Photo credit: Christian Bonin / TSGphoto.com
Raptors 905 87, Grand Rapids Drive 101 | Box score
Assignees: Bruno Caboclo (905)
Two-ways: Luis Montero, Dwight Buycks (Drive)
If the darkest day is just before the dawn, the Raptors 905 must be hoping this was it.
The Grand Rapids Drive took full advantage of an anemic second quarter offense from the 905, outscoring them 28-11, before going on to win 101-87. The Mississauga squad has dropped seven of their last eight games now.
This was supposed to be a matchup of two of the worst offensive teams in the G League, but only one lived up to the billing. The Drive came into Friday night’s game with a second-worst offensive rating of 97.5, just a smidgen below the 905’s mark of 97.7. The two teams are in the top five in defense and bottom three in pace, so it wasn’t unreasonable to expect an old fashioned grind-it-out slug fest. At least, I thought so.
Instead, the first quarter served as a good reminder of why the games aren’t played on paper. There were 15 combined attempts from beyond the arc, as Derek Willis came alive for the Drive with three makes for himself. The six-foot-nine forward showed a pure stroke from the outside, but considering he came into this game shooting 33.8 per cent from deep on 5.1 attempts per game, 905 head coach Jerry Stackhouse would have been shaking his head over the hot hand opponents have been able to find against his ball club.
Bruno Caboclo, Kaza Keane and Negus Webster-Chan kept things interesting in the opening quarter by combining for 18 of the 905’s 24 first quarter points, Caboclo and Webster-Chan knocking down a pair of three-pointers each. Lorenzo Brown is with the Raptors on their road trip, and Keane looked comfortable in a starting role. He knows his game, plays within himself, and runs the offense as the prototypical floor general. Nice to see a Canadian connection like this, too:
🇨🇦 ➡️ 🇨🇦 #RT6 pic.twitter.com/mHoZexmcaq
— Raptors 905 (@Raptors905) December 9, 2017
The second quarter is tough to explain. The 905 missed their first eight shots, struggled to build a flow to their offense as the Drive only added to their woes with some crisp passing for open looks. Point guard Kenneth Smith was the chief architect, finishing with 15 assists, and 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting.
If not for a couple of scores from Caboclo before a nice feed from Keane to Kennedy Meeks, the 905 would have come pretty close to mimicking their parent club by being inflicted by a 28-0 run.
After those buckets, they went 1-for-4 the rest of the way with three turnovers. Before you knew it, the Drive had made nine of their 15 three-point attempts in the half and shot 54 per cent overall to take a commanding 57-35 lead into the halftime break.
Through 11 games prior to this one, the 905 had a league-worst net rating of minus-23.1 in the opening quarter, but even when they’ve been able to stand firm through the initial onslaught, the second quarter has hit them hard. Their minus-17 mark in the second quarter is also a league-worst mark, and so the consistency in digging themselves holes early hollows the force with which they’ve played second halves to cut into these deficits.
Once again, they outscored the opposition in the second half — 52-44 — but opponents are able to sit back and protect what they have after they’ve built up such large advantages. The positives were, to me, empty calories.
With a team dinner for American Thanksgiving and a Zumba lesson a couple of weeks ago, Stackhouse may be running out of ideas off the court to help get this team in a groove and functioning in unison. He does have four days off to make use of now, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him go the tough love route to get this team to push this team beyond the levels they’ve achieved thus far.
Notes:
- Assignment notes
- Bruno Caboclo finished with 17 points, four rebounds, a steal and a block.
- 905 notes
- Nice Canadian moment seeing Kaza Keane, Aaron Best, and Negus Webster-Chan all start for the Raptors 905. Richard Amardi came off the bench.
- After hitting on those two 3-point tries early in the first quarter, Webster-Chan scored one point the rest of the way.
- Malcolm Miller and Lorenzo Brown are both with the Raptors on their road trip, and the 905 sure could have used them.
- They may have found something in Shevon Thompson. He finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds, four steals and two blocks, and has answered the call after the 905 struggled to get anything out of Andre Washington previously.
- Drive notes
- Dwight Buycks was an inactive member on the roster.
- Derek Willis finished with 25 points, seven rebounds, and five 3-pointers.
- A friendly reminder that promo code “REPUBLIC905” will get you a discount at this link all season long.
