There is a very clear template regarding how to play successfully in the NBA at the moment and even at their very best – remember December? – the Raptors barely followed it.
The best teams in the league spread the floor, move the ball and bodies until they can generate a layup or a lob at the rim or an open three-point shot. Golden State, Cleveland, Houston and Boston are the top four teams in the league in threes made and have four of the five best records, while San Antonio, who sport the league’s second-best record, rank first in the NBA in three-point percentage.
The Raptors peaked this season – in terms of winning percentage – at 22-8 in late December and it was not a coincidence that their best basketball was bolstered by the best shooting month of Kyle Lowry’s career. The Raptors all-star guard joined a short list of players to make at least half of their threes while attempting at least eight per game over a calendar month in December.
But even then the Raptors were never a spread-it-and-fire-type club. They got by when Lowry (and the since departed Terrence Ross) could keep defences honest from deep and DeMar DeRozan earned his way to the foul line at league-leading rates and as a group they took care of the basketball.
Heading into Sunday night’s 116-91 win over the Indiana Pacers at the Air Canada Centre – their first meeting since the Raptors eliminated Indiana from the playoffs in a seven-game series last spring – the Raptors lacking of any semblance of a threat from deep was beginning to look like too much to overcome on a consistent basis.
With Lowry and his 3.3 made threes per game – third in the NBA — out of the line-up since the all-star break the Raptors were making just 6.8 triples a game, 28th in the NBA while shooting 31.2 per cent, 26th in the league. With Lowry playing Toronto was making 9.2 threes a game (10th) while shooting 37 per cent (seventh).
Dwane Casey’s response to the swoon was, of course, to keep shooting.
“We gotta get the attempts up,” he was saying before the win, which improved his team’s record to a very respectable 8-5 since Lowry’s surgery and 41-29 overall while pulling them within three games of second-place Boston in the East and 1.5 behind No. 3 Washington.
“I think we gotta get the attempts up …. we have some capable guys. I think right now, recognizing the three-point shots and looks that we can get, I think we’re turning some of those down.”
Not that open looks are as easy to come by. Lowry’s presence was a magnet, drawing defenders to him. In his wake was space and the likes of Patrick Patterson or DeMarre Carroll could step into it.
“His agitation, his penetration, teams converging on him caused some of that,” said Casey. “So there’s a chain reaction to some of that other than him just being out there. We’re encouraging guys … It’s gotta be organic, it’s gotta be natural from a swing-swing standpoint, catch, play basketball. We can sit here and say ‘take that shot,’ but it’s gotta happen within the rhythm of the offence.
“That’s the new NBA. We can play defence, [but] at some points you still have to score. One way we were doing that at a high level early in the season was knocking down those threes.”
There were all kinds of positive elements that led to the Raptors’ virtually wire-to-wire blowout of the Pacers which could easily serve as a playoff preview depending on how the East’s seeding shakes out – the Raps are fourth and the Pacers are sixth, but it’s easy to see them meeting in a 3-6 or 4-5 matchup.
As a team their defence picked up largely where it left off against the Detroit Pistons on Friday as the Pacers were held to 42 per cent shooting and just 6-of-23 from deep while Toronto led 51-33 on the boards. P.J. Tucker continued to elevate his teammates with his hustle and his savvy. The final gasp of air went out of Indiana’s balloon when Tucker broke his man down for a late-clock layup at one end early in the fourth quarter and then hustled back to D-up Pacers star Paul George, drawing the charge and George’s fifth foul.
Rookie Jakob Poeltl continues to show why he’s surged past Lucas Nogueira in Casey’s rotation as the Austrian rookie scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 27 minutes. Jonas Valanciunas had the bulk of his 11 points and 13 rebounds in the first half as the Raptors took a 15-point lead into the break and Cory Joseph played one his most complete games as a starter with 11 points, nine assists and four rebounds in 31 minutes.
But the simplest explanation for the Raptors’ win is that they – for once – won the three-point battle, shooting 12-of-27 from deep. It was helped by some committed ball movement – 25 assists is almost a week’s work for the NBA’s least pass-happy team (Toronto is 30th in the NBA in assists and falling) – and the ball movement looked good because shots were being knocked down at the end of it.
Carroll led the way with four triples on five shots, proving he’s beginning to find his legs again, while Serge Ibaka – Toronto’s most consistent perimeter threat in Lowry’s absence – knocked down two of three.
It makes the game easier, when you’re making threes and the other team is making twos. For once the Raptors were on the right side of the equation.
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