TORONTO – If in life you’re a sum of your habits, the Toronto Raptors might have cause for concern with the playoffs only two weeks away.
They’ve developed some shaky ones during their recent tour through the dregs of the NBA lottery dwellers.
Against bad teams, the Raptors – for the most part – have been able to get away with taking a quarter off here or there or being loose with the ball or not being first to the ground when they lose it.
In a pair of recent wins over the Chicago Bulls and another against the lowly New York Knicks, one quarter played with one eye open was plenty. The games were barely contested. Move the ball side-to-side once or twice and the open looks were there; sprint out on turnovers and the easy transition scores were there. Defend their opponent’s initial action and chances are the play would break down, their opponents would nearly stop themselves.
But in the playoffs, none of those sins will go unpunished. Half efforts played at the wrong internal temperature after coasting into the post-season can, say, result in losing the first game of a series at home.
Raptors fans have seen it again and again.
They got a mini-preview of what it looks like in the early going against the visiting Orlando Magic, who arrived road weary but hungry and almost made a meal of their fat-and-happy hosts.
In the end they were fine as Toronto was able to pull away for the 121-109 win thanks to – among other developments – Danny Green being locked in and ready to go. The 31-year-old shooting guard had 16 of his Raptors career-high 29 points in the first quarter to help keep the Magic in touch early on. Green was 4-of-5 from deep in the quarter and ended up 7-of-10 for the game. Luckily his teammates finally woke up and were able to turn the tide.
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“I think we started getting to the ball a lot more, communicating, turned it up defensively, especially our effort,” said Raptors centre Marc Gasol. “We didn’t change our game plan or anything, we just got more into the ball, more aggressive, and it worked.”
The win clinched the Raptors’ fifth Atlantic Division title in the past six years. There were t-shirts commemorating the achievement draped on the player’s chairs in the dressing room, but they were untouched. There are bigger fish to fry.
Green is one reason the Raptors can aim so high, so it was no surprise that Green was the steadying force. He’s been a rock for the Raptors all season since coming over from the San Antonio Spurs as the less-heralded piece in the Kawhi Leonard trade. He came into the game shooting 45.1 per cent from three – second in the NBA among those with at least five attempts per game.
It was only fitting that Green had to get his left-thumb X-rayed after the game and is scheduled for more diagnostic testing Tuesday. It’s his non-shooting hand and apparently it occurred early in the first quarter – Green could be seen holding his hand after he bullied his way into the lane with two minutes played in the game.
Did it affect his shooting?
“No,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “It did not.”
But if Green ends up missing any time, he will be the fourth rotation player to miss games due to a thumb injury this season.
The Raptors needed everything Green could give them because in the early going, the Magic were coming out throwing punches and the Raptors seemed surprised someone would even dare. The Raptors trailed by nine midway through the first quarter and 36-29 at the end of 12 minutes. The Magic were shooting 62.5 per cent from the floor. By the seven-minute mark of the quarter, none of the Raptors’ three leading engines – Leonard, Pascal Siakam or Kyle Lowry – had even managed a point.
Before the game, Raptors head coach Nick Nursed mused that his team was too comfortable and could use some stress.
They passed the stress test, but not before they were put back on their heels early.
“We’d been playing some teams that hadn’t been playing with a lot of intensity and hadn’t been guarding us very well or very hard, and this team did,” said Nurse. “I think it was just such a big adjustment to make, just in general to get the juices back up to par there a little bit. And then we just started doing a better job of everything. We started fighting through screens and keeping the ball in front, contesting shots better. We didn’t do any of that in the first quarter. It was really good there for two quarters, man. It was suffocating. It was tough on them. It was great to see.”
The difference came late in the second quarter and it was sparked by some hustle. Lowry (12 points, seven assists) laid himself out to grab an offensive rebound that he pitched out to Fred VanVleet who missed a three. But up climbed Leonard (15 points on 12 shots in 27 minutes) for another offensive rebound. Leonard managed to get it to Gasol just before he lost his balance. Gasol drained the three, even as he ended up on back after Magic centre Nikola Vucevic fouled him on the release. Gasol knocked down the free throw and suddenly the Raptors had crawled out of an 11-point hole early in the second quarter to take a two-point lead, their first of the game. Green followed up with a steal that ended in a lay-up for Leonard; Lowry hit a three and a pair of free throws to finish a 19-2 run that took them into halftime.
That was the separation they needed. They pushed the lead further in the third as Toronto held the Magic to 36 per cent shooting in the quarter and Green chipped in with three more triples in four attempts and the Raptors led 95-75 heading into the fourth. The Magic, playing the final game of a four-game road trip, didn’t have the legs to come back.
The loss may cost the Magic a playoff spot and removes any possibility Orlando could be a first-round playoff opponent. It also salvaged some pride for the Raptors who had lost twice to Orlando fairly convincingly with their only win coming on a buzzer-beater by – you guessed it – Green.
The Raptors (55-23) have won four straight now, but given the first three came against teams that had lost 174 games combined heading into Monday night, the wins were hardly building blocks.
It’s almost like they can’t be, given the Raptors’ position and mindset relative to their opponents.
“I’ve tried to not put a whole lot of emphasis, I guess is the right word, on the results of these games,” said Nurse before the game. “Because I just think it’s a weird time of year, right. Everybody’s beating everybody. Bottom teams are beating top teams all the time. Why is that? Heck, I don’t know … so it’s a strange feel to these games.
“[So we] try to really concentrate on us, again just polish up our defensive packages, hope we move the ball … and hope these guys are feeling good about who they are as individual players,” Nurse said. “… don’t get me wrong, we want to win every time we step on the floor, but I don’t want to do [is get too high or too low on] whether we win or whether we lose at this time of the year.”
They won against the Magic – and apart from a shaky start – the Raptors played well, displaying some passion and energy. Over the middle two quarters – the critical part of the game – they held Orlando to 15-of-45 shooting. They shot 50 per cent from the floor themselves against a team that has been playing some of the best defense in the league since the all-star break. They counted an impressive 31 assists on 42 field goals. Most importantly, they pushed back when pushed.
“There’s good value in playing a competitive team in the end who is fighting for playoff position,” said Leonard, looking ahead to another game against a potential playoff opponent in Brooklyn on Wednesday. “That’s how it’s gonna be. Teams are going to try and win every game in the playoffs and that can only help us.”
Does it mean much? No. But it at least offers some evidence that Toronto is still able to up the intensity when punches start flying.
Knockout blows won’t start landing for another few weeks, but you need to start building your good habits somewhere.
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