Dwane Casey has a problem.
He might be the only person around to think it’s a problem, but he’s paid good money to see dark clouds on sunny days and these are very bright days for his Toronto Raptors.
The ‘problem’ is his team is playing basketball as well as any Raptor team has ever played it.
Casey can’t quite allow himself to embrace it, however.
“I’m a coach,” he was saying before his team took on the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday. “I can always see something around the corner. I’ve never gotten overly happy after a win. I’m always looking for things we can get better at.”
The list is getting shorter all the time.
The Raptors extended their winning streak to six games in the most emphatic way possible – a 128-84 blowout, the 44-point margin of victory the largest in franchise history.
The streak itself doesn’t capture the quality of Raptors performance of their stretch of prosperity. Suddenly Toronto is neck-and-neck with the star-studded Golden State Warriors as the most efficient offensive team in the NBA – with Toronto’s 113 points per 100 possessions just a fraction behind the Warriors’ 113.8 heading into the game. For reference, when the Warriors won an NBA-record 73 games a year ago their offensive rating was 112.5, so yeah, pretty good.
But the last six games have been flat-out bananas with their offensive rating rocketing to 123.8 – next closest are the Portland Trail Blazers at a paltry 118.9.
And more important is that defence – on shaky ground for most of the season – has suddenly shown signs of locking into place with their 97.5 defensive rating, good for fourth in the league during the last five games.
Combine their torrid offence – bolstered by a league-best 50 per cent three-point shooting – and solid defence and it’s given Toronto a net rating of 26.2, according to NBA.com. No other team is close. On the season its net rating is an impressive 10.2 points per 100 possessions, good for third in the league and best in the Eastern Conference.
Granted the Hawks were vulnerable coming in on the second night of their own back-to-back and missing stalwart Paul Milsap due to a hip issue. They have now lost nine of 10 games and are the opposite of the Raptors in every way.
“We just have to stop getting frustrated with each other,” said Hawks centre Dwight Howard after Atlanta bickered through the fourth quarter as the Raptors extended their blowout.
But the Raptors weren’t handing out sympathy cards.
Their steady drumbeat of high-level execution on both ends of the floor started early and didn’t really let up. They followed up their 48-minute domination of the Los Angeles Lakers Friday with a thorough opening 12 minutes against the Hawks as they jumped out to a 32-22 lead on 62 per cent shooting while holding Atlanta to just 41 per cent from the floor.
And they were just getting warmed up. A 14-4 run late in the half pushed the Raptors’ lead to 19 and was a live example of what a team firing on all cylinders looks like.
Patrick Patterson started it with a three after DeMar DeRozan – happy to distribute as teams load up on him defensively – found him. DeRozan hit a floater, then Patterson drove and dunked after the defence was all upside down due to the Raptors’ ball movement – a possession Patterson started with a steal. Then another three by Patterson, this time on a find by Kyle Lowry, before a three by Ross on a pass from Patterson iced the run. The total? Five baskets, scored by three players; four of them assisted by three different players. Not bad.
The game was largely decided after three quarters as Toronto led 86-70, but just to make sure victory was in hand they burst things open even further in the fourth before resting their regulars down the stretch.
An example: Ross turned the corner baseline and leaped to fling it to Lowry for a triple. Then Lucas Nogueira used his spider arms to tip a ball loose that Lowry sprinted out with in transition. But rather than shoot another open three he waited until Nogueira could run the floor and hit him underneath for a dunk. The Raptors’ lead was 23 and the game was over. It was a beautiful display of teamwork, smarts, hustle and execution.
The results were impressive as Toronto shot 57.6 per cent from the floor and 13-of-24 from three – a record-tying sixth straight game where it has made at least 10 threes – while holding the Hawks to 39.8 per cent shooting. DeRozan scored 21 points on 17 shots while adding four assists; Lowry had 17 and 8 rebounds on nine shots. Nogueira was 5-of-5 from the floor for the second straight game.
It’s hard to find a flaw as the Raptors improved to 14-6 and pulled into a tie atop the Eastern Conference standings with the Cleveland Cavaliers, who just happen to be coming to town on Monday.
“You make it hard for other teams to guard you by moving the ball and I feel like tonight was the best it’s been since I’ve been here,” said DeMarre Carroll, who was one of eight Raptors in double figures with 10 points. “I think we’re building on it. We’re trusting each other, guys are knocking down their shots and that’s what you have to do if you want to be a high-calibre team.”
It’s beautiful basketball; the by-product of a team that is familiar with each other, that has high expectations of itself. It’s fun to watch.
Unless you’re Dwane Casey.
“No. It’s a big picture, it’s a long season,” he said when I asked him if he was proud of the way his team is playing. “There’s a thin line between the penthouse and the outhouse in this league … the key thing is being consistent, boring. Consistent and fundamentals takes you a long way.”
It’s taken this Raptors team to heights never reached before.