(super late) 10 things I saw from Raptors-Kings #NBA #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/GGfEgbbkrr
— William Lou (@william_lou) December 18, 2017
Performance against Kings questions Raptors’ elite status – Sportsnet.ca
Lowry’s not wrong in thinking his team could just flick the light switch on at any moment against Sacramento — that’s exactly what they did after all. And while a win’s a win, the fact the Raptors took half the game to rev up before putting away a bad Kings team who was without their talented rookie point guard De’Aaron Fox (right quadriceps contusion) and a resting Zach Randolph — even if it was a notorious Sunday afternoon start — speaks to a problem this team has been facing for a while now.
Analytically, the Raptors are great. Optically, not so much.
“When you let a team shoot 61 per cent in the first half, whatever game that is, that’s dangerous,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said after the game. “Anytime in this league if you let a team shoot 61 per cent it is way too high. We held them to 31 per cent in the second half, which is admirable, but we can’t play with fire.”
Too late.
Unfortunately for Casey, Toronto has made a habit this season of playing with fire and falling short just as it seems it will formally introduce itself as one of the NBA’s elite.
Remember that loss to a John Wall-less Washington Wizards? Or to the New York Knicks in November? How about just a few days ago against the Clippers in Los Angeles with a seven-point lead midway through the fourth quarter only to see it evaporate right before their eyes?
Or how about against the San Antonio Spurs back in October? Leading by six with about nine minutes to play in the fourth, the Raptors crumbled under pressure and were unable to close out a signature win ripe for the taking — a mistake that was repeated to a lesser degree when they visited the Warriors in Oakland.
The above examples were cases of Raptors losses, but it’s not even as if this is a pattern that’s reserved mutually to defeats, we’ve seen this same thing in victory as well
Raptors sleep through first half, still beat Carter’s Kings 108-93 – Raptors HQ
“We weren’t communicating in the second unit’s first stint in the first half,” said Powell on Friday. “And we really tightened up and focused in on those things and we were able to get stops … When you’re taking the ball out of the basket it’s hard to get your offense going. But we were able to get stops and get out in transition and get easy buckets.”
That defense-first fourth quarter on Friday was clearly a stepping stone for Toronto’s bench, as they continued their ascent back up the league’s second unit power rankings on Sunday by replicating all those things Powell outlined two days ago.
The concern with Toronto’s five-man bench looks is a lack of offensive creativity. With very little in the way of accomplished shooters — especially when CJ Miles is out, or starting as he was today — the offense is often reduced to Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell and Delon Wright tossing the ball around the arc like a probing water polo team looking for an entry point that rarely reveals itself. Their potency is dampened by structure, which is why it’s so essential for them to create mayhem on the defensive side of the ball, as Powell alluded to early this week.
In the fourth quarter on Sunday, they swarmed Kings ball-handlers, forced misses, poked balls loose and counter struck with quick looks in transition. A sequence in which Powell and Wright drained back to back triples against backpedaling defenders represented the all-reserve lineup’s mission statement. In more than six minutes of fourth quarter floor time, Toronto outscored the Kings 10-4, giving the starters the breathing room they needed to close it out. That Buddy Hield wasn’t allowed to go off like Stauskas or Troy Daniels did earlier this week was a much-needed moral win for the bench.
Sunday’s win was another in a growing collection of wins this season in which it felt like the Raptors were in control from the jump, regardless of little defensive swoons or micro-explosions by opposing scrubs that may take place throughout the game. Toronto picked its spots for full exertion, relaxing for long stretches just because they could. At a certain point in franchise history, 48 minutes of all-out effort was often not enough to even sniff victory.
Exactly 13 years ago today, the Raptors were 8-17, in the midst of a spell of eight losses in nine games, and hours removed from trading away the only superstar the franchise had ever known.
Today, the Raptors are a team capable of napping for two quarters and pulling out a 15-point win without breaking much of a sweat, with that same former superstar watching from the other sideline.
Kings 63, Raptors 61: Kings Play Well In the First Half – Sactown Royalty
There was a second half. The Kings lost. They couldn’t get a board or hit an open shot. It was really bad.
Three takeaways: Sacramento Kings vs. Toronto Raptors, Dec. 17 | The Sacramento Bee
The Kings have relied on their bench for a boost a lot this season. On Sunday, it was Toronto’s second unit which made a big difference, led by Norman Powell (14 points) and Jakob Poeltl (nine points).
Each bench scored 37 points, but the energy from Toronto’s reserves helped shift the game in the Raptors’ favor.
Sacramento’s bench didn’t have its usual members, as Vince Carter, Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos all started Sunday.
Bogdanovic was the only Sacramento reserve to score in double figures.
Raptors dig in defensively to contain Kings – TSN
After a disastrous first half, the Raps locked down defensively to limit the Kings’s offence. Jack Armstrong, Leo Rautins and Kate Bierness have more on what changed, and how Jonas Valanciunas made an impact in the win.
Raptors crown Kings in Vince Carter’s possible final game in Canada | Toronto Sun
Vince Carter returned to Toronto on Sunday afternoon and as a tribute, neither the Raptors, nor the Sacramento Kings played any defence.
At least in the first half, that is, with the Kings hitting 11-of-13 shots to begin the game and both teams notching 60+ points by halftime.
But the Raptors stepped up in the third, forcing seven turnovers, to ruin what might have been the final Canadian appearance by Carter, with a 108-93 win.
The Raptors eventually pulled away, to improve to 11-1 at the ACC and 12-4 against Western Conference opponents, but Carter was the story. He was given the start by his friend and head coach Dave Joerger, his first as a member of the Kings.
Ever the showman, Carter responded to a massive pre-game ovation by nailing his first shot, a classic jumper with that unforgettable form and then by smacking a layup attempt by DeMar DeRozan off of the glass. The former Air Canada rejected the one-time Heir Canada. Carter wasn’t done. The crowd wasn’t pleased that he didn’t dunk on a semi-breakaway, laying the ball in instead, but he had a sturdy rejection at the rim of 7-footer Jonas Valanciunas.
The Kings led by two at the half thanks to a banked-in, buzzer-beating three-pointer by George Hill, before the Raptors put the clamps on the visitors.
Sacramento was held to 14 points in the third and just 16th in the fourth.
Raptors and fans learn to embrace legacy of Vinsanity | Toronto Star
“You gotta remember, I watched him growing up,” Lowry said. “Vince started the trend of 360 windmills (dunks) and now kids do them every day like it’s a warmup.
“You’re inspired by a guy who’s 40 years old still playing basketball, and he can still play it at a high level. He may not play every day at a high level, but he can play at a high level and that’s big.”
Carter’s seemingly never-ending farewell tour continues here Sunday with his only visit to the Air Canada Centre with the Kings, who signed him to a one-year, $8-million U.S. contract last summer, giving him an even 20 years of service in the NBA.
And while Toronto fans have come full circle on him — loved when he was a Raptor, loathed after he left, loved again after a very public reconciliation that reduced him to tears while watching a tribute video during one visit — there is no doubting the level of appreciation fellow NBAers have for him.
Playing as long as he has, at different levels and in different roles, and becoming a mentor to a new generation of players resonates with fellow professionals. That will be his legacy: the respect of his peers.
“One thing you can tell is Vince is one of them guys who’s a helluva dude,” DeMar DeRozan said. “When you have that respect . . . and to be a great individual with that as well, the vibe and the energy is so positive. You appreciate something like that because it’s so rare.
“(For) Vince to be at the age that he is now and to be a great mentor . . . is incredible.”
Raptors home win streak hits nine vs. Carter’s Kings | Toronto Star
It’s a dangerous game the Raptors sometimes play, seemingly toying with the task at hand because they know they’re good enough to win in the end, and this season has shown they’re often right.
But there will be a time when they spit up a game or two because they goofed around for a little bit too long, a night some inferior opponent will beat them. When they tally up the wins and losses after the regular season, one of those giveaways might spell the difference in getting, say, the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round of the playoffs instead of the conference final.
It hasn’t happened yet, but coach Dwane Casey knows it’s going to some time — and he had to be worried that it was going to be Sunday afternoon.
A lackadaisical early effort by the Raptors let the Sacramento Kings shoot an astonishing first-half percentage before Toronto finally got serious and successful, eventually running away with a 108-93 win — their ninth in a row at home — that was harder than it should have been.
“Any team in this league, you let them shoot 61 per cent, it’s way too high,” Casey said of Sacramento’s first-half efficiency. “We held them to 31 per cent in the second half, which is admirable, but we can’t play with fire.”
Kyle Lowry and his Lowry Holiday Assist program just surprised St. Stephen Catholic School and are taking 26 underprivileged youth to Toys 'R' Us.
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) December 18, 2017
DeRozan, Lowry have taken over from Carter as Raptors’ torch-bearers – Sportsnet.ca
It’s only been recently that the fortunes of his native franchise have risen enough to the stage that Carter’s epic second and third seasons – combined he averaged 26.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4 assists 1.4 steals and 1.1 blocks while shooting 40.6 per cent from the three-point line – are no longer the franchise’s undisputed high-water marks.
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan have had individual seasons that at least compare to Carter’s two-year masterpiece, and they have far surpassed him in longevity and overall accomplishments. The team and individual record books will belong to them, and them alone, by the time they are done.
With franchise fortunes on the upswing, whatever bitterness that festered in the years following the rupture between him and the franchise that led to him being traded in his sixth season seems to have finally receded.
Or maybe booing the soon-to-be-41 year-old Carter is like honking your horn at as a senior citizen shuffles along while crossing the street.
Regardless, on Sunday, the sold-out crowd at the ACC cheered enthusiastically when he was introduced and even more warmly when he was subbed out with 11 seconds left. There were no boos. People have moved on.
Soon enough the debate will be how to honour a player who shone so brightly, yet so briefly, here and has since played 15 years elsewhere.
Carter is ready to embrace it if he ever stops playing, something he’s not ready to put a date on yet: “it’ll happen, for sure,” he said of a Raptor reunion. “Somehow, whether it’s [a] one day [contract] or something, it’ll happen. It’s supposed to happen, I think. I can say that now.”
3rd annual #LowryHolidayAssist. St. Stephens, time to hit up @ToysRUs! #WeTheNorth https://t.co/8YXepBROQ0
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) December 18, 2017
How the Raptors got sick of playoff letdowns and broke all their bad habits – CBSSports.com
This season, Toronto is only taking 29.9 percent of its shots from mid-range, No. 24 in the league. It is ninth in shot frequency at the rim and seventh from behind the 3-point line. The formerly isolation-reliant team also is ninth in assist ratio after finishing 29th last season, per NBA.com. Looking back at those scrimmages with the four-point shots in the corner, forward C.J. Miles said he has seen his teammates reprogram themselves.
“It teaches guys to look for extra passes,” Miles said. “Or look for a skip pass or see the rotations earlier, to see the guy who’s open in the corner on the weak side instead of getting to a point where you take a half-contested shot in the mid-range area.”
If there was a knock on the Raptors before the season started, it is that we knew who they were. Led by Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, they have spent the past four seasons trying to go from good to great, with two wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 conference finals — which followed two hellish seven-game series — serving as the high-water mark. After Toronto was swept by the Cavs in the second round a year later, the prospect of another 50-ish wins was met with mostly a “meh.”
Had the Raptors run it back with the same plan as usual, dismissing them might be understandable. More than their 18-8 record, the way they are winning demands attention.
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