Raptors bench has people talking; Valanciunas is Mr. Consistency; Doc and CP3 say Raptors tough to stop

Dwane Casey thought it was going to be a rough night with about two minutes remaining in the opening quarter against the Clippers on Sunday.
His team was getting clobbered – mostly due to the brilliance of Chris Paul, who was creating dunks and layups and open three-pointers when not scoring himself – and Toronto was down 13 points, showing little interest in playing defence.
Those who saw the game know the rest – Cory Joseph and Bismack Biyombo did what earlier substitutions Terrence Ross and Patrick Patterson had not to that point (but would later do as well) – turn the game around. Once Toronto’s reserves (with a heavy dosage of Kyle Lowry at times) got matched up against the Los Angeles reserves, it was no contest.
Biyombo set the tone and others followed.
“The second unit … came in and changed the game, started getting into bodies, getting into players, being physical and I thought that changed the mentality,” Dwane Casey said after the game.
All of a sudden, the Clippers couldn’t find openings with their pick-and-roll and Blake Griffin, who tends to play well against the Raptors, was badly missed.
PEOPLE TALKING
The play of the bench appears to have caught the eye of American NBA observers. Twitter was filled Sunday night with talk of how good Toronto’s reserves are and how beneficial they have been this season. Joseph, aside from a few lulls, has been the catalyst of that, along with Biyombo, as they have probably been the two most consistent reserves this season. Meanwhile, Patrick Patterson and Terrence Ross appear to have put earlier troubles behind them.
Toronto’s reserves are now +88 for the season, well behind San Antonio’s absurd +278, but ahead of everyone else (Golden State is +77, Atlanta +75).
MR CONSISTENT
Here’s a weird one: Jonas Valanciunas November averages: 27.3 minutes per game, .551 shooting on 4.9/8.9 attempts.
Jonas Valanciunas January averages: 27.3 minutes per game, .551 shooting on 4.9/8.9 attempts.
That’s some serious consistency. Where Valanciunas has improved is in the passing department (1.5 assists per game this month vs. just 0.3 in November) and blocking shots (1.9 vs. 0.8). He’s also grabbing an extra board and generating more steals.
Valanciunas ranks No. 25 in player efficiency rating and some of his closest neighbours include Karl-Anthony Towns, DeMar DeRozan, Isaiah Thomas, Brook Lopez and Nikola Vucevic. Not bad.
Kyle Lowry sits at No. 15, Sunday’s adversary Chris Paul is No. 6.
NO ANSWERS
Doc Rivers said before the game that Toronto had way too many drives to the middle of the floor against the Clippers in the earlier meeting in Los Angeles.
“Yeah, they killed us last game,” Rivers had said.
“He didn’t shoot the ball against us, but I think he was 13-for-14 at the foul line, so that’s even more destructive. You get a bucket and you get a foul on someone. We just have to do a better job. I think they had 44 middle drives against us last time we played. You’re going to lose if you have that many.”
While the Clippers mostly cleaned things up in that area on Sunday (DeRozan only shot four free throws, Lowry five and the Raptors just 26 as a team), the Raptors still outscored the Clippers 38-34 in the paint, which probably shouldn’t happen against a team that has DeAndre Jordan.
“I think they’ve just got a lot of guards that just break us down off the dribble,” Paul said. “But we’ve got to figure it out because hopefully we meet them (in the playoffs) at some point. They are a  tough team.”
Raptors fans hope they meet in the playoffs as well, but it says here there’s a better shot the Raptors get that far (slim as it is) than the Clippers do with San Antonio and Golden State looming in the West.