Loss to Bucks proves Raptors have issues in the clutch

Jonas Valanciunas forced overtime with a buzzer-beating dunk but the Raptors eventually fell to the Bucks, 122-119.

TORONTO — The other day, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey was musing about what his club could do better as they stared down the final 25 games of the regular season coming out of the all-star break.

He wanted his team to play harder, play smarter, be more committed to the little things that add up to big things.

What else? How about getting better in the one area the Raptors struggle with most: scoring the ball late in close games?

“It’s about us and us getting better. We got a lot of areas if you understand basketball in which we can get better,” Casey said. “Take the last five minutes of the game. We go from one of the top offensive teams to one of the worst in the league. Those areas where we have to continue to harp on, to preach on and to think about as we go into these last 25 games.”

In that context, there are several lessons that can be gleaned from the Raptors’ 122-119 overtime loss to the visiting Milwaukee Bucks. Perhaps most significant is a reminder that even if the Raptors do cruise to the top seed in the East, their path to the Conference Finals and beyond will won’t have any soft touches. The Raptors are 2-1 against the Bucks this year, but are 1-1 at the Air Canada Centre, with both games going into overtime.

The loss snapped the Raptors’ winning streak at seven, their home winning streak at eight and ideally snapped them to attention after nine days between games at Toronto saw their lead over Boston trimmed to one game in the East and their record at the ACC fall to 24-5.

But it was also proof that the Raptors’ struggles in the clutch are real.

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Ignoring that the Raptors (41-17) only needed to navigate the final moments with the game hanging in the balance because of a sub-par defensive effort through three quarters, the end of the game and overtime revealed the Raptors crunch-time issues, while also hinting at some potential for improvement.

First the good stuff: After crawling back from down 12 points with 14 minutes to play it was Toronto ball, down two with 3.3 seconds left.

Typically this would involve the Raptors getting the ball to DeMar DeRozan, getting out of the way and hoping for the best.

Given the Raptors generate only 98.9 points per 100 possessions in the final moments of close games – ranking them 25th in the NBA, compared to the their fourth-ranked overall attack which generates 110.7 points per 100 possessions – that hasn’t been a very effective strategy.

But could anyone have predicted Casey drawing up a game-tying buzzer beater for Jonas Valanciunas?

The Bucks certainly didn’t, not even after Casey subbed Valanciunas in coming out of the timeout.

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But that’s what Casey chose to do, and it worked out spectacularly.

C.J. Miles inbounded the ball to the Raptors big man; DeRozan cut to the corner as a decoy, taking this defender with him and – crucially – clearing out the paint. Miles went to Valanciunas after the inbounds, looking for a hand off and a screen that could free him up for the game-winning three. Lowry stayed off the ball in the far corner, drawing another defender.

Valanciunas remained patient, even as the clock ticked down.

“I was just looking for the play. Is C.J. going to be open or somebody else – Kyle cutting?” said Valanciunas, who finished with 10 points on eight shots, seven rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes. “I was looking at the situation, you know.”

But the options were drying up as time was running out, so Valanciunas made a decision. He was going to put the ball on the floor and take advantage of the emptiness in the paint behind his defender, Bucks’ John Henson.

“I was just trying to go, you know?” he said. “I didn’t look at the clock, honestly.”

The result was thunderous, game-tying dunk at the buzzer. And it very well should have put him on the line to have a chance to shoot a game-winning free throw, although the whistle didn’t come.

“Next question please,” said Valanciunas when asked if he thought he was fouled.

“I thought he got fouled,” said Casey. “I’ve got to back and look at it, look at the replay and see. It should have been an and-one at the end of the game. Woulda, coulda, shoulda.”

Valanciunas’ play seemed to send a surge through the lineup. After the ball went up in overtime, it started flying around, with the Raptors putting the Bucks on their heels, Toronto’s tendency to grind the game down under pressure not evident.

On their first possession, Fred VanVleet dribbled through the paint and found a wide-open Serge Ibaka, who quickly moved the ball to a waiting Kyle Lowry for a three and the Raptors point guard made no mistake. Then, DeRozan saw Ibaka with a mismatch in the post and found him for another quick hoop.

The Bucks were able to come back from down five and take the lead by three with a quick 8-0 run, but with 40 seconds left Valanciunas and DeRozan combined on a pick-and-roll with DeRozan hitting his big man for another dunk – and uncalled foul – that pulled the Raptors back within one.

So, a lot to like.

Multiple times in the guts of a close game against a conference rival with the crowd roaring, the Raptors – and DeRozan in particular – felt comfortable using ball movement and some surprise to create open looks under pressure.

“That’s perfect,” said DeRozan. “All eyes are always keying in on me and Kyle to get the ball and make a play. It is great when we can do some misdirection type of things and just mix it up. All teams know our plays when it comes down to me and Kyle. It was something that we tried and it worked.”

But it wasn’t all good. In the final moments there were a couple of plays that looked like bad dreams from Raptors losses past, where the execution broke down or the intent was misguided and the opportunity was lost.

In the possession prior to Valanciunas’ dunk, DeRozan pulled down a rebound with 37 seconds left, dribbled the floor, Toronto trailing by one, and pulled up for a contested jumper even though Ibaka and Lowry were wide open on the wings.

Even worse was the Raptors’ last possession in overtime, trailing by three. After an inbounds play, DeRozan pulled up for a quick, contested three with seven seconds left. He missed, but scrambled to get his own rebound. Rather than look for Miles, wide open for a potential game-tying three – there was still about three seconds left – DeRozan spun and dunked, leaving the Toronto trailing by one with 1.6 seconds left, leaving the Raptors down one, but giving the Bucks the ball. It was a mental error and the game was effectively over.

“We were looking for C.J. It was a hammer play for me to try and turn the corner,” said DeRozan, who finished with 33 points and four assists on 13-of-26 shooting, but [Kris] Middleton cut me off, so I just went for the bucket and was hoping we’d get a stop or something to give us a chance to win the game.”

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The chance didn’t come.

Pinning the loss on the late-game execution is unfair given Toronto allowed the Bucks to win the second quarter 42-28 and shoot 55 per cent from the floor through three quarters before clamping down in the fourth and holding Milwaukee to 5-of-22 from the floor.

But there were some mistakes and they do represent a pattern. In one game both the problem and the solution were laid out, however.

Toronto’s best chances came when multiple players were involved, the ball moved and everything didn’t depend on Lowry and DeRozan – DeRozan in particular.

When they relied on one player to make a play – DeRozan in this night – the results weren’t as favourable.

“No one likes to lose. We damn sure don’t want to lose, but a night like tonight is a great learning lesson for us,” said DeRozan. “There a lot of things we can take from it — where we can grow and get better — and we understand in close games what we have to do.”

They have 24 games to figure it out, beginning on Monday against the visiting Detroit Pistons.

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