Breakdown: Raptors d. Timberwolves, Oct. 24

Raptors 112, Timberwolves 105

Recap

Another impressive performance by the Raptors.
The most noticeable observation I had from this game was how often the Raptors made the Timberwolves uncomfortable on the defensive end and forced them to play faster than they are comfortable with (a trend that is becoming the identity of the Raptors so far). You’ll notice in the breakdown below how, time and time again, the Raptors were running the Timberwolves off the 3 and forcing extra passes, which led to more difficult shots.
Serge Ibaka bullied Karl Anthony Towns the entire game. Nick Nurse said that this game would be won within 8 feet of the rim at both ends of the floor, and Serge took that personally. He was constantly displacing KAT, and the rest of the Raptors were in KAT’s line of vision every time he touched the ball.
On the offensive side, the Raptors played through Kawhi quite often, both through designed isolations and good transition matchups leading to post ups.
The Raptors picked apart the Timberwolves in the ball screen, specifically in the second and third quarters when the T’Wolves decided to hedge with KAT. I’ll get into that more below.
Lastly, the Raptors introduced a Kawhi/Kyle ball screen down the stretch that was effective and reminiscent of past Golden State/Cleveland finals.

Defense

Making the T’Wolves Uncomfortable

The Raptors have been tremendous at pressuring the ball, denying one pass away, and bullying their way through as many actions as possible.
One trend I have noticed is how much of an emphasis they have put on running shooters off the 3pt line. They have decided that making them uncomfortable, and not allowing shooters to catch and shoot in rhythm is more important than a fundamental closeout (breaking down in front of the shooter and not letting him blow by you) – and it’s working.

Notice how Danny Green “fly’s by” Teague in the corner to prevent the 3, Teague then is deterred by the speed of Lowry’s approach and decides the pass to be to Rose down low, effectively preventing a 3 point attempt.

Same thing on this play with Lowry, he fly’s by the shooter forcing him to take an uncomfortable, contest three off of a dribble which is a much lower percentage, less comfortable shot. These are just two clips, but the Raptors are doing this consistently.

Loading up on KAT

It looked and felt like Serge Ibaka took the opportunity of stopping KAT personally. Right from the start, he was incredibly physical with KAT and never allowed him to get any easy looks or scores.

Watch how hard Serge is working on this possession. He is low, aggressive (border line fouling) and prevents KAT from even getting the touch. Not only does this force Minnesota to go to someone else, but it frustrated KAT.

This clip ends up in a foul, but look at the effort it takes KAT to get the ball. Serge is effectively bullying him away from his spots on the floor, and preventing KAT from doing anything comfortably. Both of these clips happened within a minute of each other in the first quarter, sending KAT a message that he’s going to have to work extremely hard to get his looks.

When defending against scorers, it is imperative that you “show them bodies” or make them feel like they are never just playing 1-on-1. If you can do that, you can limit their aggressiveness, make them a passer instead of a scorer, and force their team to beat you in different ways (which usually is not their strength).

KAT gets a matchup in the post that he feels comfortable with – OG. Notice how initially Danny Green is right beside KAT looking at him, he can feel Serge digging hard from the top, and all 3 raptors on the offside are staring at him. This forces a scorer like KAT to think about passing, which in turn prevents him from solely being focused on scoring, and ends up in a travel.

In this clip, Powell gets switched onto KAT on the 3 who does a good job of using his quickness to pressure him. Look at the other players on the floor – Brown is at the nail staring at Towns, OG is in stance staring at him, and Kawhi is waiting on the other side of the key eager to commit. KAT sees this and decides against taking a smaller Powell off the dribble and instead kicks it out , which ends in a contested 3.

Offense

Kawhi ISOs

As I mentioned earlier, there were not that many sets run by the Raptors tonight in the half-court primarily because they were very ISO heavy with Kawhi.

This was one of the few ISO’s Kawhi had that came off a set. This is the Raptors go to set to get him a post isolation situation. There is a ball screen or handoff up top, while Kawhi sets a cross screen at the block, then direct entry to him.

For the most part, Kawhi’s ISO’s came from situations like this. This was a transition situation that ended with him getting a mismatch from a DHO (dribble hand off). Once he gets the favourable matchup, he attacks.

Attacking the Hedge of the Ball Screen

In the second and third quarter, Minnesota started “hedging” the ball screen. This is a defensive ball screen tactic not utilized much in the NBA for a few reasons:

Few teams have a big who is athletic enough to shock a guard coming off a ball screen enough to have him retreat and take his eyes off the rest of the floor.
Hedging a ball screen requires a defender to protect the basket, especially because you are allowing a significant gap between the hedging big and the roller. The NBA’s defensive 3 second rules don’t allow a defender to protect the basket without being within arm’s length of their defender, who is usually on the perimeter.
Teams in the NBA want to stay out of unnecessary defensive rotations. Athletes are so explosive and skilled in this league that if you allow for closeouts to start happening, teams are going to pick you apart.

Check out these clips:

Firstly, KAT doesn’t shock Lowry after the ball screen at all – Lowry seems comfortable. Now draw your attention to the basket. Tolliver is waiting on the offside because he cannot legally sit at the basket where he needs to be. By the time he commits to the basket, Serge has caught the ball and is making his move to the rim. For this to be effective, KAT needs to shock Lowry, and Tolliver needs to either steal that pass or meet Serge on the catch.

In this clip, KAT does a better job of forcing Lowry to retreat. Again, Gibson should be protecting the basket on the role but he’s worried about a defensive 3 second violation. The Raptors also exchange the guards on the 2 side (side of the ball screen with two offensive players) which causes Gibson and Butler to exchange, and the basket is left wide open for Serge to roll.

In this example, KAT is slightly late which allows Lowry to keep is head up and see the floor. Notice that Gibson is doing a good job at the basket discouraging the pass to the roll. This play is made by Lowry however, who with his eyes baits Gibson into taking a half step towards his man in the corner, which then leaves the basket open for Serge.

New Sets

Kawhi / Kyle BS

This is the first time the Raptors have run this variation of the ball screen, and it’s something we can expect to see more from them in the future – especially late in games. This ball screen puts Tyus Jones in a very difficult situation as he wants nothing to do with switching onto Kawhi. As a result, he tries to hedge the ball screen, but Jimmy gets screened well by Kyle and Kawhi can turn the corner.

In this situation, Kawhi is setting the screen. Jimmy hedges, Jones stays with Kyle and Kawhi gets the ball in space for a jumper.

Raptor (Iverson cut)

The Raptors haven’t run this action since opening night vs Cleveland. It’s a nice play especially for the second unit as the action creates the advantage rather than the skill of the player creating the action, which sometimes is an issue for the second group as they don’t have an abundance of creators. In the pre-season, the Raptors ran many different variations of this action which we will likely see as time goes on.

Note: Growing up, the Raptors use to run this for Vince Carter often which is why I referred to it as Raptor. In many NBA circles, this is known as the Iverson cut.

Looking Ahead

The Raptors have won 4 of 5 of their games so far at home and are evidently playing with incredible energy. With 5 of their next 7 games on the road, I’m interested to see if they can keep the same energy and focus, especially on defense.
I really like the way Nick Nurse has put JV in advantageous situations. JV provided a huge offensive boost to the second unit tonight. When he has a favourable matchup, he tends to be very effective for the Raptors. However, JV’s minutes extended into the 4^thand KAT was subbed in for Dieng. Once KAT recognized he had JV on him in the 4^thand not Serge, KAT got more aggressive.
Pascal Siakam continues to impress me – and probably everyone else, too! I mentioned in an early recap that he reminds me of a (less crazy) Draymond Green. This clip is one of those reasons why:

Watch how Pascal can effortlessly grab a defensive rebound and bust out in transition. Amongst other similarities (like how versatile they both are defensively), this is a skill that Draymond has made famous with the Warriors.

Notes and Observations

The Raptors have run two sideline out of bounds plays this year – reversal to Spain ball screen and a basic entry to spread ball screen – but mostly they’ve run the Spain ball screen. This should have been scouted by the Timberwolves!

OG handled a handoff situation with Butler to perfection in the fourth quarter and I had to share it:

On the initial handoff OG realizes he can’t bully between Butler and Dieng so he gaps underneath and forces Butler back towards the baseline. On the second handoff, there is less separation and OG blows up the play. Textbook.