Gregarious group of Raptors enjoyed big win

WASHINGTON — I’m sure it has been, but can’t recall the Raptors locker room ever being as happy a place as it was following Friday’s impressive win over Washington. Kyle Lowry, in particular, after besting good friend and rival John Wall, was amped up. He was all smiles during his interview session and cracked jokes at a few of his teammates. He even answered a few more questions from a reporter after cutting off the initial scrum. Before that, he had waited for DeMar DeRozan to finish a post-game interview and while they walked to the back, just after Masai Ujiri joined the duo, Lowry leapt onto DeRozan’s back and was piggbybacked part of the rest of the way. Evidence
Here and here
DeRozan was later ripping on Lowry: “He’s got a small man complex. He tends to do that, he thinks he’s 6-5 and in reality, he’s 5-9, so, good for Kyle.”
The Raptors had 13 blocks. “We trying to be like Bismack Biyombo, that’s all I can say. We see him block shots and we try to follow the lead.” As for Jonas Valanciunas blocking four shots of his own, DeRozan had another joke ready: “Yeah. As long as JV don’t start doing this (wags finger like Dikembe Mutombo), it will be alright.”
Even Terrence Ross, who was walking very slowly and bellowing in pain, was a lot more upbeat than someone who had just suffered a back spasm usually would be.
- Without Bradley Beal, Washington isn’t an offensive juggernaut, but the John Wall-Marcin Gortat that usually pulverized the Raptors wasn’t overly effective. Wall had shot just 14-for-48 over the first two meetings, and went 8-for-20 in this one, but had just four assists. Like when Jimmy Butler went off after getting smacked in the face, Nene’s aggressiveness (he nailed Parrick Patterson hard with an elbow and then a swipe) seemed to spark the Raptors, and Biyombo in particular.
- Dwane Casey had asked for a return to the team’s defensive identity and he got it.
“That’s how we’ve got to play every night,” DeRozan said. “We lost two games to Chicago and Cleveland, top two teams in the conference and to be up there, we’ve got to defend, we’ve got to put defence in the game every single night.
“I think this past summer, that’s what management really wanted to bring in, was a defensive-minded team. And we have that.”
QUOTABLE: “Even Kyle got a block tonight, he was so high up above there,” Bismack Biyombo.
TOUGH NIGHT
Patrick Patterson had a truly awful night. No points or rebounds, a terrible mistake late that nearly cost his team, but in the end it was OK. He had finally looked back on track offensively recently, hitting 6-of-10 on three-pointers, but wasn’t ready to pronounce himself all the way back. Turns out that was smart.
“Will it carry over? I’m hoping so. I’ve had a good game, I don’t know how many games ago and I went right back to playing horrible, so, only time will tell,” Patterson had said.