Dwane Casey will take a sputtering offence but locked in defence rather than the other way around any day of the week. The Raptors had a couple of games recently where the offence was way off, but the defence great, than the defence collapsed but the offence kept the team in games.
Against Brooklyn on Wednesday, the attack was misfiring all evening, but the defensive effort was there.
Not surprising, considering Casey had been fuming at his players for their matador-like recent play and because those players had also been talking for two days about how a change was coming in their mindset after they were embarrassed by Jimmy Butler and then the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“I think our whole thing is defence, so I think the losses kind of magnified it – that we still have to play our defence the way we know how to play defence,” said Kyle Lowry.
“But, you know, it’s one game, so we just need to continue to grow and get better.”
COACHES IMPRESSED
Kyle Lowry is in a tight race to get voted as a starter at the all-star game again and will surely be a coaches’ selection if he isn’t, but DeMar DeRozan has been just as deserving this season.
When we’re on the road, we usually hear opposing coaches saying nice things about Toronto’s backcourt. They have to gameplan against Lowry and DeRozan and they know it is difficult.
Here’s Brooklyn’s Lionel Hollins:
“Before the game I talked to you about (Toronto’s) two perimeter people, and what it came down to was that their quickness dominated,” Hollins said. “We couldn’t move the ball from side to side. They took away a lot of our ball movement. We had spurts where we were able to do it, but we weren’t able to do it consistently … Tthey just kept grinding us out. That’s what they do. They were methodical offensively.”
Hollins was mostly talking about the defending, which is different. Usually coaches talk about how the aggressive, downhill play of Lowry and DeRozan is incredibly difficult to guard.
Hollins said the good defence extended beyond Toronto’s backcourt.
“It was just overall domination,” Hollins said.
BIG GAME FROM BIG V
That was easily the best game Jonas Valanciunas has played since returning from injury and one of his best of the season. He seems to love matching up with true centres like Brook Lopez. His comfort level goes up, he just bangs away and doesn’t have to worry about covering the three-point line or darting around the floor like he does against mobile big men. And his game seems to thrive.
The Raptors benefitted, with nobody able to hit a shot, Valanciunas kept the offence afloat early.
“I think J.V. did a good job of being in the right spots tonight,” Lowry said.
“He was much more active in going against a true big like Brook. He just got up to the challenge, I think, and those two battled tonight and it was a good true big man battle tonight.”
JJ STEPS UP – AGAINST JJ
James Johnson, starting for DeMarre Carroll, who will be out for some time after undergoing surgery earlier in the day, had been particularly upset about the blowout loss against the Cavs earlier this week.
“Played like poop against Cleveland, got a bad taste in my mouth,” Johnson had said in the morning.
He was much better on Wednesday, with eight points, five rebounds and strong defence on noted Raptor-killer Joe Johnson, who only scored five points in 32 minutes.
Would Johnson have been able to turn the tide in the playoff series if he were a Raptor a couple of years ago? Probably not, but he certainly would have helped.
Now, he’s going to be called upon often over the next two months or so whenever what Dwane Casey calls a “power three” is on the other side.
STRANGE NIGHT
We might see an offensive performance like Wednesday’s by Lowry once a season. If that. As much as nearly any other player in the league, Lowry’s points come from three-pointers and layups almost exclusively. It’s not by accident, those are the shots that have the most value and Lowry, as cerebral as they come, is well aware of that. But against Brooklyn, he missed all seven of his three-point shots and had a couple of mid-range makes. He scored 17 points, but not the way he usually does it. He did everything else though, posting five steals (which is mostly what Hollins was talking about), eight rebounds and six assists. Somehow he was only a 0 in +/- on the night, which is another reason why I don’t love that stat for basketball. His impact looked far greater than that.
“A weird night, but as long as we’re winning games, that’s all that matters,” Lowry said when asked about it.
AROUND THE RIM
The bench wasn’t on fire offensively, but Cory Joseph still had one of his best games in weeks and was in total control. Patrick Patterson continues to hit three-pointers, which continues to be encouraging for the Raptors … Toronto is 4-1 against the Atlantic division … Patterson is 10-for-20 from three over the past four games … Toronto is now halfway to 22 road wins, the team’s total each of the past two seasons.
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Raptors find defensive footing – but it was just the lowly Nets; Valanciunas carries the load; Patterson heating up; JJ vs. JJ and Lowry has a weird night
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