Lou Williams stood just past half court dribbling patiently, letting the clock tick down to the end of the first quarter before getting into attack mode, crowd at the Air Canada Centre knowingly gathering in a long, low, “Louuuu.”
He faked. He hesitated. He shot and he missed — a rarity these days — but Jonas Valanciunas was there to clean up the garbage and the Raptors got the bucket anyway.
Everything is going the Raptors way. On Monday the best team in the Eastern Conference tipped off against one of the hottest teams in the West — the Phoenix Suns came to Toronto having won five straight — and the Raptors did the usual, winning 104-100.
They did it on the strength of a dominant third quarter when they held the Suns to 8-of-21 from the floor as the Raptors threatened to blow the game open and a fourth quarter only a survivalist could love.
The Suns mustered a 14-0 run that cut the Raptors’ 17-point fourth quarter lead to three with eight minutes left, and a Suns three-ball barrage — the Suns shot 7-of-10 from deep in the period — that left Toronto trailing 95-94 with 2:10 left. It remained in doubt until DeMar DeRozan hit all four of his free throws in the final 14 seconds, the first two after backcourt-mate Kyle Lowry won the Raptors a jump ball at centre court that followed a wild scramble with the Suns trailing by two.
Every game in this Raptors surge has had a different hero it seems and on Monday night it was third-year centre Jonas Valanciunas, who finished with a career-high 27 points and 11 rebounds while going 10-of-11 from the field and 7-of-8 from the line.
“I was just doing my job,” said Valanciunas.” I was getting a lot of touches from Kyle, DeMar … I felt a lot of trust from them.”
But in keeping with the theme of everything working out just right, the Raptors won even though head coach Dwane Casey opted to sit Valanciunas for the final seven-plus minutes of the game to match with the Suns’ three-guard offence.
The Raptors were dominating with him in the game against the Suns’ big men but Casey didn’t want to risk playing Valanciunas against their small-ball lineup. There was some risk in sitting your most effective player to that point, but when things are going well, decisions like that end up working out.
The win improved the Raptors record to 12-2, tying them for the best record in the NBA with Memphis — who the Raptors bested when they visited Toronto last week — and extended their lead over Washington for the best record in the Eastern Conference.
As a result, Casey’s biggest job these days is trying to make it sound like the team that went 41-21 to end last season has only picked up the pace this year and is still a work in progress.
“We’re still a growing team, it’s too early to look at records and who won what,” said Casey. “My job is to continue to push, continue to improve and not get caught up in records or anything like that.”
Caution is a hard note to sound around a team and a fan base where everything seems to be so upside down. After years of everything that could go wrong, the Raptors are like a rich divorcee in Vegas: Nothing is wrong.
Take Williams. He was picked up primarily in a contract swap in the off-season. The Atlanta Hawks wanted to unload Williams and the $5.4 million he was owed for this season; in return they got John Salmons and bought the final year of his deal out for $1 million. Seven-foot Brazilian project Lucas Nogueira was a throw-in.
It was a nothing ventured, nothing gained, arrangement for Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri and it is looking like a masterstroke. Two years removed from ACL surgery Williams is getting early talk as a Sixth Man of The Year candidate. He was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday — rare for a non-starter — after averaging 23 points a game in three wins, including his career-high 36-point outburst on Saturday against Cleveland.
Naturally he hit the first shot he took against the Suns and had 12 points in 11 minutes in the first half to lead all scorers not named Jonas Valanciunas (who carved out 17 points and seven rebounds in the half) as Toronto led 54-48 at the break.
Williams too, was trying to play it all down, consciously trying to make the Raptors franchise-best start sound ho-hum.
“Do the things that have got you this far,” said Williams. “Don’t really change course. That’s really important for this team. We’re young, we’re really confident in the group that we have and we come into these games expecting to win and I think that’s been important.”
The problem is the results keep arguing against the modesty and the crowd at the ACC, not to mention the few hundred who invaded Cleveland on Saturday to chant We The North, is very determined to get swept up in the whole thing.
The players can’t help but notice. The crowd was vital in the fourth Monday night as they once again energized the building.
“It’s been by far the best crowd that I’ve played in front of as far as home games for a very long time,” said Williams, who is in his 10th season. “This fan base is very excited about the culture we’ve been building here in Toronto. They’ve been showing it and as players we appreciate it.”
The Raptors will look to extend their winning streak to six when they play in Atlanta on Wednesday.
In the meantime it’s not that hard to poke holes in the Raptors’ status as a true contender for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. It’s not all that much fun, but it’s not all that hard.
For example: Because the ACC is the site of the World Junior Hockey Championships over the Christmas break, their schedule has been home-loaded: Monday’s game was their 10th at the ACC, which is the most in the Eastern Conference.
As well, they’ve had one of the friendliest schedules in the NBA, with the cumulative record of their opponents a comfortable .472.
But even within that number there are asterisks: Sure the Raptors handled the Western Conference-leading Grizzlies, but Memphis was playing without five regulars due to the flu. The Milwaukee Bucks were playing the third game in four nights and coming off a triple-OT game. Utah Jazz were on the second night of a back-to-back and at the end of a 10,000km road trip. They played the 76ers.
On Monday night the Suns were playing their last game in a six-game road swing that started with a back-to-back in Los Angeles.
These are not the Raptors’ problems. Their job is to take advantage of teams when they are vulnerable. It’s all money in the bank for when the Raptors have five home games in a stretch of 18 games from Feb. 20 to Mar. 24 or two home games among their final eight games in April.
The Raptors may not be the best team in the NBA, even though their record says otherwise. And it’s hard to imagine that they’ll turn 12-2 into 24-4.
But for now, like Lou Williams throwing up prayers as the shot clock winds down, they can do no wrong.