Time and time again Dwane Casey has stressed the importance of respecting the process this season.
Playing against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night, the Toronto Raptors spent the first three quarters patiently respecting the process and then collapsed in the fourth quarter.
As we’ve seen many times this season, they were unable to piece together 48 minutes following the same game plan, falling to the Hawks 107-88.
While the two teams were tied at 75 through three quarters, the Raptors became a different team — for the worse — after they lost Amir Johnson to a left leg contusion early in the quarter.
Without arguably their best player this season, Toronto fell apart in a big way. The Raptors were outscored 32-13 in the final quarter, allowing the Hawks to shoot a blistering 13-for-19 (68 per cent) from the floor.
Anyone questioning Johnson’s importance to this Raptors team needed only to look at the 55-29 run the Hawks went on after he exited the game.
“Toughness is a big part of this league,” Casey said. “If you don’t have the mental and physical toughness, he gives us that experience in there. (Jonas Valanciunas), as much as anything else, had some breakdowns defensively in that stretch (without Johnson), but again it’s the only way he’s going to learn. Amir is that experienced guy who’s been in those situations, in those mid-screen-and-rolls … We missed that toughness, what he brings to the table.”
Casey wasn’t the only one who pointed to the boost that Johnson gives the team.
“Amir brings toughness, rebounding, defensive intensity we need,” DeMar DeRozan said. “Especially on the defensive end. It definitely sucks because we kind of rely on Amir a lot for his energy and feed off him.”
Al Horford and Jeff Teague were fantastic for the Hawks. Horford finished with 26 points and 12 rebounds, and Teague added 24 points and 13 assists. Each scored 10 points in the fourth-quarter push.
“It was one of those where we knew we wanted to play our best basketball,” Horford said of the fourth quarter. “We didn’t play well the first three quarters, I would say. It was a conscientious effort on all our parts to step up and make shots, make plays and get stops defensively.”
While the Hawks were exploding in the fourth, Toronto lost its rhythm, making just five of 20 field goal attempts. It was a painful finish for a team that has felt the frustration of falling apart more times than they’d like to admit this season.
“We let frustration get to us and they took advantage of it,” DeRozan said.
Despite the frustrations, the bright spot for the Raptors was the play of Valanciunas. The ever-improving rookie led his team in scoring, posting 19 points on 8-for-11 shooting. He also added eight rebounds. Fellow rookie Terrence Ross added 13 points off of the bench to go with five rebounds in 23 minutes. Rudy Gay had 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Raptors, but committed five turnovers.
“Things might not be going the right way, but we are trying,” Valanciunas said. “We are trying to win. I am doing my best to win, and I am going to do that all season. And maybe we will win.”
If nothing else, it’s a positive to have young players focused on trying to piece together a solid effort for the full 48 minutes despite the awareness that their season is ending in a few weeks.
The ugly nights like this could be a necessary part of the process, after all.