TORONTO – There was a moment, fleeting as they can be, early in the first quarter Monday night when DeMar DeRozan looked like he always does.
The game was less than four minutes old and DeRozan was dribbling the ball patiently at the top of the arc, as we’ve seen him do so many times before. He darted around a screen and cut in towards the basket, forcing Indiana Pacers forward Paul George to backpedal with his arms up and drawing help from centre Ian Mahinmi.
The Indiana duo was all over him. But that’s when DeRozan pulled up, stepped back, and hit one of those pretty little fadeaways he’s made such a pillar of his game. It was vintage. The same shot he’s drained a few million times on practice courts across the continent. But on this night – an eventual 98-87 victory for his Toronto Raptors – it was also a rare moment when he looked like himself.
DeRozan shot 5-for-18 Monday, adding that to his 5-for-19 in Saturday’s Game 1 to give him a 27 per cent success rate in the two games. The Raptors are minus-6 when he’s been on the floor in these playoffs, and most concerning of all, DeRozan’s had worlds of trouble drawing fouls and getting to the free-throw line, which is a truly integral part of his game.
“I don’t know if it’s tightness or what it is. He didn’t get to the line… how many times?” DeRozan’s head coach, Dwane Casey, said after Monday’s game, looking down at a stat sheet in front of him and seeing the number zero under DeRozan’s free-throw attempts. “He was number 2 or 3 in the league in getting to the free-throw line. So, I don’t know if that’s frustration or what.”
It’s true, DeRozan attempted the third-most free throws of any player in the NBA this season, converting 85 per cent of them which represented nearly a third of his scoring on the season. Monday nights’ game was the first time in more than a year that DeRozan went without a free-throw attempt, and just the fourth time in his last three seasons.
When you take that element away from him, DeRozan needs his shots to fall, otherwise he ends up with the 10-points-in-30-minutes night that he had in Game 2. Casey started using surging rookie Norman Powell in DeRozan’s place during the second half, and was so taken by the job Powell was doing that he kept DeRozan on the bench for the entire fourth quarter, a remarkable thing to do with your team’s most productive regular season scorer in a not-yet-decided playoff game.
After the win, DeRozan was throwing on sweats and ear buds while his teammates were donning suits and necklaces, and as you read this now he may still be on the Air Canada Centre practice court, trying to work out whatever’s impairing him. Before he left on that mission, he stopped to talk to reporters and said the kinds of things you would want him to say.
“No, no, I don’t care,” DeRozan said, asked if he’d identified anything that’s holding his game back at the moment. “It’s two games. I don’t think too much about it. I’m not dwindling over it. It happens. I missed some easy shots today. I tried to be aggressive, tried to get some foul calls – they didn’t go my way. I don’t think twice about it. I’ll just try to be aggressive again.
“And it’s not necessarily about me. It’s more of a team thing. I’m not worried about if I’m making shots or missing shots. That’s going to come. It’s just about playing hard, especially on the defensive end.”
He’s right. The shots probably will come. All players, regardless of their role, will go through their streaks, hot and cold.
DeRozan’s usually don’t last this long, due solely to the fact he shoots so damn much, and the smart money’s on the bet that says the guy who shot 45 per cent this year and got to the free-throw line at a ridiculous rate won’t have three straight games that fly in the face of those norms.
But still, it’s been a weird couple games for DeRozan, and it was a weird sight to see him sitting on the bench, warm-ups on, a towel around his shoulders, for the entirety of the fourth quarter. Casey said he didn’t talk to his star guard about sitting him for those final 12 minutes, didn’t feel like he had to. And he’s right.
“He’s a pro. He’s one of our top leaders on the team; our all-star. He’d be the first guy to tell you to let that group roll while they were in there. Norm and that group had it going,” Casey said. “I just liked the energy and the defensive toughness that Norm was bringing at his position.”
“Norm,” of course, is on the other end of this. The rookie guard wasn’t hitting many of his shots either, but the ball was moving much more efficiently in the Raptors offence when he was on the court playing DeRozan’s position, and he was doing a terrific job – at least as terrific as one can – of limiting George, who had just four points in six minutes that fourth quarter before checking out of the game.
“He came up big; he played aggressive against one of the top players in the league,” DeRozan said of Powell’s work. “He kept his body on him. He wasn’t scared. I don’t even like using that word. He just took on the challenge.”
The Raptors’ biggest challenge in this series have been finding an answer for George, who presents a match-up nightmare as a big, aggressive, explosive player who can also shoot from long distance. Powell’s just 22-years-old and finishing his first year in the NBA, but he’s done the best job of anyone on the Raptors roster of guarding the Pacers star.
“It’s really tough. He’s a crafty player. He knows how to get to his spots and use his body. He’s able to shot the three, shoot the mid-range, post-up,” Powell said. “So you just try to be physical with him and make those looks as difficult as possible.”
Powell was actually removed from the starting lineup for Monday’s game in favour of DeMarre Carroll, who the Raptors coaching staff wanted to match-up against George. Casey had a long meeting with Powell on Sunday to explain the reasoning behind the decision and make sure Powell would prepare for the game as if he were starting. “Stay ready” was the primary message.
Sure enough, Carroll took two fouls in the span of two seconds when the game was less than three minutes old, and there was Powell, stripping off his warm-up gear and checking into the game. He fed Jonas Valanciunas for a jumper on his first possession and then nailed a three-pointer on the next, off a feed from Kyle Lowry.
And by the end of the night, as DeRozan watched from the sidelines, Powell had played more minutes off the bench than he did in Game 1 as a starter.
“I don’t really focus on it – being a starter or coming off the bench. When you’re out there in the minutes that you do get, you’ve got to make an impact,” Powell said. “I have high expectations for myself, I work extremely hard at my craft, I’m prepared every time I step on the court.
“It doesn’t matter the stage, I try not to think about that. I know it’s a big moment being in the playoffs but if you think about it too much you get overwhelmed with that. I’m just stepping on the court, blocking everything out and playing basketball.”
During stoppages in play and Indiana free throws Powell often jogged over towards his bench, asking Casey and the Raptors assistant coaches questions about where he was on the previous possession and where he should be on the next one.
“He’s trying to make sure he’s doing the right thing. That’s a rookie,” Casey says. “Vets would be out there, they’re too proud to ask those questions. But he wanted to make sure he got it right and I respect that.”
Look, one bad night for DeRozan and one good night for Powell don’t tell us a whole lot. It was just 48 minutes of basketball. Neither player is going to see their role significantly change; neither player should be judged decidedly in either direction.
But it’s also the playoffs. Every moment is heightened; every possession intensified. Everyone notices everything. And it’s hard not to notice DeRozan’s struggles at the moment. Harder still to believe they aren’t upsetting him.
“He’s definitely being bothered by it – whatever it is,” Raptors guard Cory Joseph said. “But he’ll get his rhythm again. He’ll get it going. I’m not worried about DeMar. He’ll get going for sure.”