He saw the scrum descending on Terrence Ross and Greivis Vasquez raised an eyebrow. “Don’t say anything about Paul Pierce,” Vasquez told Ross as he stood up to address the cameras and recorders and notepads.
“Don’t say nothing …”
Vasquez needn’t have worried. There was no statement to be made post-game, no grand pronouncements necessary. The scoreboard and scorer’s report said it all. The Raptors beat the Washington Wizards 103-84 Friday night in a meeting of trendy, pre-season Eastern Conference picks at the Air Canada Centre and it was a score that hugely flattered the visitors. I mean, when you’ve played so well that Otto Porter and Kris Humphries and Andre Miller are the only opposing players to finish in double digits; when you have held your opponents to 36.1 percent from the field and shackled their dynamic backcourt in a 3-for-19 night, there really isn’t much to say except – if you’re the Wizards – “uncle.”
Yet the question had to be asked of Ross, whom many feel was exposed during the Raptors playoff loss to the wise, old Brooklyn Nets last season. And that’s the polite way to describe what Pierce did to him in the spring.
“Pierce … I don’t know … I don’t know … I don’t know … it’s not like … it was a matchup with Paul Pierce,” said Ross, whose early 3-pointers sparked the Raptors to a club-record 5-1 start and for a moment at least stopped some of the whispering that perhaps his spot as a starter was in the balance.
The stragglers in the Raptors locker room hooted and chuckled as Ross navigated his way around the question. They had good reason to be happy, because this was their best game of the year, a game in which they broke out of an annoying habit of starting slowly and finishing with a flourish. They led 59-36 after the first half and brought the crowd of 19,800 into the game early, never letting them escape on a night when they wore their throwback purple jerseys. And when Jonas Valanciunas stood at the free-throw line with 6.6 seconds remaining and the game in the bag, the crowd rose as one and chanted ‘Let’s Go Raptors.’
DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors with 25 points, while point-guard Kyle Lowry laid down an early season All-Star marker with a triple double on a night when John Wall was held to 3-for-13 and finished with just eight points.
“We didn’t come out with playoff intensity and obviously they did,” said Pierce, who had eight points and eight rebounds in 23 minutes. “They were ready from the jump. This game was to see who is going to be in first place this early in the season and they were more ready than us, mentally and physically, on both ends of the court.” Added Wall: “The biggest key was (Terrence) Ross got them going early, making the threes that got us to 19-4.”
The Raptors were clearly buoyed by the unexpected return of both Amir Johnson and Valanciunas to the lineup. Johnson would end up going to the locker room with 8:26 left in the third quarter with a sore left ankle – a precaution after he missed three games with an ankle issue – but by then the game was well in hand. Johnson finished with six points, seven boards and two blocked shots in 21:11 while Valanciunas, who missed the Raptors win in Boston with a nasal contusion and a badly bruised hand, played 28:36 and had eight defensive rebounds.
“Their return was huge,” said head coach Dwane Casey. “They give us that rhythm as a first unit. Their screening and spacing and running the floor … the way they know their angles, and how to screen DeMar’s man and Terrence’s man was huge. No disrespect to Patrick Patterson or Tyler (Hansbrough), but there are angles and understanding – there’s a feel for how DeMar and Terrence like those things, and Amir’s one of our best players at that.”
Ross came in for praise from Casey.
“He was very explosive. He got things started offensively and shot the ball with tremendous confidence over a Hall of Famer in Paul Pierce.”
The teams combined to miss their first eight shots from the field, but while the Wizards never found their range Ross helped the Raptors zero in. Ten minutes into the game he was 3-for-3 behind the arc. “Any time your shot starts to fall, it starts to feel like one of those nights,” Ross said.
Six games in and it’s apparent that this group believes they really are destined for bigger things. Either Lowry and DeRozan and Ross were stringing the biggest line of B.S. in some time or they really did seem to love the idea of having six more games in the purple throwbacks. “I looked forward to wearing the throwbacks, because I thought the Raptors had the best throwbacks,” said Ross, who as a child growing up in Portland, Ore., remembered Damon Stoudamire wearing the purple Barneys. “Vince was here … T-Mac … I think everybody thought they had the best uniforms,” Ross said with a shrug.
Lowry talked about how important it was to put on a show for Raptors alumni Alvin Williams and Antonio Davis, who were in attendance. He talked about wanting to give the jerseys “respect forever.”
“We played well from start to finish,” Lowry said. “We still made some mistakes but there were a lot more positives to take away than negatives. Finally, we can say that.”
It’s a helluva thing to be able to say when you’re starting a seven-game homestand. For the Raptors, maybe the best thing imaginable. Next up? The Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday.