Was it tired legs, mental fatigue? How about both. Toronto just wasn’t the same team in the second half against Miami on Sunday night after turning in a quality first half.
The shooting was dreadful, the ball didn’t move, Jonas Valanciunas turned into Hassan Whiteside’s personal punching bag (after holding his own against a man motivated by being cut by the Raptors earlier in his career, over the first two quarters).
The final game of a trip is always a tough game to get – even if you’ve been enjoying the Florida sunshine for multiple days – and without DeMarre Carroll and with little fight down the stretch, the Raptors just couldn’t match Miami.
It’s understandable that the Raptors dropped this one, that’s a lot of games in a week and a half … The trick now will be fixing at least a couple of areas of concern:
The ball needs to get moving again. Valanciunas had 11 shot attempts through 24 minutes, just one more the rest of the way. The team had five assists and nine turnovers in the second half. You will almost never win a game with those numbers.
The team also has to do a better job of guarding the three-point line. Too many good looks for the opposition so far.
Capitalizing off of mistakes and keeping that battle relatively even goes a long way as well. Miami had 19 second-chance points, Toronto, just four.
TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN?
Because I was off on bereavement leave, I didn’t write on the Terrence Ross extension, but I did weigh in on my Raptors Report podcast with Josh Lewenberg several hours before the deal got done. (Available on iTunes, shameless plug alert).
My thoughts there: “10 million is probably fair … I guess. It still seems a little high, but there’s still the potential people love and he’s shown some flashes … If I’m the Raptors, I probably let him go. You’ve got Norman Powell waiting in the wings, dirt cheap, you’ve got other guys who can step in, you’re saving up your money to make a huge splash (next summer). Do you really want to spend $10 million on Terrence Ross as a backup? Cory Joseph’s been a great backup guard, Powell is a good player for cheap, Delon Wright I think is a talented guy, you have Bruno waiting in the wings (at small forward) … ”
My point was I get the deal and it’s market value, but not sure it was a great idea for the Raptors, but that depends on how you feel about the replaceability of Ross. If he stays the same or only marginally improves, it’s a poor use of the cap (even though the cap is rocketing up). If he shows more consistency it looks a lot better and if he breaks out (which he has shown very few signs of being capable of over the years), it could be a bargain.
It’s not a backbreaker either way, but Ross needs to snap out of the tailspin he has been on since inking the deal (3-for-19 over the four games, including 0-for-7 in Florida, 1-for-12 from three, five total rebounds, two assists, only a block (although a good one closing out) and three steals after looking so good defensively in the pre-season and early on).
DRAFT STEAL
Covering the 2015 Final Four reinforced my belief that Justise Winslow was going to be an impact NBAer. What a steal Winslow was for Miami. He fell to 10, like Caron Butler before him and he’s going to be a guy that helps teams win games, just like Butler was in his younger days. Paul Pierce also slipped to No. 10, and while Winslow probably doesn’t get to that level, he could land somewhere in between. Luol Deng is a free agent next summer, and Winslow should easily fill the void.
The numbers Sunday didn’t pop out for Winslow (nine points, five rebounds), but good things happened when he was on the floor (game-best +20) and he did his part to hold the Raptors to hideous shooting numbers.
SCOLA SNIPER?
Patrick Patterson was the heavy favourite to land the starting power forward gig, in large part because of his three-point shooting ability, but he stopped shooting in the pre-season and lost the job to Luis Scola, who has always been regarded as a low-post, or mid-range scorer.
Scola had 10 career three-point makes (10-for-60) heading into this season, with five of them coming last season. However, in this new era of Stretch Fours, Scola has added a new wrinkle to his game and made the issue of his fit in the starting lineup far more interesting.
Patterson’s disappearance has been noteworthy as well.
Suddenly, Scola is nailing corner threes – he has shot 4-for-6 overall on the season, including 3-of-4 from the right corner – and perhaps he’s a better fit than we all thought.
Will be interesting to see if he starts to attempt more than one attempt a game.
And finally, a note of thanks to all who tweeted condolences or sent me e-mails during a tough time.