Breakdown: Raptors d. Wizards, Oct. 20

Raptors 117, Wizards 113

Recap

· Impressive effort from the Raptors without Kawhi Leonard.

· The Raptors dominated rebounding battle, especially on the offensive end.

· What stood out to me was how hard the Raptors defended. For the most part, they defended as a unit and their communication was very high. This has been consistent through the first 3 games.

· They were prepared — I noticed many times the Raptors taking an extra step off of John Wall on the perimeter to bluff on drivers. They were daring Wall to beat them from the 3.

· I am starting to understand why JV sits so far back on ball screens — or at least I think I am. I will go into more detail below.

· The Raptors ran a lot of spread ball screen tonight. Without Kawhi, there was much less post isolation, however they did run 4 sets in the first half to post up JV, and when Siakam was being defended by Oubre Jr. they posted him up as well.

· The pace of the game changes when Siakam is on the floor as he loves to play at a high speed and really pushes the ball in transition. I’ve also been very impressed with his vision as a passer.

· Kyle Lowry was very good.

Defensive Observations

Bluffing off the Ball

· The Raptors seem very locked in defensively. They are active off the ball, and I noticed many examples of them understanding the scouting report of Washington — most noticeable of which was how often they bluffed, or dug at the ball handler with John Wall’s defender. The Raptors clearly decided that they were OK with him shooting 3’s (Wall was 0–4 from 3).

Lowry jumps to the ball on the pass and knows that he can afford to leave Wall to blow up Porter’s penetration. Danny Green switches off Porter, and even though there is a miscommunication, they are able to overcome it.

Again, Lowry understand personnel — Beal is more dangerous to the Raptors at the elbow then Wall is at the 3, so he digs at the ball.

This is almost idential to the top clip. Green recognizes he can bluff on Beal on slow him up and allow Powell to get back in front.

Ball Screen

· I noticed a couple of clips in this game of JV defending the ball screen that slightly changed my opinion of how he defends the action. Take a look at the clips below:

· By playing the ball screen this way, the Raptors are giving up the mid-range pull-up, which many teams are ok with because of the poor analytics of that shot (Ex. Mike D’Antoni’s offensive philosophy of layups or 3’s ). This makes a point guard like John Wall a good matchup theoretically for JV — he can sit far back and dare him into shooting the mid-range pull which is not Wall’s strength. If he attacks the rim, then JV can use his size and length to contest the finish (however, if you let Wall attack JV with speed, that will not favour JV). If the rest of the team is understanding of how JV is playing the screen, then they can bluff less, stay connected and avoid kick outs.

Against a guard like Wall, this well work more successfully.

Against a guard like Beal, it makes much less sense to defend it this way.

· Ibaka is currently giving the Raptors on option to defend any type of point guard in the ball screen. I’ve been impressed with his ability so far to show much higher on the ball screens (the Raptors deny access or ICE the ball screen) while still being able to contain attacking guards.

Serge is able to discourage the drive on the initial action, close out to the pop, as well as contest an athletic Oubre Jr. at the rim all in the same posession.

Serge does a great job here of being in stance and he’s able to both discourage Rivers’s drive, and get back infront of the roller on the pocket pass. (Also, great bluff by CJ Miles)

Offensive Observations

· In this game the Raptors ran more spread ball screens than they have in the past two games, likely for two reasons:

With Kawhi not being available, their other main creator is Lowry who is best at creating off the ball screen.
The Washington bigs struggle defending the ball screen — especially Jason Smith.

· Kyle Lowry was outstanding again on the offensive end. He is doing a much better job creating in the half court than he has done in the past. It looks like something he’s taken pride in developing this past off-season.

· Siakam continues to impress me with his entire game — but his passing stands out. He uses his athleticism very well in transition and rebounding, but the more I watch of him, the more I appreciate his ability make the right pass.

· The Raptors didn’t run as many sets tonight as they did the first two games, but I did notice 3 new sets tonight:

The Raptors opened the game with this action off the tip. They wheel Green and Lowry, eventually ending up with a double staggers for Green coming up the top of the key

Simple downscreen to get the switch and attack Oubre in the post. The Raptors did this on occassion tonight — they must have identified Oubre as a defender that they wanted to attack.

Handoff to Hammer — Nice action here, as Powell clears out the low man on the offside by circling high, and Ibaka sets the hammer screen for Lowry in the corner. The handoff action on the strong side forces Ibaka’s man to protect the basket and therefore can’t help on the Hammer action.

Looking Ahead

· I’m interested to see if Jonas Valinciunas will play effective minutes consistently. If we look at the example of the last two games, he played 14 ineffective minutes against Boston and 19 good minutes against Washington. He can be effective against bigs that he can post up and ball screen guards who aren’t elite shooters, but will he be able provide 20+ minutes of value when the opposition is not suited to his strengths?

· Turnovers and committing fouls were an issue tonight. They were the reason that Washington was able to keep the game close.

· Fred Van Vleet is the only creator in the second unit right now, which will be bolstered by Delon Wright when he returns. He has been good so far but I’d expect him to be even better when he doesn’t have to constantly carry the offensive load and can spot up more often.

Notes

· Danny Green is a great team defender, but really struggled individually in the 4thquarter against the Wizards. I have also seen a trend of this in the past 2 games. He makes up for not being an elite athlete by being very good with his defensive angles, but he does not look like an lock down defender.

· If OG Anounby’s skills can catch up to the rest of his game he could be very good. Right now he looks very comfortable rebounding, defending and shooting set shots — but when he puts the ball down it is evident his skill level is not there yet.