The Toronto Raptors director of sports science Alex McKechnie can be found on the court in the early stages of the warmup for every Toronto Raptors game, putting individual players through a range of exercises that look uncomfortable.
Sometimes it’s rehab, more often – as the Raptors have been remarkably healthy under his watch – it’s injury prevention work.
They involve a weighted basketball; heavy duty elastic bands and Velcro. No one ever seems have fun doing them.
But there was DeMar DeRozan, grunting and puffing and twisting and turning as his teammates got ready to play the Indiana Pacers.
The won 106-94 to improve to 17-6 on the season and maintain their slim lead atop the Eastern Conference standings. They are now 4-3 without DeRozan.
There was no word Friday on the timing of DeRozan’s return. He’s not even at the week-to-week stage of his projected recovery and hasn’t done any basketball-related activity.
But Friday’s game was part of an early Christmas present for Toronto even as they’ve been adjusting to life without one of their cornerstones: Indiana (7-16) was the first of six games against Eastern Conference foes, all with losing records and a cumulative winning percentage of just .260.
After Christmas? That’s the lump of coal: Six games out West against opponents with a cumulative winning percentage of .720.
Toronto needs to build its cushion. Until DeRozan crumpled along the baseline at the Air Canada Centre two weeks ago, the Raptors could rightly claim to be one of the best teams in the NBA.
Since then, they’ve been one of the worst. Specifically they’ve been one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA, allowing 114 points per 100 possessions, a level of porousness surpassed only by the Utah Jazz.
Which made Friday’s game so welcome.
Casey had already opted for an emphasis on defence and rebounding by giving Landry Fields his second straight start ahead of Greivis Vasquez, who had been starting for DeRozan. But even more than that, for one night it was as if the Raptors sat in their circular dressing room, looked across at each other as Casey spoke about the importance of defensive rotations and gang rebounding, nodded and agreed he had a point.
“They are a very physical team and I knew we had to come out of the locker room and meet their physicality,” said Casey. “…One of our main emphasis going was our rebounding.”
The Pacers were compliant. The NBA’s 28th-rated offence shot just 29 percent for the first quarter as they struggled to make sense of things in a lineup missing Paul George (broken leg) and Lance Stephenson (signed by Charlotte) from a team that won 56 games last season.
But the Raptors finished off those possessions where they forced misses. Proof of the new found focus was Terrence Ross who has the quickness and explosiveness to be a very good rebounder for his position, but not always the attentiveness.
He snagged six defensive rebounds in the first quarter alone, while Jonas Valanciunas – one of the few Raptors who has pulled his weight on the glass, ranking 10th in the NBA in rebound rate, yanked five boards on his way 10 points and 14 rebounds for the night; his third straight double-double.
With that as a foundation the Raptors turned to the usual suspects. Lou Williams bounced off the bench for 14 first half points – 12 in the second quarter including a contested, fast-break three from the corner as a show of his lack of conscience in these matters – and Toronto was up 53-42 at the half, while holding Indiana to 35 percent shooting and out-rebounding them 34-18.
For the game they won the rebounding battle 52-39 as they held Indiana to 41.3 percent from the floor on the night.
Not everything went according to plan. As the game wore on the Raptors began to struggle to find a rhythm offensively, something that hasn’t been a problem with DeRozan out as they’ve been the most efficient team in the NBA since the shooting guard — who was leading them in scoring — tore a tendon in his groin.
Through three quarters Toronto was shooting just 38.6 percent from the floor and the Pacers had cut the lead to four with 4:44 left in the third quarter, but a Williams triple pushed the lead to 71-64 and blunted Indiana momentum, not that there was much in a game with so many more misses than makes.
But the game shifted. The Raptors bench continued to thrive. Williams finished with a game-high 23 points. Greivis Vasquez scored all 10 of his points in the second half. By the time James Johnson roared down the lane for a highlight-reel dunk midway through the fourth, Toronto led 97-78 and the bench were on their way to a season-high 64 points — more than the starting lineups on either club.
“One of the weapons we have is our bench, we feel like we have one of the best benches in the league,” said Patrick Patterson, who had 11 points and eight rebounds as part of the second unit. “We have some many pieces that can come in off the bench and contribute game in and game out. It can be anybody’s night, and tonight it seemed like a total team effort.”
DeRozan won’t be back for a while. There will be more pre-game sessions for him with the Raptors training staff to come before he can do anything that looks like basketball. And the road will eventually get steeper. But for once more night the Raptors could coast home.