TORONTO — Little can represent the crushing tedium and ennui this time of year lends quite like the start of Wednesday’s game between the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors, which featured two teams not so much playing basketball as fulfilling its obligations. Possessions were botched; basic rules, such as defensive three seconds and over-and-back, were violated; it took Detroit nearly eight minutes to crack double digits.
Yes, this was a bad game from the jump — the kind of let’s-all-get-through-this-without-getting-hurt contest you’ll see between two non-rival teams at this dog-days juncture of the regular season schedule. Raptors head coach Dwane Casey called it “ugly.” Delon Wright said the energy was “weird and funky.” DeMar DeRozan went with “not a pretty win at all.”
But, aesthetics be damned, it was a win. The Raptors found a way to fight through the doldrums, vanquishing the Pistons, 96-91. And in case you, too, had trouble maintaining interest in this one, here are three things to take away from an otherwise forgettable night.
A different look
Toronto’s offence sputtered and stalled at various points throughout the game, as the Pistons trapped Raptors ball-handlers aggressively in hopes of disrupting flow at least and creating turnovers at best.
Of course, every team blitzes and traps. But the Pistons found a unique way to do it, and the Raptors looked somewhat dismayed by it, coughing up 21 turnovers. After the game, Casey made it sound like a previously hidden flaw in his team’s offence had been exposed.
“They were really getting into us. Getting after us. Doing something a little bit different defensively that kind of threw our rhythm off a little bit with traps,” he said. “It’s different. It’s just different. I don’t want to get technical. They were jumping out with one guy, and hanging another guy. And then coming back with timing. They were taking the roll guy out and you had to find the weak side. I’ll show you the film someday.”
So, even in the ugliest of games, there’s a lesson to be found. And although it’s unlikely Casey will be leading any film sessions with reporters, you can be sure that he’ll be leading one with him team to address the double-team issue and correct it.
DeRozan was the primary target of those double-teams, and coughed the ball up five times. After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, he had only seven over the rest of the game, as the Pistons threw everything they had at the Raptors star.
“They were just extremely physical,” DeRozan said. “We’ve got to be able to read that ahead of time — not feel the physicality then try to make an adjustment. We’ve got to see it before time and make our decisions quicker.”
But it wasn’t just DeRozan. Kyle Lowry, Jonas Valanciunas and Wright faced increased pressure as well, and combined for nine more turnovers. Wright said a big difference he noticed was the Pistons were trapping point guards like himself off of shooting guard screens, instead of merely switching coverage like many teams have in the past.
“It was a little different — it took us out of a lot of our stuff,” Wright said. “I just think they had a great game plan on us and kind of caught us off guard. But I think next time we play them we’ll be able to dissect it. It was the first time playing them this year.
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C.J. the unaffected
While Toronto’s primary ball-handlers were fighting uphill, C.J. Miles was lurking in the corners waiting to launch. The 12-year veteran was as free-wheeling from range as he has been all season, taking 12 three-pointers and hitting five.
“Man, C.J. — he was getting them up today,” Wright said. “When he’s knocking them down, he’s one of the best shooters in the NBA. So, whenever he gets a look at the rim, everybody on the team is encouraging him to take that shot. Because he can shoot them at a high percentage.”
Miles came into the game in a slight slump, having hit four of 16 attempts from beyond the arc over his past two games. But this is what shooters do — they shoot. Whether hot or cold, they take their opportunities the same as always.
And in a game like this, when Lowry, DeRozan and Wright were under constant duress, it was particularly important for Miles to be ready to fire whenever the ball found him.
“He really spaces the floor. He allows you — if teams are double-teaming — to pick them apart. And we took advantage of that a few times,” Casey said. “They had to make a decision on whether they were going to take the roll man or the kick out. And they gave us two or three or four kick-outs. And he had 12 attempts. We did a good job of finding him, and he did a good job of knocking them down.”
Coffee is for closers
Perhaps you’ve heard a thing or two about how the Raptors are playing an extremely different style offensively this season. It’s not only a testament to how open Toronto’s stars have been to change, but also to Casey’s coaching acumen, and his willingness to adapt when it’s called for.
But another area Casey’s been adaptable in without the fanfare has been his closing rotations. He’s been much more willing to play the hot hand late in games this season, and you saw it again on Wednesday, as he turned to a unit of Lowry, Wright, DeRozan, Miles and Valanciunas to play the final seven minutes of a still tightly-contested game.
At times this season, we haven’t always seen Wright, Valanciunas and Miles in those late-game situations for various reasons. But Casey went with his most effective group Wednesday, and watched as they helped the Raptors pull away in the end.
“It was ball-handling. Delon did a good job of helping handle the ball,” Casey said. “I liked that part of it. I thought C.J. did a good job defensively with that group against the four. And JV rebounding the ball. That group did a good job. They did what they were supposed to do.”