Bricks, lots of bricks.
10 things: Raptors lose to Heat behind historically poor shooting performance
Three — Janky: The Heat are fond of playing zone, especially after it worked to great effect against the Sixers, but tonight’s strategy was almost reminiscent of a college game. Every miss by the Raptors only emboldened the Heat to continue packing the paint with their 2-3 coverage. Toronto found their way to the rim on a handful of occasions, but the Heat were mostly diligent in keeping the Raptors on the perimeter. Miami stayed in their zone coverage for at least three quarters of the game.
Four — Playmaking: Outside of hitting open threes, the only solution for the zone is to get the ball into the middle of the paint. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was good in that role for the first half, while Serge Ibaka and OG Anunoby picked up the slack in the second half for the starting lineup. On the rare occasions where they successfully fed the post, the Raptors were able to find space in the paint to either finish strong on layups, or to kick out for an open shooter.
Five — Shorthanded: However, their inability to solve the zone really speaks to the Raptors’ lack of playmaking in their current state. Marc Gasol and Pascal Siakam are excellent passers in the middle of the floor, but Nurse had to make do with lesser options. One of the issues with playing through forwards in the middle was that it was difficult to even get the pass inside, as Jimmy Butler and Derrick Jones Jr.’s length at the point of attack created deflections and costly leak-outs. On top of that, the Raptors were also without two of their best catch-and-shoot options in Norman Powell and Matt Thomas. Against a fully-healthy team, it would not be wise to zone against the Raptors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4t6nnq0oAw
Raptors shooting 1 of 20 on above the break 3s pic.twitter.com/MbLxkCEn2K
— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) January 3, 2020
Brick after brick, Raptors zone out in Miami – The Athletic
After the handshake, Nurse winced as if the ring(s) had hurt his own hand.
“Yours is bigger. I’ve seen it,” the broadcaster shot back, referring to the Raptors’ preposterously large championship rings honouring last year’s title.
When the Raptors play the Heat now, it turns into a chapter of the mutual admiration society, a particularly insufferable branch if you find yourself indifferent to the welfare of either franchise. This would have been unthinkable in the Heat’s LeBron James era, but since he left, the Heat have started to extol the virtues of “Heat culture,” which might even be a thing when one player is not giving another player a marijuana-laced edible that induced a seizure just before a team flight — allegedly! The Raptors don’t mind talking about the strength of their organization, either.
Seriously, the Heat have done well with reclamation projects and lowly touted players, as have the Raptors. They are both defence-first teams that can share the ball in a very pleasing way when things are going well. Miami coach Erik Spoelstra went so far as to say he saw some of the Raptors in his team, and vice versa, and it would be easy to appreciate how the Raptors play as a fan if you were not about to play them, as his team was. And both teams, compared to the rest of the league, run a ton of zone defence.
The Raptors have used different types of zones throughout the season to flummox teams or just put themselves in decent position, most recently doing so to keep beanpole Chris Boucher out of foul trouble against burlier big men. The Heat are one of the few teams that use more zone than the Raptors, and one of the few teams that have more success when doing so. That continued in the Heat’s 84-76 win on Thursday night, a game in which the Raptors shot 6-for-42 from deep. As my colleague Blake Murphy noted, the 14.3 percent accuracy is the third-worst for a team that shot at least 40 3-pointers in a game, not that teams have been doing that for very long.
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➡️ https://t.co/KkbGhfwxpd pic.twitter.com/YAc6NeobNh— #NBAAllStar (@NBAAllStar) January 2, 2020
Drake has Kawhi Leonard Raptors jersey hanging in his crib | Toronto Sun
It’s clear that Toronto’s own Drake will continue to support the Raptors in 2020.
In an Instagram post on Wednesday, the God’s Plan hitmaker is dressed in a fancy suit jacket as he poses for various photos in what’s believed to be his home.
“To another year of taking my work home with me,” Drake captioned the photos, which includes one with Leonard’s jersey from his time as a Raptor hanging on the wall.
While Leonard took his ball and went home to Los Angeles after choosing to sign with the Clippers alongside Paul George, Drake still holds the “Fun Guy” near and dear to his heart by proudly displaying the championship jersey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8wPOGVOH_M
How the Heat and Raptors uncover hidden talent
It seemed that with every 3-pointer, steal or block Terence Davis made during his first Vegas Summer League game in July, his agent got a text message from another interested team.
Davis went undrafted in June, a common plight for summer league players. But not many players create a battle for their services after one game.
He has proved a boon to the injury-plagued Raptors as a 3-and-D player, hitting 41 percent from 3-point range and ranking among the league’s best defenders at shooting guard, according to ESPN’s real plus-minus.
Thursday, the Raptors visit the Miami Heat in a potential playoff preview featuring the Eastern Conference’s two most surprising teams. While many teams hunt the summer leagues and G League for prospects, the Raptors and Heat are making a cottage industry of finding overlooked talent. Undrafted players underscore the surprising nature of each team’s success.
At halftime the contract offers began rolling in. Within hours after the game, during which he scored 22 points with five 3-pointers, he had a guaranteed contract with the Toronto Raptors, who had been there to watch him.
“I had to make sure nobody was looking over my shoulder reading my texts,” agent Adam Pensack said. “Several of the teams I was texting with were sitting near me and I didn’t want them to see the conversations I was having about TD. It was a very unique situation.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B6zM0elFFLs/
Miami Heat clamp down on defence to top Toronto Raptors – TSN.ca
Derrick Jones Jr. scored 10 points and Jimmy Butler finished with eight points, 12 rebounds and seven assists for Miami.
“It was all about defence,” Dragic said. “We feel like we play a great team defence, we help each other. Most of the time we were in zone. A great team win, let’s go to the next one.”
Serge Ibaka had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto. Kyle Lowry scored 15 points, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 13 and OG Anunoby had 12 points and 12 rebounds. The Raptors shot only 31.5% and were 6 for 42 from 3-point range.
“If we make five more 3s we win the game,” Lowry said. “Still, give them credit, a great game plan and a great job by them, but it’s something we’ll look at and figure out for next time. The next team who plays zone I’m sure we’re not going to shoot that bad.”
There was a pregame tribute and moment of silence for former NBA Commissioner David Stern, who died Wednesday at the age of 77. Both the Raptors and the Heat were born under Stern’s leadership of the league.
“There probably is some serendipity to this game, to have the expansion of the league … it’s a byproduct of his leadership and vision,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Raptors endure worst offensive night of season to lose slugfest against Heat | CBC Sports
Serge Ibaka had 19 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto. Kyle Lowry scored 15 points, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson added 13 and OG Anunoby had 12 points and 12 rebounds. The Raptors shot only 31.5 per cent and were 6 for 42 from 3-point range.
“If we make five more 3s we win the game,” Lowry said. “Still, give them credit, a great game plan and a great job by them, but it’s something we’ll look at and figure out for next time. The next team who plays zone I’m sure we’re not going to shoot that bad.”
There was a pregame tribute and moment of silence for former NBA Commissioner David Stern, who died Wednesday at the age of 77. Both the Raptors and the Heat were born under Stern’s leadership of the league.
“There probably is some serendipity to this game, to have the expansion of the league… it’s a byproduct of his leadership and vision,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Miami set a season-best for points allowed by a huge margin; the previous Heat low in that department this season was 94 against New Orleans on Nov. 16. Toronto’s previous season low for points was 88, in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 11.
Anunoby was fouled on a 3-point try with 1:21 left in the third, making all three free throws to tie the game at 60. It was Toronto’s second time cashing in on such a foul in the game, after Lowry went 3 for 3 in that situation late in the first quarter.
But the Heat went on a 17-5 run in the fourth and held Toronto to 16 points in the final 12 minutes.
“They didn’t make much more than us, but they made just enough to get the win so give those guys credit,” said Raptors guard Fred VanVleet, who was 3 for 16 from the field and 1 for 11 from 3-point range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrQLVyHUkWQ
Short-handed Raptors' loss to Heat fails to answer lingering questions – Sportsnet.ca
As the Toronto Raptors took the floor at American Airlines Arena for the game of the decade – well, their first game of the decade – against the Miami Heat, you could forgive Nurse this: what or who was he supposed to measure?
His leading scorer and leading scorer off the bench – Pascal Siakam and Norman Powell – were in Miami but only got shots up before the game. They remain ‘a ways away’ from returning from groin and shoulder injuries, respectively. Marc Gasol (hamstring) — the linchpin — of their defence, is in the same boat.
So when Nurse is trying to decide between starting Rondae Hollis-Jefferson or Patrick McCaw (he went with McCaw) he could be excused for not wanting to put too much weight on this meeting between two of the Eastern Conference’s top teams.
“I think we all fall in the trap of ‘what is this going to mean down the line if we meet in the playoffs. Well, hopefully we’ll have our guys back and we’ll have totally different lineups and matchups and depth and all that kind of stuff,” said Nurse. “But that’s okay, it’s a long ways away. I still think we’re going to have good ball game tonight … with the lineup that we have we have to play very hard and very well and shoot the ball pretty good to make this a good game and that’s what I’m hoping happens tonight.”
It was not a good game, it turns out, if we’re measuring by aesthetics. And the ‘shoot the ball pretty good’ part?
That did not happen.
“That set basketball back years,” said Fred VanVleet in the Raptors’ locker room afterwards.
Raptors go historically stone cold in balmy Miami | Toronto Sun
Kyle Lowry laughed it off for the most part as something so ridiculous it was barely worth talking about. His response was to just flush this one.
“Yeah, honestly,” Lowry said. “We didn’t attack their rim hard enough. We had a lot of good looks, but I’ve never been part of a game where we literally shot open looks and missed shots (like that). Freddy (VanVleet) had a couple go in and out. Myself, Terence (Davis). I think OG (Anunoby) made two and he was the only one that was good from three. Good game plan, good zone by them, I guess.”
The Heat was in a zone defence for much of the night and the Raptors couldn’t break it.
As head coach Nick Nurse said, you string a few makes from three against a zone and the opposing defence will come out of it pretty quickly. But on this night, that just didn’t happen.
Even as Lowry addressed the media at one end of the room, from the other end, loud expletives directed at no one in particular could be heard as others felt the need to verbalize their frustration.
And make no mistake, this one was frustrating for just about everyone in that Raptors locker room.
“For sure,” VanVleet said. “That was a frustrating game for everybody. It happens a few times throughout the year. I don’t know to that extent. But, what are you going to do? We’ve just got to keep playing, keep shooting and try to find a way. We kept fighting until the end. They didn’t make much more than us. They made just enough to get the win. Give those guys credit.”
