There’s only 4:34 left in the fourth quarter and the Toronto Raptors are down six points to the Chicago Bulls, Kyle Lowry squares Derrick Rose up with the shot clock dwindling. Lowry drives baseline managing to squeak past Rose and lay in a tough basket despite Joakim Noah coming over to help. Lowry knows his team needs him and he’s responding in kind. The Raptors can win this one.
Then on the ensuing Bulls possession, Rose promptly makes one crossover-dribble to get a little separation and drills a 22-foot jumper from the top of the circle.
Such was the story in the fourth quarter of the Raptors’ 129-120 loss to the Bulls on Monday — no matter how hard Lowry tried to get the Raptors back in it, Rose would always respond, creating a dazzling duel that saw Lowry score 18 of his game-high 34 points in the final frame and Rose drop 15 of his 29.
As spectacular a sight it was to witness two of the Eastern Conference’s elite point guards go head-to-head, it ultimately wasn’t enough for the Raptors and speaks to an issue that wasn’t much of one until Monday.
The Raptors desperately needed DeMar DeRozan in this game.
Entering Monday’s contest, Toronto had performed well with its all-star out of the lineup, going 9-3, but in a matchup against a team that plays as physically as Chicago does and is capable of putting the clamps down almost at will, DeRozan’s rugged style would’ve been the perfect counter.
You need only look at the free-throw and three-point numbers as proof.
Chicago took 15 more free-throw attempts than Toronto (10 more in the fourth quarter alone) and converted on 20 more, while taking just 12 three-point attempts to the Raptors’ 30, of which they only connected on nine.
These figures indicate two things: the Bulls’ pack-the-paint defensive scheme was executed to success and the Raptors fed into what Chicago wants to do defensively by taking a lot of outside looks instead of forcing action inside.
DeRozan could’ve helped in all phases with his ability to draw fouls via his near-impossible-to-defend straight-line drives, which also help with spacing since teams often have no choice but to send help when he makes a move to the basket.
As clearly evidenced by his fourth-quarter heroics, Lowry can do just about everything for the Raptors, including brave drives to the hoop. However, he isn’t like DeRozan in that every time he heads to the hole with a full head of steam he’s going to hear the whistle and that was something that hurt Toronto’s chance at a comeback.
Following this loss, the road is only going to get tougher for the Raptors as they embark on a five-game Western Conference road trip after Christmas. Four of the five teams they’ll meet are in the conversation of the NBA’s elite, meaning more tight games are likely on the way.
Clearly missed on Monday, just how badly will the Raptors miss DeRozan through the remainder of this crucial road trip?