10 takeaways from the Raptors’ 120-117 victory over the Spurs.
One – Cruel: It really had to happen like that for DeMar DeRozan in his highly-anticipated homecoming. He was enjoying a great game in terms of his efficiency and his passing, the Spurs were up one with the shot clock turned off, and the ball was rightfully in DeRozan’s hands to close it out, but he came up short during an important moment. Not only that, but he was mugged at halfcourt by his best friend, and the man he was traded for happened to scoop up the loose ball and score the game-winning basket. DeRozan lost that game in the toughest way imaginable.
Two – Clever: Lowry won this game with his smarts, and not just in terms of his decision to blitz DeRozan with the double-team. Lowry consistently got stops when DeRozan went to his pet play of backing down the point guard after hunting out the switch (DeRozan admitted as much after the game when he said Lowry’s “fat ass” knew how to guard him) because Lowry could anticipate every move DeRozan was going to make. Lowry got into DeRozan’s body, sat on the baseline spin, took away the drive, and always had a hand up to force DeRozan into those dreaded midrange jumpers that he loves so much. DeRozan roasted just about every other defender the Raptors tried on him – he torched Danny Green and even out-muscled Leonard for an and-one – but for some reason he made a point of isolating against Lowry in the fourth, and that just didn’t work.
Three – Concerning: This was a strange game for Leonard, who struggled for the first three quarters before coming alive late. Leonard was rushing his offense against the Spurs’ double teams, he wasn’t explosive whatsoever, his jumpers were all flat and drew short iron, and he allowed Patty Mills (and his leadership, oh that leadership) to successfully execute the the J.J. Barea vs. LeBron James in the 2011 Finals tactic. Leonard will obviously bounce back, but it’s somewhat concerning that he still isn’t explosive despite having his load meticulously managed (there’s got to be a better term for this). Maybe he needs an uninterrupted string of games to find his rhythm again, because Leonard is shooting just 36 percent from the field and 19 percent from deep over his last six contests.
Four – Tactics: LaMarcus Aldridge typically dominates Serge Ibaka, but Nick Nurse made a last-second decision to double Aldridge, and it worked brilliantly. San Antonio got a few more open threes out of it, but Aldridge finished with only six points on eight shots, and was largely limited to being an offensive rebounder. I still believe that Nurse should get better results out of the defensive talent at his disposal, but credit him for being innovative and adaptive.
Five – Center: The campaign to start Marc Gasol ahead of Ibaka refuses to die down, even though Ibaka has thoroughly outplayed Gasol since his arrival. Personally, I am also curious as to how Gasol’s passing will benefit shooters like Lowry, Leonard, and Green, but you can’t knock Nurse for letting Gasol earn his spot. Ibaka has done the heavy-lifting for the Raptors all season, and quite honestly, Gasol has been up-and-down thus far. His quiet game tonight mostly came down to foul trouble, but Gasol also looked sluggish in the paint and made some very uncharacteristic mistakes with his defensive positioning.
Six – Patience: If the plan is to have Gasol spend significant time as the focal point for the bench, then everyone else needs to fall in line. OG Anunoby has been incredible as of late in his 3-and-D role, and he’s happy to subsist off catch-and-shoot threes, but Norman Powell has returned to his bad habit of forcing bad shots. Powell needs to trust that he will get the ball back from to an unselfish passer like Gasol if Powell makes a cut. His only basket of the night was off a slick high-low feed from Gasol – otherwise it was all contested layups in traffic.
Seven – Sauce: Pascal Siakam needs to get more than 10 shots on a night where Ibaka, Gasol, and Leonard were struggling. Siakam is a walking bucket in the post, and he’s also a heady passer who can create for others when he draws help on his drives. He’s also growing increasingly confident on his jumper, as he took a midrange jumper after crossing up his man, and he even did the Steph Curry turnaround while his corner three was still in the air to talk smack to the Spurs bench. Siakam’s breakout season just keeps getting better, as he’s shooting 47 percent from deep over his last 10 games.
Eight – Spark: Jeremy Lin scored nine points in the fourth to keep the game close, which is exactly why he’s here. Lin is a streaky scorer who can get his own shot off the dribble (something that has eluded Fred VanVleet all season) while also managing to keep his teammates involved. Think of him as the Asian Lou Williams with much, much less sauce.
Nine – Officiating: There’s always some bullshit when Marc Davis is calling the game. Always. He might be worse than Tony Brothers, which is saying a lot. Nurse got himself ejected over a minor complaint, which left assistant Adrian Griffin and his “I’ve just seen a ghost” expression to finish out the game.
Ten – Closure: The worst part of the Leonard trade was that DeRozan felt so betrayed. The second worst part was that DeRozan’s proud Raptors career finished on such an disgraceful note after he was ejected for clobbering Jordan Clarkson in Game 4 of last year’s sweep. Raptors fans never got to give DeRozan a proper goodbye, until he received that thunderous ovation tonight. Hopefully, both the fans and DeRozan himself got some closure out of his emotional return, because both sides need to move on and realize the opportunities before them. DeRozan is in a good spot with the Spurs, and the Raptors have the talent to reach the Finals. The rest is water under the bridge.
