recently as last year’s third round that they are at least capable of turning their situation around and point it in the direction of respectability.
That situation, by the way, is down 0-2 to a juggernaut of a Cleveland Cavaliers team, a supposed sleeping giant that hasn’t even needed to wake up yet in picking the Raptors apart to the tune of 33 points over two games, a margin that betrays just how in control they’ve been. The final scores were more telling a year ago when the Cavaliers won by 19 and 30 rather than 11 and 22, but the message has been the same: The Raptors can’t hang with the Cavaliers in Cleveland. This year was supposed to be different, but here again some 50- weeks later, the Raptors are talking in defeated terms without a clear path forward.
“We should be embarrassed. We should be angry. We should be pissed off,” head coach Dwane Casey said after the game. “Now what are we going to do about it?”
They should be mad. A year ago, they responded to that. Tyronn Lue warned after the game that the Cavaliers are aware of what happened last year and will look to prevent the same sort of slippage. It might not matter, even it it sets in – LeBron James is 19-0 in playoff series when leading 2-0 in a series, the Cavaliers are 30-4 in the Eastern Conference side of the bracket since he returned, and higher-seeded teams up 2-0 in a series are 267-19 all time. Most of those teams did not employ James. The Raptors have put themselves in a very tough spot. An expected spot, but a tough one. Again.
“The thing about it is we’re in the same place we were last year. Last year we had two blowout wins and we go to Toronto. The series has gone nowhere,” Casey said. ” We haven’t scratched the surface of where we can go so we take our butt whooping and go home.”
There’s not really another way to take it.
What won’t happen again did
After turning in an 0-of-8 performance against the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 3 of the first round, DeMar DeRozan promised “It won’t happen twice.” He responded in that series with perhaps the best three-game stretch of his postseason career. His Game 1 against the Cavaliers was middling, with 19 points coming on 22 used possessions, though it looked a little better than those numbers suggested. Game 2, though, was as big a disaster as the Milwaukee showing, or perhaps worse. DeRozan started out 0-of-8 and finished 2-of-11, scoring five points with three rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes.
The Raptors can’t win with DeRozan playing anything close to that level.
“No, we can’t,” Casey said. “To be honest with you, we can’t.”
Casey’s honesty is stark but realistic. The formula for beating the Cavaliers requires both DeRozan and Kyle Lowry to be at their very best, plus role players to contribute, and the defense to try admirably. With even one of those pillars missing, Toronto is in tough. With several of them missing – due to injury, a lack of response to the matchup, a tough night – games like this will happen. And while DeRozan is not the only player deserving of blame, the Raptors are now a -53 in the series when he’s on the floor. Nobody looks good by those numbers, really, but nobody else is the max-contract offensive star. DeRozan isn’t hiding from that.
“It sucks,” DeRozan said of his performance. “It sucks. To lose like we did, to play like I did, it sucks. t’s frustrating, Now just having time, having to wait until Friday night to redeem yourself.”
Fair or otherwise, the microscope is firmly on DeRozan as the series heads back to Toronto. And I think it’s fair – he’s not the only guilty party, but he and Lowry are the stars, and Lowry’s played much better so far. If Lowry were having another bad series, eyes would be on him, as they were last round and in this same series a year ago (when, by the way, DeRozan averaged 23 points on 50-percent shooting). DeRozan redeemed himself as recently as last round. The franchise has bet big on him. There’s no sense writing him off now.
Assorted quotes that probably won’t make you feel better
Kyle Lowry: “They’re the defending champs and they look like it right now.”
Jonas Valanciunas: “We have to go home and I don’t know, fix something. Or do something better. Play better. That’s what we need to do. How to do that, I don’t know. But we got to play better.”
Dwane Casey: “It’s the same situation as last year. For whatever reason we’re not playing with the confidence offensively. We should be. They’re not doing anything we haven’t seen before defensively so I’m encouraged. Again, I haven’t given up. I know it hurts.”
DeMar DeRozan: “No key, honestly. It just sucks. Game 1 and 2, it sucks. It sucks. We’re going to have to wait until Friday night to play.”
Blake Murphy: “It sucks, I agree.”
Injury Updates – Kyle Lowry ‘pretty sore’
Kyle Lowry briefly left the game at the start of the third quarter after Norman Powell fell on his left leg as the two met in the paint going for a defensive rebound. Lowry was holding his left ankle in a lot of pain and limped to the locker room, but he’d return pretty quickly and check back in. When the game later got out of hand, Lowry retired early, finishing his night with 20 points and five assists in 30 minutes. Casey noted that the team felt more comfortable getting him right back in because of the potential for it to stiffen up again
After the game, Lowry was reportedly limping quite heavily and conceded that he’s not feeling the greatest.
“Naw, it’s pretty sore right now. Honestly, pretty sore, but it’s whatever,” he said.
The Raptors will have to hope Lowry can get right quickly. That he was able to return is encouraging, but ankle sprains (if it’s that) can be tricky in the days that follow, and there’s only a one-day gap between games. Lowry said his intention is to play in Game 3, and he surely means it – he’s played through back, elbow, and wrist issues before, and the hobbled minutes he turned in were still better than what the Raptors might be able to cobble together at that spot otherwise. But the team won’t be reckless if Lowry’s ankle isn’t in good enough condition to play.
“I didn’t see the replay, I know what happened,” Lowry said. “It was kind of scary, but it’s painful but I’m not going to complain about it. I’m gonna get treatment, get ready to play in Game 3.”
Lineup Notes
- The new Raptors starters were -11 in 10 minutes. Obviously, that change wasn’t a resounding success, and while there’s some process-versus-results stuff mixed within this negative, I’d imagine another change is on the table.
- The old starters didn’t play together for even a minute, which tells you what you need to know about that standing as an option to go back to. Then again, the starters had only played six minutes together prior. There’s not a lot of familiarity here in any case.
- The starters with Valanciunas in Ibaka’s place went -1 in 6 quality minutes after Ibaka got an early-ish hook.
- That same group with Valanciunas in Patterson’s place was a -5 in 3 minutes.
- The Raptors didn’t have a single lineup outside of garbage time that was better than a +2. The only one that even met that was a Lowry-Ibaka-bench group
- The Cavaliers’ starters were +8 in 19 minutes. They’re good.
- The starters with Shumpert in place of Love were somehow +13 in 5 minutes.
- The LeBron-and-bench unit that struggled in Game 1 played to even over 9 minutes. It was once again Toronto’s best bet at making up ground, they just couldn’t.
- About 15 minutes of the game could be considered garbage time, so there’s not a lot to glean here on either side.
On a potential lineup change again for Game 3, Casey offered only a “We’ll see,” so look forward to two more days of speculation on that front.
Assorted
- I’m not on the road, so a continued thank you to the beat writers traveling for the tweets/quotes/updates.
- Depressing look at the network of Kyrie Irving’s 11 assists, which created 28 points, all of them hyper-efficient:
Kyrie Irving’s 11 assists facilitated 7 three-pointers, 3 dunks, and 1 layup. Here’s the full Cavs assist network: pic.twitter.com/q0mb7Cnjxs
— Positive Residual (@presidual) May 4, 2017
- For those looking for referee commentary, Dwane Casey offered this in the middle of talking about something else: “LeBron shoots 21 free throws, we shoot 19 as a team.” That seems like a case of him trying to mention it subtly without it becoming a talking point. Really, though, the free-throw gap has been mostly warranted over the two games, with the Raptors playing passively (plus some intentional fouling and transition wrap-ups mixed in). I’m sure I’ll be in the minority on not caring much about a free-throw disparity in multiple shellackings.
- This was the most points the Cavaliers have ever scored in a playoff game and the most the Raptors have ever given up in a playoff game. And you thought there were no new lows.
- Asked for a positive from the game, Casey quickly pointed to the play of Jonas Valanciunas. Moving him out of the starting lineup was a reasonable play, and he responded well to the change in role once again. That’s probably not easy.
- LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for second on the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring list. He’ll likely catch Michael Jordan for first at some point this postseason, which is crazy.
- Game 3 goes Friday at 7 p.m. back in Toronto.
