CLEVELAND — Let’s just get out of the way and let DeMar DeRozan sum up his night.
“It sucks. It sucks. You know, to lose like we did, play like I did — it sucks,” the Toronto Raptors all-star said after scoring exactly five points in Wednesday’s 125-103 dismantling at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers. “Now, we just have the idle time of having to wait until Friday night to redeem yourself.”
Friday night, the third game of a series quickly spiralling away from the Raptors, will absolutely, most definitely, without even a hair of doubt, have to bring with it a much better performance from DeRozan. There is no other way. Kyle Lowry’s carrying multiple injuries; the Cavaliers are scoring more points than they could ever reasonably need; the Raptors roster, while deeper than it has ever been, does not contain another player with the pure scoring ability of a DeRozan.
After shooting 2-of-11 Wednesday, getting to the free-throw line only three times and missing twice, and becoming a woeful minus-53 in this series, DeRozan absolutely must be better Friday. The Raptors can’t win if that doesn’t happen. And his coach isn’t afraid to say it.
“No, we can’t. To be honest with you, we can’t,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey when asked if his team could survive without better play from their star. “At the end of the day, we’re going to go the way he and Kyle go.”
The way DeRozan went Wednesday, generally, was directly into Cleveland traps. The Cavaliers blitzed him practically every time he took the ball on a pick-and-roll or even a post-up. He had little room to breathe for much of the night, and when DeRozan was able to withstand that pressure and pass out of the double-teams, his teammates weren’t able to pick up the slack.
It seems simple, but that’s really it. The Cavaliers have decided to eliminate DeRozan from Toronto’s offence and see if anyone else can replace his production. And to this point, it’s worked as well as they could have ever imagined.
“They’re double-teaming him. They’re sending guys at him from all sides of the floor. Pick-and-rolls, they’re putting two guys on him. Post-ups, they’re sending guys at him from the baseline side,” Lowry said. “I think we’ve just got to do a better job of getting him more space and giving him more isolation in the middle of the floor.”
DeRozan has been receiving particular attention from LeBron James, who’s a hell of a scorer, perhaps the greatest offensive player of all time, and, as isn’t pointed out nearly enough, a real bastard on defence. He’s long, he’s quick, and he’s got some of the best anticipation in basketball. When he helps off his defender to double-team DeRozan, as he often did Wednesday night, it can feel like you’re crossing the 45-yard line rather than the top of the arc.
“He played kind of like a free safety back there,” DeRozan said. “You’ve got to be able to make the right pass, get it out of there. He does a great job of protecting the paint and also getting out there to our shooters at the same time.
“So, I’m just trying to go out there and make the right passes off the double. Trust my teammates. But we missed a lot of shots. I couldn’t find a rhythm when I was being doubled. So, that’ll be something I go back and look at and understand and figure out ways of attacking.”
There’s only so much that can be done about that. If the Cavaliers are going to swarm DeRozan at all costs, his teammates have to not only get open, not only communicate exactly where they are, but also knock down the looks that the extra attention paid to DeRozan provides them.
Wednesday night, they absolutely did not do that. The Raptors attempted only 17 three-pointers, and sunk only five. DeMarre Carroll shot 0-of-6; P.J. Tucker 0-of-3; Patrick Patterson 1-of-3. The only effective Raptors offensively were Lowry in the first half, Jonas Valanciunas in the post, and Cory Joseph in the second half, shooting freely in a game that was already decided.
So, some help would be appreciated. But if you ask Casey, he’ll tell you the solution isn’t limited to better passing or more trust in his teammates. He thinks DeRozan needs to shoot his way out of what ails him.
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“They’re into him. Bodying him. He’s got to vault up and make his shots. I’ve got to do a better job of getting him open looks, which we’re trying to do,” Casey said. “It’s not like he’s not working to do it. But we’ve got to set better screens, he’s got to vault up and shoot the ball with conviction. They’re not doing anything special. They’re blitzing on and off. He has another level he can get to.”
Lowry agreed.
“We’re not getting our best scorer open looks. He’s not getting any open shots. He had five points tonight on 2-of-11,” he said, accurately. “We’ve got to get him open looks. We’ve got to find ways to get him some good looks and good shots.”
What’s encouraging is that DeRozan has come out of a dilemma like this before. Just last week, in fact. After shooting 0-of-8 in the Raptors’ Game 3 embarrassment against the Milwaukee Bucks, DeRozan strung together three of the strongest games of his playoff career, including a 32-point effort in the series-clincher.
Of course, the difference now is DeRozan has to come out of it. You could imagine the Raptors still getting past the Bucks without the excellent play of DeRozan in Games 4 through 6. It’s harder to imagine the Raptors going anywhere but home at the end of this week if he doesn’t play similarly.
Looking down at the carpet beneath him in a quiet visitor’s locker-room after Wednesday night’s defeat, DeRozan didn’t make many assurances. No guarantees, no credulous positivity. He spoke calmly and solemnly, like a guy who knows he has to be better. Like a guy who was going to let this one stew for a little while.
“Honestly, it just sucks. Game 1 and 2 — sucks. There’s no flushing it for me or for us. It sucks,” he said, again and again. “Now, we’re just going to have to wait until Friday night to play.”
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