TORONTO – There is no position more unforgiving in the NBA than point guard. Every team that believes itself a playoff contender has a great one, seemingly. And there are teams well out of the playoff picture with elite lead guards also.
The Toronto Raptors’ season will likely hinge on the play and the health of Kyle Lowry, their three-time all-star who missed his second straight start with what team officials have described as a “sore [right] wrist.”
There’s nothing broken and no definitive diagnosis, but Lowry was wearing a brace again on Sunday and his pending return is uncertain.
So now the focus of the Raptors offence and defence shifts to Cory Joseph, with help from Delon Wright. It’s a big order to fill.
Joseph has already had to match-up with all-star Isaiah Thomas of Boston while on Sunday it was the Portland Trail Blazers’ Damian Lillard, who became the first player since1986 to average 25 points a game (25.8) a game at the all-star break and not be named to the team.
Depending on how long Lowry is out, Joseph’s ‘easy’ night comes Monday when he draws 2011 NBA most valuable player Derrick Rose before yet another all-star, John Wall, leads the Washington Wizards into the Air Canada Centre for the first of two games against the club they’re in a virtually tied with for third place in the in the Eastern Conference standings.
How are the Raptors fairing in two games without Lowry? So far, so good, which is saying something when 23 points and seven assists goes ‘poof.’
The Raptors squeezed past Portland 112-106 and while top billing should probably go to DeMar DeRozan, who followed up his career-high 43 on Friday with 33 more on Sunday, or perhaps Serge Ibaka who scored nine of his 18 in the fourth quarter and delivered his share of defensive highlights also, the Raptors probably don’t win their third straight game without essentially sawing off the point guard battle.
Lilliard slashed and waterbugged his way to 28 points while adding eight assists. But he required 20 shots to get his numbers and turned the ball over four times as well.
Just as important: Lillard was made to be accountable on defence also. Joseph chipped in with 14 points and six assists. No score was bigger than his three-point play with 2:41 that put Toronto up by nine. Joseph’s backup, Wright – who is pushing hard to be Lowry’s back-up ahead of Joseph – offered up 11 points of his own.
Combined, the Raptors got 25 points and seven assists from their point guards who were plus-7 for the game.
“Those guys did a good job,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “Not having our queen bee [Lowry] in there, our top guy able to handle the ball offensively, defensively, three-point shooting, we miss that part of it but Cory did a heckuva job of attacking the rim, getting to the basket, running the offence, defensively chasing around Lillard.”
The way the NBA game is played now – floor spread with three-point shooters, a constant barrage of screens aimed to loosen things up for the ball-handler at the top – defending the ball is a brutal job these days, like handling live dynamite: One false move and things can blow up quickly.
Matched up against Lillard, Joseph held him in check for most of the game although the Trail Blazers’ star did score 11 of his 28 in the final nine minutes of the game as he’d run Joseph off high screens set by seven feet and nearly 300 pounds of Jusuf Nurkic. It’s a shoulder separation waiting to happen and sometimes even when Joseph squeezed around just right Lillard would still rise up and nail the jumper or keep slithering all the way to the basket.
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Joseph has been under the gun over the past few weeks in Toronto. Relied upon to be a defensive tone-changer, Joseph seems to have slipped in that area, at least if some statistical measures are to be believed. His defensive rating – points allowed per 100 possessions while he’s on the floor – of 112 is a team worst and about four points worse than a year ago.
But there is a reason defensive metrics are so tricky. Defence is a team concept, isolating one player’s impact is notoriously difficult.
In two games filling in for Lowry, Joseph has had a hand in holding Thomas to nine points below his season average and helped keep Lillard from dominating the matchup.
Not all credit goes to him, naturally.
The arrival of Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker has given the Raptors two proven defenders who both in their presence and their willingness to help out those defending the ball. Their voice and activity allows Joseph or Wright to press up on the ball, covering up for them when they inevitably get beat.
“I think we watched some film for the guys that had been there to correct some of the mistakes we had been doing before the all-star break,” said Joseph of the Raptors’ defensive improvement. “But obviously you know, getting two defensive stoppers definitely helps. It’s a little bit a combination of both, but obviously getting those two guys helps.”
With less than two minutes left in the game it was Ibaka, who was switched out onto Lillard, and the 6-foot-10 power forward easily pushed Lillard back to nearly half court and then was able to swoop back into the paint to grab the rebound of a C.J. McCollum miss.
Plays like that bode well for Lowry’s return and the future beyond that.
“Ibaka is a great addition to their team,” said Lillard. “He was huge for Oklahoma City for the last seven years. He’s a great addition on both ends of the floor, protecting the paint, being able to show and being active on pick-and-rolls. Offensively he can shoot the ball and score.”
But until Lowry is back that Joseph and Wright have held the fort bodes well for the present. It’s a nice turnaround for Joseph, who was benched for a couple of games in Orlando and Brooklyn just prior to the all-star break – new experience since he joined the Raptors in the summer of 2015 and become one of Casey’s most trusted rotation players.
But after a week in Turks and Caicos, doing yoga, getting some sun and swimming in salt water, Joseph says he’s refreshed and ready to put his struggles behind him.
“I just, obviously, [have] more energy, more legs,” said Joseph. “My legs were shot before that break, I’m not going to lie to you. That break was very much needed and now I’m back and I have some more energy and I’m going to keep it going for the rest of this year.”
Did he need to have a couple of good games?
“Did I need? Everyone wants good games,” said Joseph. “I don’t want to say needs, but everyone wants good games. You have good games you can kind of draw up your shoulders a little bit and keep it going. But when you’re going through tough stretches, obviously, you get frustrated. Having a couple of good games definitely helps.”
Joseph has given the Raptors a pair of them in a position of need.
