TORONTO — Seven players finished with double-digit scoring. Eight hit at least one three-pointer. Five had six rebounds or more. Four had three or more assists. No one played more than 30 minutes or less than 20.
For those reasons and more, Sunday evening’s 123-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers may have been the Toronto Raptors most comprehensive victory of the season. Running a ten-man rotation, head coach Dwane Casey was able to employ the basketball equivalent of rolling his lines, as the Raptors moved the ball effectively, protected their rim, and didn’t shy away from the challenge presented by one of the NBA’s quickest teams.
“I really liked the way the guys started the game — they started the game with force,” said Casey, dripping wet from a post-game shower delivered by his players to celebrate his appointment as one of the head coaches at next month’s all-star game. “I thought we came out and matched their energy. And maintained. That’s the hardest thing to do in this league — maintain the consistency, the ball movement, man movement, defensive focus.”
After dropping two of three, one got the sense the Raptors needed a game like this, where the productivity was spread out and every player got to come away feeling good about their contribution.
It was truly a group effort. But here are three things that stood out.
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VanVleet’s career night
After a rough shooting night in Friday’s loss to the Utah Jazz, Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet was left with a foul taste in his mouth.
“You never want to go home with regret – and I thought I went home with a little bit of regret in the way I played,” VanVleet said. “So, I just tried to come back and turn it around tonight.”
That translated into a big shift from VanVleet early Sunday, as he scored 12 points in eight second-quarter minutes off the bench when the game was still up for grabs. But it was his finishing down the stretch that made it a career night for the second-year guard.
Three times in the fourth quarter, VanVleet ran up the court on fast breaks, surveyed his options, and attacked right up the heart of the Lakers defence, flipping in one-handed buckets off the high backboard as he was sent sprawling to the floor beneath the basket.
“That kid gets hit every time he goes in there,” Casey said of VanVleet, who finished with a career-high 25 points. “But he hits the floor, gets up, and gets back in the play. He’s not down there while the play’s going back.
“He’s an important part of what we do, just because of his toughness. Size to him is nothing. He goes in there and challenges, fights people. He’s a big piece of our physical and mental toughness.”
One of the smallest players on the floor at all times, VanVleet draws plenty of contact when he drives aggressively to the basket like that. But officials seem perfectly fine with allowing him to take an un-penalized beating. It must get frustrating.
“Nah, the ball was going in so I was feeling a little bit better — maybe if I’d missed a couple of those shots,” VanVleet said. “You want those calls. And sometimes you feel like they’re not going your way. But that’s the way the game goes. You’ve just got to keep going in there attacking. And maybe someday I’ll get them down the line.”
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DeRozan finds a way
About midway through the third quarter, DeMar DeRozan was having a peculiar night. He looked hesitant and unassertive in attack. He struggled to find a rhythm and when presented with choices, he seemed stuck in-between, coughing up a trio of turnovers. He was taking his opportunities, as he does and always will, but they weren’t falling at all, as he hit just three of his first 12 attempts.
“The younger me would’ve been discouraged, frustrated, let that dictate the game for me,” DeRozan said. “But, nowadays, I know it’s part of the game. Just because you started a certain way doesn’t mean you’ve got to end that way.”
Which explains why midway through the third quarter a switch flipped and DeRozan came alive. He started attacking and driving like himself again, hitting a pair of tough mid-range shots before blowing past Kentavious Caldwell-Pope beyond the arc and earning an and-one in traffic.
After scoring just one point through the quarter’s first seven minutes — a technical foul free throw — DeRozan put up 11 over the final five. He finished his night with 19, second to VanVleet on the team. But what Casey was most impressed by was how DeRozan found ways to contribute when things weren’t working.
“The past few weeks he’s been struggling a little bit. But he’s fighting through it,” Casey said. “He had seven assists — that was the most important thing. Anytime he gets above five, we’re pretty good. When his shot is not falling, teams are double teaming and sending extra bodies to him — he’s finding people. And that’s the most important thing.”
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Pace and boards
The Lakers aren’t a playoff team but came in on a surge, winning eight of 10, including a triumph over the Eastern Conference leading Boston Celtics.
Part of that success is due to the team’s underrated defence, which quietly has become one of the league’s stiffer tests with a top-10 defensive rating of 104.7. Another part is the sheer pace the Lakers play at — no NBA team averages more than the 103.2 possessions per 48 minutes than Los Angeles does.
The Lakers speed was a particular point of importance for Casey coming into the game. Toronto doesn’t play slow — the Raptors rank 10th in the NBA in pace — but also doesn’t always sprint back to the defensive end following unsuccessful possessions.
“You can’t have two or three steps before you really decide to take off to get back. If you do, it’s going to be a lay-up at the other end,” Casey said before the game. “You have to turn and get out of the corners.”
The message resonated, as the Raptors were in full flight up and down the floor all night, forcing the Lakers into some awkward possessions with a scrambling, pressuring defence. Toronto held Los Angeles to only eight fast break points and was more than up for the task when the tempo of the game accelerated.
“There was a long stretch there with no timeouts, no dead balls, just kind of pick-up basketball,” VanVleet said. “And that was good for us.”
Another emphasis for Casey coming in was the offensive glass. The Lakers entered the game pulling down 24 per cent of offensive rebounds available, the seventh-highest rate in the NBA. The Raptors coach didn’t only want his players guarding against that, but exploiting it.
“We’ve got to do a great job of boxing out. And then we’ve got to run,” Casey said. “We’ve got to push the ball up the floor, pass it ahead, and play up the floor to make them pay for attacking the offensive glass.”
Toronto didn’t make Los Angeles pay too direly, scoring 16 points off fast breaks, but did protect its own glass well, limiting the Lakers to 13 offensive boards and winning the rebound battle, 53-44.
