DeMarre Carroll plays rare significant role in Raptors’ Game 5 win

TORONTO — Norman Powell has gone from forgotten man to key player in about a week, to the point where he found himself sharing the post-game podium at the Air Canada Centre Monday night with DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.

This is what happens when all a coach wants to do is win. Dwane Casey isn’t Mike Babcock; he’s built his thing and now he’s trying to make it work, pushing this button, flipping this switch, activating this lever. Starting Powell for Jonas Valanciunas has been the master-stroke of this best-of-seven series against the Milwaukee Bucks. Sticking with DeMarre Carroll as a starter had yet to deliver a similar return until Monday, when Carroll’s seven first-quarter points within the first eight minutes helped the Raptors to their highest-scoring first quarter of the series. Toronto went on to win Game 5 118-93.

Carroll’s final tally – 12 points and two steals – seemed modest. But it did mean that for the first time in the post-season, all five Raptors starters hit double-digits (the first time that happened since Game 7 of the Heat series, in fact) and if you buy into Bucks head coach Jason Kidd’s suggestion that Games 3 and 5 are “momentum games,” that was significant. It did mean that in a game that had no time for passengers, Carroll was able to play a rare significant role.

If Powell’s been a forgotten man for a week, Carroll’s been forgotten for much of his entire two seasons years with the Raptors – concerning, since a D and 3 guy is a valuable commodity in an NBA that continues to jack up threes at a remarkable rate.

“You can’t be on a roller coaster, every game in the playoffs,” Casey said, when asked about Carroll’s performance. “DeMarre started well, had a tough stretch but bounced back in the third.

“Guys don’t forget how to play.”

Truth is, the fruits of this performance might not be felt until the next series, should the Raptors advance to play the Cleveland Cavaliers where it figures once again to be an all hands on deck affair. Whatever happens to the Raptors this post-season, whenever, wherever and however it ends, the addition of Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker was supposed to prevent the Raptors from simply running out of gas – important, given this team’s predilection to do stuff the hardest way possible.

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Carroll gave the Raptors five exceptional minutes in the first quarter – draining a three as part of a 15-2 run, stealing a Malcolm Brogdon pass, and collecting a rebound during a sequence that resulted in a cutting dunk by Ibaka.

“They did a great job setting the tone, hitting first,” said Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Carroll had a steal, a driving floating jumper and the and-one in the first three minutes of the third quarter.

“I just told myself to be aggressive, not just go out there and trying to hit threes,” said Carroll, who in fact was the culprit who dropped the news about a “heated film session” after Game 3 between coaches and players.

Sometimes those things work; sometimes they rip a team apart. It was, Carroll said, similar to a session the team had after it was crushed 123-102 by the Oklahoma City Thunder on March 16. “A lot of guys – defensive guys – talking,” Carroll said. “It was pretty good.”

Carroll agreed with Casey’s assessment that his team’s preparation to take shots was crucial to the win – that split-second, mechanical instant between receiving the pass and flicking the ball toward the hoop. “One thing about shooters,” Kidd noted wryly before the game, “they always think the next shot is going in.”

True, that.

“That was the best we’ve moved the ball in a long time,” said Carroll. “It was going from side-to-side, but the most important thing was shooting the ball. The more guys do it, the better they get.”

Carroll averaged 8.9 points, 3.8 boards and 26 minutes in 72 starts this season and scored in double figures 32 times, slightly below his career average for points but dead on his career standard for rebounds. His three-point percentage, however, fell 20 points shy of his career average after a 2015-2016 season in which he missed 54 games following arthroscopic knee surgery and a heel issue. Carroll played in all 20 playoff games last season, starting 19, and averaged 8.9 points and 4.1 rebounds over 29 minutes while hitting double figures nine times, including a 21-point performance in a Game 2 overtime win over the Heat in the second round, a game in which he also had four steals.

This was his first double-digit scoring performance in eight starts, going back to April 4 when he had three consecutive double-digit games – his most significant run of offensive contribution since a 20-point game on Jan. 15.

Carroll just shrugged when asked whether he felt this type of comprehensive win could allow the Raptors to do something they’ve never done: win a best-of-seven series in under the maximum, something they can accomplish with a win in Milwaukee on Thursday.

“When we came into the locker-room, we just said: ‘Enjoy this one until midnight, approach (Game 6) like it’s our Game 7 … and throw the first punch.”

For the first time in this series – heck, maybe for the first time since Kyle Lowry returned to health – the Bucks and Kidd likely can’t say they know the identity of that first puncher; they don’t know from where it will come.