TORONTO — Heading into Game 2 of their first-round series against the Indiana Pacers, the Toronto Raptors didn’t want to make the task ahead of them bigger than it might be, but they acknowledged they’re in a hole.
How deep is the only thing up for debate. The first analogy offered by DeMar DeRozan was that of a man (or men) lost at sea, adrift and forced to find their way back to shore.
"You fighting for your life," DeRozan said. "If you was drowning in the water, you’re gonna figure out something to hold onto, to float on, right? You kind of have that natural instinct when you’re a competitor, and that’s the beauty of the game, is when things get rough, you kind of find enjoyment in it, and trying to overcome it."
Hey, maybe that’s why DeRozan likes Toronto so much.
Anyway, perhaps realizing that his turn of phrase sounded a bit bleak, DeRozan amended it to better reflect being down 1-0 to the seventh-seeded Pacers.
"We in a puddle right now," he said. "A little puddle. We got some new shoes on, they got a little wet, that’s all."
Making it rain in the opener for Indiana was none other than Paul George, DeRozan’s California high school and AAU rival and USA Basketball teammate.
In particular he was raining on DeRozan’s head. The battle of the series’ two all-star wings wasn’t much of a contest on Saturday. Each of them struggled heading into halftime, the difference is DeRozan’s difficulties never stopped as he shot five-of-19 from the floor, coughed up three turnovers and only got to the free throw line six times, this while being guarded primarily by George, regarded as one of the NBA’s best two-way players.
Meanwhile with DeRozan drawing most of the minutes on George the Pacers all-star shredded the Raptors in the second half for 27 of his 33 points and five of his six assists.
The problem established, the question becomes how to fix it?
You didn’t have to crack a code on Sunday to come up with a reasonable guess at how the Raptors might go about it.
First clue: DeMarre Carroll, hired last summer to be a defensive stopper against the likes of Paul George, spent time in conversation with Raptors management after practice.
Second clue: Kyle Lowry allowed that perhaps guarding George while also trying to carry his typical offensive load might have compromised his fellow all-star.
"I think [DeRozan] was a little bit tired," said Lowry. "That is a tough assignment with Paul George. That’s a tough assignment. And playing both ends of the floor, he kind of got tired. It’s kind of hard. He shot shots and looked tired."
The problem is that Carroll has been on a strict minute restriction since returning to the lineup a couple of weeks ago after missing 12 weeks with mid-season knee surgery.
But Carroll sounds ready to do the job he signed up for when he took a four-year, $60-million contract to leave the Atlanta Hawks in free agency.
He says he’s been limited to 20 minutes, but he’s game for 30 if he can get clearance.
He wants to rescue DeRozan from the deep end of the pool or throw a jacket over the puddle or whatever.
"DeMar is not used to it," said Carroll. "Guarding a guy on one end and then coming down and having to score and still play 40 minutes is kind of hard for a guy who has never done it before.
"Am I capable of taking my minutes restrictions off? Basically that is up to the medical staff and [Raptors general manager] Masai [Ujiri] and the coaching staff," Carroll said. "We will see what happens [Monday]. Hopefully it will be taken off.
"[But] I feel good. I could play way more than 20 [minutes]," he added. "I feel I could help the team in a better way if I play more minutes. I can make it more difficult on him but it’s up to coach. I’m just here to do my role and do my job."
Even DeRozan acknowledged that trying to do two jobs in Game 1 may have compromised Job One, which, for him, is to score and wear down opposing defences by forcing them to foul and putting them in bonus early.
No professional athlete wants to admit they got tired, but DeRozan allowed that pulling double duty drained him.
"[I wasn’t] necessarily tired, but more so, you try to put all your energy at both ends, something is going to give," he said. "You know, you just try to figure out a way in doing it. If I take him half a quarter each quarter or wait until the fourth quarter and take him the whole fourth quarter, but you’ve got to figure out ways to balance it out."
Presuming the Raptors medical staff doesn’t throw cold water on the whole plan and that Ujiri is willing to risk whatever long-term effects there may be in pressing a less-than-fully fit Carroll into bigger minutes, the final decision and implementation will come down to Raptors head coach Dwane Casey.
Tipping his hand is not his style, but after Game 1 he said playing a 10-man rotation including a part-time Carroll was challenging, particularly when he didn’t have anyone he felt could stop George after he caught fire.
If Carroll draws in for a starting role and something close to 30 minutes of floor time, something will have to change – most likely minutes for Raptors rookie Norman Powell who has been thriving in a starting role but can’t reasonably be expected, at six-foot-four, to offer much resistance against the six-foot-nine George.
"It’s difficult to play that many guys," said Casey. "It’s going to affect somebody. I don’t know who it’s going to be but we’re going to have it figured out [Monday], we have it figured out already but it’s a situation where minutes-wise you can’t get that many guys involved."
Would he consider going to an eight or nine-man rotation?
"We’ll see," said Casey.
Complicating things for Casey is that there isn’t exactly loads of data for him to draw on, given that Carroll played just 26 games and even in most of those he was bothered by foot and knee problems. The two five-man lineups he appeared in most often were basically neutral in their impact, according to Basketball-Reference.com.
But at this point the Raptors aren’t looking at long-term trends, they need a short-term solution.
Whether the Raptors are lost at sea or just navigating through some shallow puddles on their way to high ground will be determined in large part by the outcome of Game 2.
In NBA history 31 teams have lost the first two games at home in a seven-game series and only three of them have come back to win. It was a predicament the Raptors put themselves in a year ago and know exactly how that turned out.
Are the Raptors drowning? No, too early to say that. But there are storm clouds brewing. And there’s DeMarre Carroll itching to trade his cane for an umbrella.
