Before you read anything else, let’s just marvel at the latest in the Adventures of James Johnson:
Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. (Actually, wait, I’m going to click ‘play’ again, gimme a sec).
Picks jaw up off floor, pulls self back together, begins column.
It was the perfect antidote for a team that had just lost four straight: a date with the fledgling Boston Celtics.
The Celtics came to the Air Canada Centre with a piss-poor record and having just dealt two of their better players — Jeff Green and the recently acquired Brandon Wright — in the last 24 hours (the Green trade isn’t final yet, but he didn’t travel to Toronto with the team). With the rest of their roster littered with young, unproven talent, the Celts are heading in a distinctly opposite direction from the Raptors, positioning for the draft lottery; If these Boston Celtics were described in one word it would be: beatable.
On the other hand, it had all the makings of a trap game — similar to Thursday’s losing effort versus the Charlotte Hornets.
And as the game started, it certainly looked like the latter. Boston turned a Raptors lead in the opening frame to a nine-point deficit, as the defensive issues that has plagued Toronto since long before the losses started to pile were clearly still a concern. But as the Raptors tightened up on that end of the floor, particularly through the second quarter, they found their way back into the game and never looked back.
A combination of sound defence, opportunistic offence predicated on ball movement, and good vibes (a scientific formula if there ever was one) extended the lead late in the third, where a 23-6 run to end the quarter put the game away for good. The Celtics just didn’t have enough firepower to respond by then, and the Raptors weren’t going to let them.
Jonas Valanciunas was particularly assertive after halftime, and the Raptors recognized as much and took advantage.
“Jonas was big-time,” Casey said after the game. “He was dominating the boards, being a physical presence and doing a really good job setting good screens for Kyle [Lowry].”
Apart from that jaw-dropping dunk, James Johnson stood out throughout his season-high 35 minutes, recording a double-double with 15 points and a team-high 10 boards, along with dependable defence and a pair of sweet passes — one that led to an assist, the other to a missed Lowry three-ball in the corner — as he got the start in place of Landry Fields.
Patrick Patterson (10 points, nine rebounds) and Lou Williams (19 points) were key contributors off the bench while, all told, five Raptors registered 15 points or more. The team scorched Boston for 62 second-half points and held their opponent to under 100 points for just the second time in nine games.
The Raptors needed this win, they needed a positive outcome at the end of a game after dropping four straight — even if they’re still a work in progress.
After the Charlotte game, Casey alluded to the fact that the losses were good, in that they brought to light long-standing fundamental issues in the team’s performances that were being overshadowed by winning.
It’s a kind of thinking befitting of a head coach, but Casey also happens to be right, the Raptors defence has been disappointing over the last month, regardless of the overall record.
On Saturday night there were clear steps toward improvement on that end, if maybe only incremental.
“They still shot 47 percent,” said Casey. “But I thought our defensive mojo was back. Guys moving their feet, rebounding, … anticipating and being locked in, that was there tonight, which hasn’t always been the case.”
But much harder work waits ahead next week, including re-acclimating DeMar DeRozan into the starting lineup (probably), and a crucial game on Monday against the Detroit Pistons, arguably the hottest team in the East and a far cry from the sad sack bunch the Raptors throttled a few weeks back (another notable James Johnson outing, it should be noted).
Saturday’s wasn’t a season-defining win, or the kind of outing that a team can particularly feed off of in the long-term; it’s just hard to get truly excited over beating a bad team. But it served its purpose.
Put it this way: one day when we look back and tell the story of the 2014-15 Raptors season, this game won’t come up in the conversation. But mired in the day-to-day grind of the season, it was just what the doctor ordered.