18-4 soon to be 18-5
Four months since a trade that altered the direction of the Raptors — with general manager Masai Ujiri raising to legitimate championship contender the ceiling of the organization through a potential one-year rental of former Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard — Lowry has attacked this season as if he’s determined to show that Toronto also acquired a better version of himself. The motivation is not revenge, who’s gone, or who’s arrived, only a desire to be better. He’s older but smarter. Far from satisfied.
“I’m more hungry than I was my first year,” Lowry said. “Because it’s about wanting more for yourself. I never want to settle for being mediocre or me not giving every ounce of blood, sweat and tears for my job. We don’t get to play this game for a long time at a high level. I think that’s where we are. We only get this thing for a short amount of time, after that, then you can go be lazy. For me, it’s all about being the best basketball player you can possibly be. Why settle?”
Any bitterness or sadness that Lowry might feel over having his “dog” shipped out or over how the situation was handled — DeRozan claims he was misled; Ujiri has apologized for any miscommunication — has been mostly kept inside, reflected only in his continuation of a pregame handshake ritual with an imaginary DeRozan. Lowry hasn’t spoken with Ujiri about the move, nor does he plan to ever discuss it with him.
“It’s no point now,” Lowry said. “He did it. He made his decision. That’s his choice. All I can do is go hoop. Take that however you want.”
Lowry has moved on, mostly because he said DeRozan has “made peace with it.” Even if he wanted to hold a grudge, Lowry couldn’t hold one for too long with the Raptors organization because Ujiri is still the one who challenged him to ditch the sour attitude to avoid becoming a disgruntled journeyman, still the one who gave him his first big contract in 2014 and still the one who handed out another for nearly $100 million three years later despite the absence of another serious free-agent challenger for Lowry’s services.
“It was a dried up summer. Dried up quick,” Lowry said with a smirk. “But they made a commitment and they secured me more money than I ever thought I would make. And yeah, I’ve proven it on the basketball court and I just continue to keep improving and that I’m worth the amount of money and salary that I make. The city has been great for me. The organization, I’ve made them let me be me.
“I’m not saying that in an arrogant way. But they gave me a chance. They didn’t have to pay me. I’ve done everything you wanted me to do. I’ve made the team get better and they’ve put me in a position where I’ve made them make a decision whether they wanted to keep me or not. They chose to keep me and I appreciate it.”
Six-plus seasons in Toronto have been good for Lowry, giving him the platform to become the perennial All-Star caliber player he’d always envisioned in previous stops in Memphis and Houston. His demanding style can make him hard to play with sometimes but never difficult to rally behind. And he has taken his leadership to an even higher level following a summer that featured the most upheaval during his time with the Raptors, with Dwane Casey — the coach with whom he butted heads before earning his trust — also being let go for his former assistant, Nick Nurse.
Until recently Toronto had been one of the worst three-point shooting in the NBA, but with Danny Green catching fire, along with Fred VanVleet and others, the team is now up to 35.1%, good for 16th. Only seven teams are hitting more three-pointers a night.
Over the past four games Toronto has hit 41.9% of its three-point attempts, which leads the NBA. The unlikeliest contributor to this turnaround has been Delon Wright, who has hit 5-of-7. VanVleet is 8-for-13. Lowry and Green have been the volume guys, getting up 27 and 26 threes, respectively, and hitting at 44.4% and 35% clips.
Memphis has been excellent defensively this season, but Toronto set an opponent’s high for field goal and three-point field goal percentage.
Lowry was excellent, carving up the Grizzlies, while also hitting some big three-pointers.
The biggest takeaway from this corner was Kawhi Leonard making smart decisions.
For much of the early going of this season, Leonard has been extremely aggressive in looking for his shot. Perhaps he saw that as the easiest initial way to readjust to the speed and rhythms of NBA games. Don’t forget the league has sped up quite a bit since he was last healthy, even if in this case, Memphis plays a very slow, deliberate style unlike most other teams.
It now appears that Leonard is expanding into other areas. Opponents are doubling him and he’s making great passes to set up open shots. He’s done excellent work creating for others.
Or maybe he’s just sick of getting mauled without calls and is passing. Nah, Kawhi said he was just making the right plays.
As a whole Toronto is swinging the ball very well.
Toronto Raptors Temperature: Raptors kicking it in style – Raptors HQ
Pessimistic Attitudes
I’m as guilty as anyone here, to be honest. The Raptors, as I’ve followed them for the past 20 years of my dang life, have almost never been what you’d call a confident team. They’ve never been inevitable like Michael Jordan, or Shaq, or LeBron, or the Warriors dynasty. They’ve been, in a word, suspect.This is why it becomes so easy to immediately fall into depressive moods when the Raptors show any signs of struggle. In the days leading up to last night’s Grizzlies game, and after their speed bump three-game losing streak, we had begun to worry the Raptors were not everything they believed themselves to be. Is it possible the team was about to be exposed by tougher competition? Were they just padding their record by crushing teams they were supposed to beat? Had we set ourselves up for yet another fall, another collapse, another tumble into the abyss?
It was all very much possible.
Then last night on Tuesday, the Raptors flat out executed. They were down 12 points at half to a Memphis team set up to defend well, grind the game down, and play smart, self-contained basketball. They were not pushovers, is my point. Except the Raptors started cranking up their defense (even throwing out a discombobulating zone for a stretch), and then began making the shots we believe — we know — they can make. The end result: a satisfying win on the road, and yet another boost of confidence.
Maybe we shouldn’t have been so worried in the first place. Maybe the past is really the past. Maybe this time — yes, this time — the Raptors are for real.
We dare to dream… again.
In Episode 426 of Locked on Raptors, Sean Woodley goes solo to break down the Raptors’ 122-114 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, in which Nick Nurse staggered his stars, Kawhi Leonard took on the role of playmaker, Fred VanVleet was cash and the Raptors mounted a 17-point comeback. Memphis’ new court and jerseys are also shown much love.
The credit begins with Nick Nurse, who kickstarted the turnaround by rolling out a zone defence in the third quarter. Zone defences are not particularly sustainable looks in an NBA so flush with shooting and playmaking, and while the Grizzlies are a very accurate three-point shooting team, they’re one of the league’s less willing shooting groups. In the first half, the Memphis guards had carved up the pick-and-roll with pull-ups and floaters while Marc Gasol bullied inside against a smaller opponent. The zone look seemed to break them out of a rhythm. Perhaps more importantly, the reach deeper into the defensive playbook seemed to be a bit of a tone-setter for the team’s defensive effort.
“I was getting tired of not guarding them so I thought I’d try a little zone,” Nurse said. “That’s what you use it for, the nights where you try to get them out of rhythm a little bit. Fortunately, it worked. We kind of put it on and put it off a little bit, and it kind of got us to a good stretch in the third.”
That picked up even more in the fourth, where Memphis scored 17 points on 21 possessions, settling for a number of late-clock threes. The Grizzlies like to grind games down to a slow crawl like no other, and after forcing the pace in their own favour in the first half, the Raptors grew comfortable flipping the grit-and-grind mentality against Memphis. That’s not to say Toronto didn’t push in transition — Kawhi Leonard’s ability to run the break and involve teammates was a key component of the comeback — but they met Memphis’ preference on defence and left them with tough late-clock heaves and, until the final moments, few second chances.
Fred VanVleet was paramount in the turnaround on that end, turning in what was probably his best two-way game of the season. Yes, he shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the floor on his way to 18 points overall and hit three threes in the fourth quarter, but it was his pick-and-roll defence that really shifted the feel of the game and made him the right choice to close on Mike Conley over Danny Green or Delon Wright. After struggling through myriad minor injuries this year, including a scary moment with a camera in the first quarter in this one, VanVleet was back to his tenacious on-ball defence here, fighting hard to get into the ball, muscle over screens without getting knocked off his man and recovering to prevent the type of probing and floaters that had plagued the team earlier on.
Really, though, the defensive shift was team-wide, with the kind of extended stretch at the high gear that the Raptors have only spoken about possessing so far and flashed on occasional possessions. The last quarter-and-a-half of this game may have been the most consistently locked in that defence has been, with pieces moving on a string and helpers receiving help, and so on. Memphis ran eight pick-and-rolls in the fourth quarter and produced four points, per Synergy Sports, none of them from the ball-handlers (they’d produced just seven points on nine pick-and-rolls from when the lead hit 17 in the third quarter onward, too).
Siakam and Green respond to Klay Thompson’s comments – Yahoo
It’s a date that the Toronto Raptors have surely had circled on their calendars for some time. Whenever you have a game against the planet’s greatest basketball team on the horizon, there’s going to be some added hype during the build-up to tip-off.
Klay Thompson, one of Golden State’s ‘Splash Brothers’, tossed some coal in that hype train when he stated that the game could be a “preview of June” and “they’ve got something really special up there in Canada right now.”
Toronto Raptors Pascal Siakam and Danny Green are very aware of that, but don’t want to be looking too far ahead.
“With the team that we have and kinda the way we’ve been playing…, it’s a challenge,” said Siakam on a recent episode of Inside the Green Room with Danny Green. “Playing great teams is always a challenge and as a competitor, you always want to go out and try to get a win.”
Now in his third season with the team, the 24-year-old has been making an impact so far in 2018-19. Through 22 games, his average of 14.3 points per game is nearly double the 7.3 he was averaging last season. His performance will be crucial if Toronto hopes to pick up their first win against Golden State in over four years.
The Raptors last victory against the Warriors came way back on Mar. 4, 2014 when DeMar DeRozen put up 32 points to lead Toronto to a 104-98 win at the Air Canada Centre. Steph Curry scored a game-high 34 points in that one. Golden State will be without Curry’s services this time around, though.
Since that contest, the Raptors have lost eight straight meetings with the Warriors. Within that time Golden State has won three NBA championships and big changes have occurred north of the border. Of the roster that knocked off the Warriors back in 2014, only Kyle Lowry and Jonas Valanciunas remain in Toronto.
“I feel very confident in this team,” said Green. “It’s a group that’s really similar in the style of play… I like the lineup changes that we can throw at them and they can throw at us.”
Raptors’ clash with Warriors will test team’s resolve under spotlight – Sportsnet.ca
So, with everyone watching, what are the Raptors going to do?
It’s a remarkable turnaround. The last time the Raptors had the NBA’s attention, they were a favoured No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and were folded up in four games by James and his very flawed Cleveland Cavaliers. After a five-year build that had rescued Toronto from the league’s fringes, the bright lights proved too much. The team Raptors president Masai Ujiri had worked so hard to make relevant and important and something serious was rendered a punchline – LeBronto — in the space of four disheartening games.
The Raptors rise has largely over-lapped with the Warriors emergence as an NBA team for the ages, but where the Warriors have racked up three titles and records for sheer dominance, all the Raptors have to show for it were brooding bouts of existential NBA dread: ‘If a team isn’t truly championship worthy, does it even exist? Is existence worthwhile without championship aspirations?’
For Ujiri the answer was no, no it’s not.
Which is how we got here. The stage fright against Cleveland prompted Ujiri to fire former head coach Dwane Casey, hire his assistant Nick Nurse and then pull the trigger on the biggest trade the Raptors will ever make: sending DeMar DeRozan (and Jakob Poeltl) to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green.
The returns have been instant. Off the floor the Raptors were the talk of the off-season; possibly the biggest NBA story outside James signing with the Lakers. On the floor, the new-look Raptors have exceeded most reasonable expectations and believe they’ve yet to fully hit their stride.
“It’s a lot of things, you know what I mean? I just don’t want to hit on all of them right now,” Leonard said at the Raptors practice facility on Wednesday. “But I just feel like we can still get better. I feel we are moving as a team and everything, but I just feel like we still have room for improvement … it’s not even necessarily the record. It’s about how we’re playing, and wanting to play consistently, and with us having leads of 15 points and teams coming back, and us being down 15. Just things like that, just be able to play consistently. The record doesn’t show that but once you’re on a team, you can get a feel.”
Raptors better equipped to match up with Warriors – TSN.ca
Can the Raptors finally get over the hump?
The two teams will face each other a couple times over the next two weeks, with the first meeting coming at Scotiabank Arena on Thursday (live on TSN4 at 8 p.m.), and there’s more buzz surrounding the game than you’ll typically see in late-November.
At 18-4, the Raptors enter Thursday’s contest with the best record in the NBA. Despite battling injuries and some early-season turmoil, the Warriors are still the gold standard in basketball. The game will be televised nationally in the U.S. on TNT and, as if it needed any more hyping up, people are talking about it as a potential Finals matchup – including one of the featured players.
“Right now [the Raptors] are the best [team in the East] and I expect them to be there probably throughout the whole season,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson told reporters following the team’s comeback win over Orlando on Monday. “They’ve got tremendous length. They’ve got so many two-way players. Obviously Kawhi [Leonard] is back and playing at a MVP level. Kyle Lowry is a great leader as well as a bulldog out there. So it’s going to be a great test for us. Who knows, it might be a preview of June. They’ve got something really special up there in Canada right now.”
As the hunters, you can understand why the Raptors would take a different approach in the lead-up to this week’s showdown. They’ve been careful not to fuel the fire, but they’re not throwing water on it either. They’re embracing the hype, even if they’re not quite willing to call their shot and endorse Thompson’s assertion that they’re the favourites to come out of the East.
“That’s nice of him to say that,” Raptors guard Fred VanVleet said following his team’s optional practice Wednesday afternoon. “Obviously, much respect to the group they’ve got there and Klay is probably one of the deadliest guys in the league, so it’s funny when guys who are that cold-blooded on the court make nice comments. But who knows? We have a lot of work to do. They are established as champions and it’s our job to knock them down, but we have a lot of work to do between now until then.”
“We’re going out there to measure ourselves. Obviously it’s one of the better teams in the NBA. We feel like we are a top team. They have obviously been a top team for the last however many years. We’ll see how the game goes.”
Their humility is not without cause, but their confidence isn’t unfounded either. Record and early season success aside, the Raptors have never been better equipped to match up with, and maybe even beat, Golden State.
“I mean, it’s still early, like I said it’s just another game to build off of and get better, go out and challenge those guys, to score, also to defend, same thing we do every night. It’s a long road,” said Raptors superstar Kawhi Leonard after an optional practice on Wednesday.
Thompson also said Toronto, currently leading the NBA at 18-4, is doing “special” things, which could lead to a meeting down the line with a lot more at stake.“I think Klay is being very gracious, and we thank him for that,” said head coach Nick Nurse, a though echoed by Fred VanVleet.
“Obviously much respect to the group they’ve got there, and Klay is probably one of the deadliest guys in the league, so it’s funny when guys who are that cold blooded on the court make nice comments,” VanVleet said.“But who knows. We have a lot of work to do. They are established as champions and it’s our job to knock them down, but we have a lot of work to do between now until then. We’re going out there (on Thursday) to measure ourselves,” he said.
“Obviously it’s one of the better teams in the NBA. We feel like we are a top team. They have obviously been a top team for the last however many years. And we’ll see how the game goes. But as far as looking ahead we have a lot of work to do.”
Amongst the gaudy numbers Golden State brings to town: An eight-game winning streak against Toronto, which includes some zany comebacks; A .798 combined regular season and playoff record over the past four seasons, the best four-year run in league history.
Even with the NBA’s greatest, most successful show in town, Toronto’s focus remains where it should be, on looking inward.“I don’t really give a darn who we’re playing, or what our record is or what their record is I want us to go out and keep getting better,” Nurse said.
“Fight through some adversity, keep looking for some more connections, looking for some more options, more rotations, growing. I think there’s still tons of growth for this team to perform and whether we win or lose tomorrow night we’re going to grow a little bit.”
Armstrong previews the Raps ‘barometer test’ game against the Warriors – Video – TSN
OverDrive hosts Bryan Hayes, Jeff O’Neill and Jamie McLennan are joined by TSN Basketball analyst Jack Armstrong to get his take on what to expect from the Raptors-Warriors game tomorrow night and the hype that’s picking up around how the Raps have been performing.
Raptors fans dreaming of NBA finals preview in Thursday game vs. Warriors | The Star [subscription]
A preview of June? For a Toronto-based franchise that’s never played beyond May, and whose previous dreams of the NBA finals were of the pipe variety thanks to the Eastern residency of a nemesis named LeBron, this is heady stuff. With LeBron in La-La Land, suddenly backers of the Raptors don’t appear to be out in left field.
Which is not to say the Raptors are buying the incoming praise. Nick Nurse, the Raptors rookie coach, passed it off as gamesmanship.
“I think Klay is being very gracious, and we thank him for that,” Nurse said. “He’s going out of his way to not give us any ammunition.”
Ditto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet.
“It’s funny when guys who are that cold-blooded on the court make nice comments,” VanVleet said. “They are established as champions and it’s our job to knock them down. But we have a lot of work to do between now (and) then.”
And if you were expecting Kawhi Leonard to be the hype man for Thursday’s matchup given his history as a thorn in the Warriors’ side — um, no. The new-in-town Raptors star is easily the biggest reason for the shift in Stateside perception of Canada’s team. But just because he’s the key reason for the hype doesn’t mean he’s verbally fuelling it.
“It’s just a regular-season game,” Leonard said. “Just another chance for us to get better and build on what we’re doing. I pretty much look forward to playing any game that I play.”
Good to hear the Raptors are still possessed of their underdog spirit. Staying humble is key. But with all due respect to Leonard’s outlook, Thursday’s game is more than another game. It’s a moment to dream. Not about Leonard’s long-term future as an impending free agent; that’ll be a matter for July. This is a moment to dream about why, if you care about this team, you ought to forego making summer vacation plans that commence before June 16. That, according to the NBA, is the last possible date for an NBA finals Game 7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8oeDYzaAY0
Raptors get ready for the showdown of the season so far – The Globe and Mail
“Obviously much respect to the group they’ve got there, and Klay is probably one of the deadliest guys in the league, so it’s funny when guys who are that cold blooded on the court make nice comments,” VanVleet said. “They are established as champions, and it’s our job to knock them down. But we have a lot of work to do between now until then.”
The Warriors have beat the Raptors in eight straight meetings dating back to 2014, including four in Toronto and 18 of the past 23. Five of the most recent six losses to Golden State, though, were decided by two possessions.
Broadcasters from TNT will naturally be courtside in Toronto, showing the big game between the two clubs with the highest win totals in the league.
The Warriors, who have appeared invincible in recent seasons, look human right now. They’ve been missing two-time MVP Stephen Curry and all-star Draymond Green to injuries. There has been in-fighting between Green and Kevin Durant. They’ve lost their past four road games, something they had not done since Feb. 26, 2013.
Despite all that, Golden State still finds itself sitting in second place atop the Western Conference, behind only the 13-6 L.A. Clippers. The Raptors won’t be expecting a vulnerable opponent.
“People are trying to do what they do, but nobody does it like them,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said, elaborating on Golden State’s ability to hit a flurry of deep three-pointers to bury opponents in a hole most can’t overcome.
“That spirit it takes away from you, the discouragement of playing so hard and well, and you turn around and they throw in another 30-footer. You can see every team shaking their head like they just got punched off the ropes and they’re trying to stay in the fight,” Nurse said. “Hopefully, mentally, we’ll be strong enough to deal with that because it’s coming. You’re just going to have to take that little run of three or four threes that they make, and keep on playing.”
Toronto Raptors coach instructed Kyle Lowry to work on range | CTV News Toronto
The all-star guard had a team-high five three-pointers in Toronto’s victory in Memphis, a long-distance barrage that didn’t surprise coach Nick Nurse.
“So that’s one of the things I said to (Lowry) for the summer,” Nurse said. “I said ‘Work on your range man, because I want you to come down and start pulling deeper ones because it’s not going to be so: ‘What a horrible shot! Undisciplined basketball!’ You know? Best team in the world, that’s the way they’re playing.”
That would be the Golden State Warriors, who visit Toronto on Thursday in a much-anticipated matchup at Scotiabank Arena. The Warriors have revolutionized the NBA game, boasting shooting threats at every position. Thanks to Steph Curry & Co., chucking up long-distance shots is no longer frowned upon, Nurse said.
“The ‘Oh you can’t shoot those!’ ‘Oh, you can’t shoot 30 threes a game.’ ‘Oh you can’t shoot 40 threes a game. ‘Oh, you can’t shoot from 30 feet.’ Those things are being broken open, and (Lowry’s) got the ability to do it,” Nurse said.
The Warriors are working out in the Raptors old gym at Scotiabank Arena (with the Leafs game about to start). Draymond Green, who will be a spectator for practice (out with a toe injury), just bought popcorn from the concession. pic.twitter.com/i6Fb90hy9q
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) November 29, 2018
Kawhi Leonard New Balance: All-Star Trolled by Internet After Signing Endorsement Deal – Newsweek
The forward has been in a stalemate during negotiations with his current endorser, Jordan Brand, over a long-term extension.
“It’s not official,” Leonard said. “Me and New Balance haven’t announced anything.”
Either way, NBA fans wasted little time making jokes about the stoic franchise player and the re-emerging shoe brand that is notoriously un-flashy.
Rob Perez, host of BUCKETS on the Action Network, shared the following tweet with a caption claiming that New Balance asked Leonard for a custom design, to which he responded with what seems to be the Mens 624’s in their basic color.
NBA on TNT’s official Twitter account joked that the “Kawhi Leonard starter pack” included a pair of New Balance shoes, a t-shirt that said “fun guy” in reference to his media day comments claiming such about his personality, a photo of a 1997 Chevy Tahoe — which Leonard claims he still drives despite being an NBA start — and a robot, jabbing at his robotic-like demeanor.
Here are several other tweets trolling the All-Star forward:
According to ESPN, incumbent brands usually have up to 10 business days to exercise their “match rights clause” if an endorsee has agreed to a shoe deal with a different company. However, Jordan Brand has reportedly considered allowing Leonard to walk, which means a deal with New Balance could become official before next week.
Terms of the reported agreement have yet to be disclosed, although industry expectations are that Leonard was offered more than $5 million per year. Jordan Brand had previously offered a four-year extension worth up to $22 million last spring.
Kawhi Leonard of Toronto Raptors, New Balance agree to shoe deal – ESPN
It has not yet been confirmed whether Leonard will receive his own signature model or simply become the face of New Balance’s new basketball sneaker. According to industry sources, Leonard and his team have been vetting potential creative agencies to launch and manage his social media accounts.
The notoriously quiet former Finals MVP last tweeted in 2015, and does not have an Instagram account. For many brands in recent seasons, online presence and pre-arena entry fashion have taken on enormous importance.
As part of its re-launch into the basketball footwear industry, New Balance has been closely following sneaker free agents over the past year and looking to sign a headline endorser for 2019. The brand pitched Joel Embiid, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Gordon Hayward earlier this fall, though each player eventually signed elsewhere.
According to industry sources, New Balance not only presented “very competitive” cash offers but also wowed players with tours of their Boston-based headquarters, personalized digital display boards, iPad mixes of the players’ journeys, and a strong marketing plan.
For some players, there were reservations about the brand’s limited footwear range for the 2018-19 season, as the company is still working to design and build new silhouettes. The brand was known in the NBA throughout the late 1980s with the launch of its James Worthy signature shoe, and last released performance basketball models during the late 2000s.
With Leonard now on board, New Balance is expected to outfit the Raptors star with the debut of its new basketball model, though an exact timeline has yet to be confirmed.
Kawhi Leonard joins New Balance – Yahoo
Toronto Raptors star Kawhi Leonard has agreed to a multiyear endorsement deal with New Balance, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Leonard, 27, will serve as the face of New Balance basketball, with the company looking to re-establish itself in the basketball market.
The two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year turned down an extension with Jordan Brand earlier this year, allowing him to become a sneaker free agent.
Did I miss something? Send me any Raptors-related article/video to rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com.
