10 things I saw from Raptors-Heat (Jan. 9) – The Defeated
Missed opportunities: Raptors weren’t so hot when it came time to execute. First off, they needed two timeouts just to inbound the ball. After it was finally in, the Raptors struggled to work the ball to DeMar DeRozan, who was promptly doubled. He found Norman Powell wide open but he couldn’t convert. The next play, Powell cuts right to the rim on a baseline inbound and bricks a layup.
Raptors lose last second to physical Heat, 90-89 – Raptors HQ
While DeRozan’s effort might not be suspension-worthy, you’d expect Ibaka to miss games as a repeat offender (he notably threw fists with Robin Lopez late in the 2016-17 season). With Kyle Lowry already day-to-day, and some of the most anticipated games of the Raptors season on the direct horizon — Cleveland on Thursday and Golden State on Saturday — there’s no other way to say it. This sucks.
The loss is just the second of the season for the Raptors at the Air Canada Centre, as they fall to 28-11 overall.
On a night without Lowry, Toronto clearly missed a few of his intangibilities. While the first quarter was played close, the second quarter was marred by the Heat getting to the glass early and often. The disparity in rebounds — 64 to 37 — is the story of the game. Toronto was simply unable to deal with the interfering length of Hassan Whiteside and Bam Adebayo.
Adebayo, in fact, had the game of his young career for Miami. He scored 16 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, five of them offensive, and had five blocks. Spoelstra showed a few looks with him and Whiteside together, and while the Heat’s $100-million big was just 6-for-16, he too had an impactful 15 rebounds. Jonas Valanciunas was competitive in his minutes, but only had 21 of them, as his pick and roll coverage was simply too poor to keep him out there to bang with Miami’s twin towers. Jakob Poeltl and Lucas Nogueira just weren’t strong enough.
Also pivotal for Miami was Goran Dragic, the pest who always seems to get the mental edge on Toronto. His 24 points led Miami, and he also had 12 rebounds. (Sensing a theme?)
While the second quarter was the most egregious on the boards, the third quarter saw some life from the Raptors. An 11-2 run started the quarter, with the starters showing strong defensive energy. OG Anunoby was particularly revelatory, showing deft footwork on one possession guarding Dragic, forcing a fallaway miss after a series of jukes and jabs.
Raptors fail to execute, fall to Heat in dying seconds | Toronto Sun
There is no mercy in the cut-throat world of the NBA and no one gives any team any breaks when the back end of a back to back is played.
There was a dust-up between Raptors’ Serge Ibaka and the Heat’s James Johnson, a third-quarter melee that led to both players being ejected.
In the seconds following the final whistle being blown, DeMar DeRozan and Goran Dragic got into it.
Dragic plays on the edge and anyone who watched the second-round series two springs ago between the Raptors and Heat might recall how Dragic under Toronto’s skin.
“Back to back, it doesn’t matter,’’ began head coach Dwane Casey when asked about his team’s effort before the game turned wild late. “We got in at 3 am, it doesn’t matter because nobody cares. I know Miami didn’t care.
“We didn’t do the things. They got 20 offensive rebounds. We hold a team to 40%, but again it’s attention to detail, hitting someone before a shot is missed. We didn’t do those things. And then you put yourself in a position (to pull off a win) and you can’t execute, you can’t carry out things you have to do.
“You put yourself in that position, but it started well before that. Hats off to Miami. We didn’t play well enough to win.”
Raptors can’t steal win against Heat without Lowry | Toronto Star
The absence of Kyle Lowry certainly diminishes what the Raptors do and how they play and cuts a deep swath through the roster. They looked discombobulated most of the night and absolutely missed their all-star point guard.
But they were also hammered 64-37 on the boards, gave up 20 offensive rebounds for 17 second-chance Miami points, were beaten to nearly every 50-50 ball and generally played in slow motion.
“I mean, the whole game is completely different without Kyle. It’s everything. Everything,” said DeMar DeRozan, who had 25 points, including a basket with 3.1 seconds left that gave Toronto an 89-88 lead. “You can kind of tell with our ball movement wasn’t all the way there like it normally be when Kyle’s out there. Like I said, he’s a general on the floor. He sees things when they need to be called. That’s no excuse.”
Still, the Raptors had a chance to win, losing when Miami’s Wayne Ellington took advantage of an egregious defensive mixup to finish a game-winning layup with 3/10ths of a second left.
What made it worse was the Raptors had a foul to give on the play but Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby were so far from Ellington they couldn’t touch him in time.
“It wasn’t executed,” Casey said. “I’m not . . . don’t know exactly who made the mistake but, again, we had a foul to give down the stretch, we wanted to make sure we executed.”
Free Association: Is DeRozan the greatest Raptor of all-time? – Sportsnet.ca
On this episode, Donnovan and J.D. discuss the title of “The Greatest Raptor of All-Time” and wonder if Delon Wright could be the future point guard in Toronto.
The guys tip off the show by discussing if DeMar DeRozan has surpassed Vince Carter as the best player in franchise history (1:40).
Later they discuss proper fan etiquette when wearing a jersey (10:55).
At the end of the podcast, the guys discuss if Wright is the Raptors’ future at the one (19:25).
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdwIHBkjBXi/
Could suspensions be coming for Ibaka and DeRozan? – Video – TSN
The NBA on TSN panel discusses what happened in the final three seconds of Toronto’s stunning defeat to Miami, the positives for the Raptors’ despite the tough loss, and whether Serge Ibaka and DeMar DeRozan could be suspended for their heated exchanges with James Johnson and Goran Dragic.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdvtjBxjre0/
Podcast – Raptors/Heat Crossover w/ Wes Goldberg – Locked On Raptors
In Episode 256 of Locked on Raptors, Sean Woodley and Wes Goldberg (Locked on Heat) team up to discuss Tuesday’s Raptors/Heat match-ups and where both teams sit around the midway point of the season. They discuss Josh Richardson and Norman Powell’s divergent paths this season, who the best player on the Heat is, whether or not DeMar DeRozan deserves Most Improved Player consideration and much, much more.
VanVleet defends the post pretty well #prouddefender #wethenorth #nba pic.twitter.com/lJl5HYbbKI
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) January 10, 2018
Without Kyle Lowry, shouldn’t Raptors’ margin of error be smaller? – The Athletic
In giving the Raptors what could have been the decisive lead on Tuesday night, DeMar DeRozan made the wrong play. It was a play that violated the ethos of the stylistic shift the Raptors are trying to make, and a mistake he made over and over again.
Getting a screen from C.J. Miles, DeRozan exploded to his right. His defender, Miami swingman Josh Richardson never abandoned his primary assignment. Miles’ defender, Wayne Ellington did, momentarily. In the Raptors’ win over the Bucks on New Year’s Day, once DeRozan saw two men shifting to him, he made the pass immediately. However, this was not Lowry, out of the game with a bruised tailbone and back spasm that he suffered on Monday night in Brooklyn. It was Miles, the dynamic shooter who has struggled to find his niche in the Raptors’ rotation.
It is impossible to say how much that played a factor in DeRozan’s decision-making, other than this was a different DeRozan than we have seen in a long time. DeRozan was forcing himself into the paint constantly, and not getting fouls. The result: a relatively inefficient 25-point-on-29-field-goal-attempt evening, a throwback performance, and not in the good way.
It would be easy to say that DeRozan following up his miss with a putback was beside the point except, again, it almost gave the Raptors the win. Ultimately, after a horrendously defended final play, the Heat won 90-89.
After the game that featured a greatest hits of Raptors mistakes — failures to inbound, getting bludgeoned on the boards and bricked three-pointers, oh my! — the looming thought was this: Shouldn’t the Raptors’ margin of error, without Lowry playing and after winning an overtime game the night before, be smaller?
Another Bebe block at the rim ends with a Norm dunk on the break #wethenorth #nba pic.twitter.com/fGrGs3Rt2e
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) January 10, 2018
Toronto Raptors miss Kyle Lowry in frustrating loss to Miami Heat – Sportsnet.ca
But the Raptors’ will to win is strong, as is DeRozan’s. Despite trailing by 12 late the third quarter, Toronto kept hovering around, holding the Heat to 40 per cent from the floor – good enough to win most nights.
But you have to score to win, and the Raptors were struggling without Lowry’s command.
Finally DeRozan, the Raptors’ scoring leader, shook off his early struggles to rip off nine points in last four minutes of the fourth quarter including baskets that gave Toronto a one-point lead with two minutes left and again with 3.1 seconds left.
It looked like it would be enough to steal a win at home facing some difficult circumstances.
But then the weirdness started. Leading by one with two minutes left the Raptors got a pair of stops and two golden opportunities to close the door on Miami. DeRozan kicked out to the struggling Norman Powell – getting some minutes in Lowry’s absence – who missed a wide-open three. The Raptors got the ball back, ran an inbounds play for Powell that got him a layup with 30 seconds left and he missed that too.
“It definitely is (frustrating),” said Powell who finished 2-of-8 and is shooting 29 per cent from three on the season. “I spend countless hours on my game knocking down shots, working on finishing around the basket every single day. I definitely thought the three I took was going in for sure and I don’t know what happened on the layup I feel like [the defender] slapped the backboard or something because it was perfect off the glass and it missed funny.
“You really never see misses like that.”
Bebe had Whiteside lined up early #wethenorth #nba pic.twitter.com/rPkyPM9ube
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) January 10, 2018
3 troubling stats from the Toronto Raptors’ loss to the Miami Heat – Sportsnet.ca
Miami grabbed 20 offensive rebounds
Rebounding was by far the biggest discrepancy between the two teams, and explains how Miami managed to pull this win out despite being held to 40 per cent shooting, including 4-of-22 from beyond the arc. Letting a team recover 20 of its misses, and end up with 17 second-chance points, isn’t found in too many winning formulas.
“It’s attention to detail,” Casey said. “Hitting someone before the shot’s missed. We didn’t do those things.”
Ibaka’s third-quarter ejection — following a scuffle with Johnson that Ibaka didn’t provoke but didn’t de-escalate either — certainly didn’t help. He was leading the Raptors in rebounds at the time with five.
Neither did the fact the Raptors played on the road the night prior and didn’t land in Toronto until 3:00 a.m. ET Tuesday morning. Every team deals with rough stretches of the schedule. But circumstances like that are always going to take sap some vigour when it comes to the hardy elements of the game, like battling on the glass.
Still, the Raptors played three centres Tuesday (Jonas Valanciunas, Lucas Nogueira, and Jakob Poeltl) and they combined for only four boards. Raptors guard Norman Powell had six on his own. Delon Wright had seven.
Good things are happening when Ibaka puts it on the floor and takes it to the rack #wethenorth #nba pic.twitter.com/htbPaop9aq
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) January 10, 2018
Woz Blog: Serge Ibaka filling third star role for Raptors | Toronto Sun
Ibaka is also fourth in the East in blocks per game, is shooting a solid 50/37/76 (field goal/three-point/free throw percentage) as a stretch big man. He sits in the Top 10 in the conference in plus/minus (DeRozan leads all and OG Anunoby and Kyle Lowry also rank way up) and trails only Al Horford and Joel Embiid amongst big men in that category. All of this is also taking into account that Ibaka had a really slow start to the year (including 29% shooting from beyond the arc and 50% shooting at the line in November). He’s turned it around and is helping to carry the Raptors.
OG finishes left off the bounce #wethenorth #nba pic.twitter.com/JyyyPPZhBc
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) January 10, 2018
New offense, new Demar DeRozan, new bench: Surging Toronto Raptors deserve more of your attention
Anunoby, the 23rd pick in June’s draft, only fell to Toronto because he suffered a season-ending knee injury last January while playing at Indiana University. But Anunoby’s defensive tenacity (9th among all small forwards in ESPN’s defensive Real Plus-Minus) and 3-point abilities has been perfect alongside the aforementioned Raptors quartet.
“I knew I could contribute right away,” Anunoby told The Comeback, “so just getting healthy was the biggest thing for me. And I knew everything would fall into place after that.”
Toronto is 21-5 since Anunoby entered the starting lineup, and the current five-man unit is outscoring opponents by 16.3 points per 100 possessions while on the floor, per NBA.com.
“His maturity level is off the charts for a rookie,” Casey said.
Another essential element in this successful Raptors start has been the continued growth of their young second unit, and how it’s developed chemistry and quickly grasped the team’s new offensive scheme. That began, according to backup point guard Delon Wright, when the Raptors instructed their young players to learn and work out together during the offseason.
While guard Fred VanVleet, forward Pascal Siakam and center Jakob Poeltl played in the Las Vegas Summer League last July, Wright and wing Norman Powell joined them to practice together. Those workouts extended to L.A. and Toronto and carried over into the season, where reserve players are finding success. The second unit bought into the system, Wright said, and are now rotation mainstays.
“I think the young guys are trying to make a concerted effort to be one of the better benches in the NBA,” VanVleet told The Comeback.
Did I miss something? Send me any Raptors-related arcticle/video to rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
