Will the new and improved Toronto Raptors please stand up? | The Star
If you watched Toronto’s 122-103 Game 3 loss to the Wizards, you know the answers to all those questions was a shrug and a nod in the affirmative. You also might be of the belief that much of what happened could be cast aside as a one-off. Everything in this first-round playoff series had been going along swimmingly for the Raptors in Games 1 and 2, wherein they shared the ball with the same kind of all-for-one togetherness that turned them into a 59-win team with the second-best regular-season record in the NBA. But everything changed in Game 3. Sure, it didn’t help that the desperate Wizards got epic performances from all-star guards John Wall and Bradley Beal.
Washington Wizards win Game 3 against Toronto Raptors, led by All-Stars John Wall and Bradley Beal
Wall was determined to come back stronger than ever and lift Washington past that second-round barrier that has stymied this team for so long. But the Wizards treated the regular season like a championship-caliber team that was used to being able to turn it on in the postseason.
The Wizards promptly fell flat on their face in Canada, allowing the Raptors to do things they don’t normally do, such as win a Game 1 of a series and take a 2-0 lead.
Raptors Practice: Dwane Casey – April 21, 2018 – YouTube
NBA fines Wizards’ Markieff Morris for role in altercation against Raptors | WJLA
Markieff Morris has been fined $25,000 by the NBA on Saturday for attempting to escalate an altercation and pushing an official during a game against Toronto on Friday night. Morris shoved official Ken Mauer aside when Morris and Toronto’s OG Anunoby had to be separated after a near-fight that drew other players less than three minutes into the Wizards’ 122-103 victory.
The Raptors rolled to the top seed in the Eastern Conference behind a 59-23 season, in which they used bench players for 44 percent of all available minutes. They say they’ll continue to roll with what got them here. The team’s bench success was no fluke.
“I don’t think confidence slipped,” said Miles. “The playoffs, the biggest thing about it is everything is scouted, everybody is scouted, their tendencies and plays. It’s just about playing basketball, and that’s what the second group does as well as anybody — just play basketball.”
Raptors Practice: C.J. Miles & Jakob Poeltl – April 2018 – YouTube
Raptors facing key defensive questions heading into Game 4 – Sportsnet.ca
If you want to draw a line from how the ‘old’ Raptors became the ‘new’ Raptors—at least offensively—you could do worse than starting from that contentious video session in Milwaukee.
What exact form the new-look Raptors offence would take wasn’t clear at the time, but everyone involved new something had to give.
“I mean, before we even got to the point where we changed the offence, for me to come back I knew something was going to change,” said Lowry. “We didn’t know what it was going to be, but we knew it would be different.”
Sunday game preview: Toronto Raptors at Washington Wizards | The Star
On paper this ought to favour Toronto. The Raptors, after all, boasted what was arguably the best cadre of backups in the NBA this season. Washington’s reserves ranked 15th on that list. But the absence of Toronto’s most reliable backup, Fred VanVleet, has been a contributing factor to Washington enjoying the reserve advantage in Games 1 through 3. VanVleet, nursing a shoulder injury that has kept him out of all but three minutes of this series, can’t be expected to be the saviour here. The likes of Delon Wright and C.J. Miles need to be more of a factor than they were in Game 3.
Raptors Practice: Kyle Lowry – April 21, 2018 – YouTube
Raptors’ ‘bench mob’ being outplayed by Wizards reserves | CBC Sports
“Fred’s the type of guy, he’s always making plays for us when things get a little stagnant,” said Jakob Poeltl. “On defence, he’s everywhere. He plugs the gaps. He helps out teammates all over the court. It’s a little bit of everything that he does for us.
“[But] we know it’s not an excuse. We know we have 12, 13, 14 guys on this team that can come in and contribute.”
VanVleet has played less than three minutes in this series after suffering a shoulder injury in the season-finale. Casey said he’s still “day to day.”
All those turnovers a dagger for Raps in Game 3 loss | Toronto Sun
First credit where credit is due. The Wizards were far more aggressive, far more physical in a Game 3 on their home court than they had been earlier in the series and they forced the Raptors to react perhaps before they were fully ready, leading to a lot of these turnovers.
But Toronto has not been a team that is turnover prone. They averaged 13.5 a game in the regular season which was seventh-best in the Association. But through three playoff games that number is up to 16.7, the worst of any playoff team, save Portland, who are mired in dead last with 16.7 turnovers in the second season.
Toronto Raptors on Instagram: ““I’m telling you, Rol San’s the spot!””
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh1-Bf6jhnn/
Raptors’ Anunoby thriving, unfazed by bright lights of the playoffs – Sportsnet.ca
“It sounds crazy, but sometimes we need that,” Gortat said. “It’s definitely not bad. [Morris] set a tone. We were physical from the get-go. And that helped us.”
Anunoby’s interpretation of the events supports this. Asked Saturday what transpired between him and Morris, Anunoby said he hadn’t done anything to send Morris to the floor.
“He pushed me for no reason,” Anunoby said.
Toronto Raptors on Instagram: “Repetition, repetition, repetition”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh2PV4XjGhU/
Imagine a team playing great for the first 46 minutes, and then collapsing in the final two before losing. You’d blame the loss on whatever happened in the final two minutes, right? The same can be—and should be—applied here.
How can the Raptors remove this issue until VanVleet returns? In my opinion, Dwane Casey needs to play Lowry with Wright and the bench unit. Lowry is, for comparison sake, the same type of player that VanVleet is in the lineup. Taking the ball out of Wright’s hands and putting it into Lowry’s could help alleviate these insanely bad two to three minute stretches in which Toronto coughs up a lead.
Toronto Raptors know how good they are and one playoff loss won’t shake that belief | National Post
“We’re fine,” Lowry said on Saturday afternoon, after the Raptors practised on the campus of Georgetown University in downtown Washington. “I mean, it’s a loss. We’re not happy at all.”
“But we’ve got to go out there and play again. There’s another game tomorrow at 6 p.m. We got a great practice in, great film in. We’re communicating. And that’s the biggest thing. We have to communicate, all be on the same page and know we have a bigger goal. And every day is a step to our goal.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh2dDD1j9R4/
