TORONTO — Little can represent the crushing tedium and ennui this time of year lends quite like the start of Wednesday’s game between the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors, which featured two teams not so much playing basketball as fulfilling its obligations. Possessions were botched; basic rules, such as defensive three seconds and over-and-back, were violated; it took Detroit nearly eight minutes to crack double digits.
Yes, this was a bad game from the jump — the kind of let’s-all-get-through-this-without-getting-hurt contest you’ll see between two non-rival teams at this dog-days juncture of the regular season schedule. Raptors head coach Dwane Casey called it “ugly.” Delon Wright said the energy was “weird and funky.” DeMar DeRozan went with “not a pretty win at all.”
But, aesthetics be damned, it was a win. The Raptors found a way to fight through the doldrums, vanquishing the Pistons, 96-91. And in case you, too, had trouble maintaining interest in this one, here are three things to take away from an otherwise forgettable night.
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A different look
Toronto’s offence sputtered and stalled at various points throughout the game, as the Pistons trapped Raptors ball-handlers aggressively in hopes of disrupting flow at least and creating turnovers at best.
Of course, every team blitzes and traps. But the Pistons found a unique way to do it, and the Raptors looked somewhat dismayed by it, coughing up 21 turnovers. After the game, Casey made it sound like a previously hidden flaw in his team’s offence had been exposed.
“They were really getting into us. Getting after us. Doing something a little bit different defensively that kind of threw our rhythm off a little bit with traps,” he said. “It’s different. It’s just different. I don’t want to get technical. They were jumping out with one guy, and hanging another guy. And then coming back with timing. They were taking the roll guy out and you had to find the weak side. I’ll show you the film someday.”
So, even in the ugliest of games, there’s a lesson to be found. And although it’s unlikely Casey will be leading any film sessions with reporters, you can be sure that he’ll be leading one with him team to address the double-team issue and correct it.
DeRozan was the primary target of those double-teams, and coughed the ball up five times. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, he had only seven over the rest of the game, as the Pistons threw everything they had at the Raptors star.
“They were just extremely physical,” DeRozan said. “We’ve got to be able to read that ahead of time — not feel the physicality then try to make an adjustment. We’ve got to see it before time and make our decisions quicker.”
But it wasn’t just DeRozan. Kyle Lowry, Jonas Valanciunas and Wright faced increased pressure as well, and combined for nine more turnovers. Wright said a big difference he noticed was the Pistons were trapping point guards like himself off of shooting guard screens, instead of merely switching coverage like many teams have in the past.
“It was a little different — it took us out of a lot of our stuff,” Wright said. “I just think they had a great game plan on us and kind of caught us off guard. But I think next time we play them we’ll be able to dissect it. It was the first time playing them this year.
C.J. the unaffected
While Toronto’s primary ball-handlers were fighting uphill, C.J. Miles was lurking in the corners waiting to launch. The 12-year veteran was as free-wheeling from range as he has been all season, taking 12 three-pointers and hitting five.
“Man, C.J. — he was getting them up today,” Wright said. “When he’s knocking them down, he’s one of the best shooters in the NBA. So, whenever he gets a look at the rim, everybody on the team is encouraging him to take that shot. Because he can shoot them at a high percentage.”
Miles came into the game in a slight slump, having hit four of 16 attempts from beyond the arc over his past two games. But this is what shooters do — they shoot. Whether hot or cold, they take their opportunities the same as always.
And in a game like this, when Lowry, DeRozan and Wright were under constant duress, it was particularly important for Miles to be ready to fire whenever the ball found him.
“He really spaces the floor. He allows you — if teams are double-teaming — to pick them apart. And we took advantage of that a few times,” Casey said. “They had to make a decision on whether they were going to take the roll man or the kick out. And they gave us two or three or four kick-outs. And he had 12 attempts. We did a good job of finding him, and he did a good job of knocking them down.”
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Coffee is for closers
Perhaps you’ve heard a thing or two about how the Raptors are playing an extremely different style offensively this season. It’s not only a testament to how open Toronto’s stars have been to change, but also to Casey’s coaching acumen, and his willingness to adapt when it’s called for.
But another area Casey’s been adaptable in without the fanfare has been his closing rotations. He’s been much more willing to play the hot hand late in games this season, and you saw it again on Wednesday, as he turned to a unit of Lowry, Wright, DeRozan, Miles and Valanciunas to play the final seven minutes of a still tightly-contested game.
At times this season, we haven’t always seen Wright, Valanciunas and Miles in those late-game situations for various reasons. But Casey went with his most effective group Wednesday, and watched as they helped the Raptors pull away in the end.
“It was ball-handling. Delon did a good job of helping handle the ball,” Casey said. “I liked that part of it. I thought C.J. did a good job defensively with that group against the four. And JV rebounding the ball. That group did a good job. They did what they were supposed to do.”
Donnovan Bennett and J.D. Bunkis deliver a one-stop shop for all your Toronto Raptors talk and take listeners around the NBA with assists from the biggest names — and one-of-a-kind characters — from across the Association.
On this episode, Donnovan Bennett and J.D. Bunkis discuss the importance of Drake to the Toronto Raptors brand and who benefits more from the relationship.
Off the top of the show, Bennett and Bunkis talk about Jonas Valanciunas playing his best against the Detroit Pistons (5:45).
Later. the guys wonder how many Raptors players Drake is more valuable than (6:25).
At the end of the podcast, Bennett and Bunkis try to figure out if Auston Mathews will ever get a reference in a Drake song (24:55).
Radio_Icon Radio_Icon Free Association Raptors x Drake Originally aired January 18 2018
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An NBA all-star game start in his hometown with his father in the arena.
The Raptors star and Boston’s Kyrie Irving were voted in as guards with Cleveland’s LeBron James, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid filling out the five nominal Eastern Conference starters. Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant of Golden State, Houston’s James Harden and two New Orleans Pelicans, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins, were voted in from the West.
DeRozan was named a starter on Thursday for the Feb. 18 all-star game in his native Los Angeles, marking the second time that fan, media and player balloting has afforded him the honour.
“When something like that comes (from) your job, you want to be able to experience it with your family. I really hope so.”
As top vote-getters, James and Curry will serve as team captains and conduct a draft next week to pick sides regardless of conference. Seven backups from each conference, voted in by coaches, will be announced Tuesday with the full teams and the results of the draft announced next Thursday.
The 28-year-old DeRozan was selected by Eastern coaches as a backup in 2014 and 2016, voted in by fans last season and would have probably been in the 2015 game had he not suffered an early-season injury.
But this one will be special, even more special than playing at the Air Canada Centre in 2016.
DeRozan’s dad, Frank, is ill and the Raptors star has been travelling back to Los Angeles as often as possible to be with him and his mother, Dianne. If they can attend the game, it will be one of the magical moments in DeRozan’s career.
“I want my family to always experience the things they don’t get to see every single day,” he said.
And a chance to live out something he could never have expected. DeRozan is now a four-time NBA all-star, an Olympic gold medallist and a FIBA World Cup winner, reaching a status few ever do.
“When you sit and think about it, there have been some amazing things that I have been a part of,” he said. “It’s the most humbling thing for me. I never take nothing for granted. I never expect something to happen. It’s always humbling and I always appreciate it.
“It’s something that is not just for me, either. I have more fun enjoying it because I can have my kids around, and that would be something that they can grow (up) and say their dad was cool. That is what I look for.”
DeRozan’s play has been exemplary, of that there can be no dispute. But it’s his overall persona that draws people to him: a level of humility, very little braggadocio and a well-rounded personality.
“One of the best people you’ll ever be around,” Raptors president Masai Ujiri said. “Family is important to him and he’s a basketball junkie. That sums it all up.”
The Compton native now matches Kyle Lowry and Chris Bosh as a two-time starter representing the Raptors; Vince Carter leads the way, named a starter five times in his Raptors tenure.
“It’s really like a dream when you think about it, especially with me being the kind of basketball fan I was growing up and watching every single all-star game. And I remember it was 2003 when it was in L.A., and just being amazed that it was in L.A.,” he said. “I wasn’t around none of the festivities, but just to feel that energy now years later, and for me to have the opportunity to not just be in it but start in it . . . it makes me feel like a kid all over again.
“It’s a humbling thing. Everything about it is something I would never believe.”
Barring a complete collapse by the Raptors in the next two weeks, Dwane Casey will be one of the head coaches for the game.
“You get to a point you want to see your head coach and your coaching staff be a part of that,” he said Thursday. “For me, that’s one of them things that if you could have on the list of things you accomplished, that’s one of them.”
Casey played down any discussion of the all-star possibility. But with Boston’s Brad Stevens ineligible, because coaches can’t have the job two years in succession, and Toronto four games ahead of third-place Cleveland, it’d take a collapse of biblical proportions before the Feb. 4 cutoff date for Casey not to make it.
“I haven’t thought about it,” Casey said. “My whole thing about right now . . . is winning, winning the next game, winning the next play. And if you do that, whatever happens, happens. That’s the way you have to approach this game.
“I know it’s good fodder for media and all that, but my whole concentration is (on) how do we compete against the San Antonio Spurs, and then after that game how do we compete against the Minnesota Timberwolves. I’m boring, I’m old, but that’s the way I have to think.”
