TORONTO — Even in the Dwane Casey years the mantra around the Toronto Raptors was that the offence would take care of itself — as long as they could button things up defensively they would be able to score and thus compete.
It was hard to argue, never more than during the franchise-defining playoff sweep at the hands of the Cleveland Cavaliers when the Raptors could score just fine, but allowed the Cavs to score at will.
So in the early days of the Nick Nurse era the message hasn’t changed all that much: offence would come, it was the defence that needed attention, that would be the difference maker.
But what if the offence takes care of everything.
At times in these early days it appears the offence just might.
The Raptors’ 116-107 win will not be featured as one of Toronto’s best defensive efforts – although there were spurts of brilliance that were probably the difference in the game, which improved the Raptors to 6-0 — the best start in franchise history.
[relatedlinks]
The Raptors shot nearly 50 per cent from the floor and 40 per cent from deep while making only 13 turnovers. It was an impressive showing as the Raptors topped the century mark for the sixth straight game.
But for a while it looked like they might not have to score 50 after Toronto limited the Mavericks to just one field goal in their first nine attempts to jump out to an 18-2 lead. The game could have been over by half, but then any semblance of the Raptors locking it down went by the way side.
Dallas made some shots. The Raptors made some shots. Neither team seemed all that interested it ruining what was clearly an enjoyable night for those who don’t mind a swollen box score. The Raptors lead was 17 early but after three quarters Toronto led 92-89. It wasn’t long ago that would have been a pretty good final score in a league where it was easier to slow things down than blow it open.
But a team with championship aspirations can’t be a one-trick pony and score their way out of every problem.
The difference came down the stretch in the fourth when the Raptors were able to dig in and turn defence into offence. Ten steals will do that.
“We got a couple of steals,” said Nurse. “Just some stops. Any time we got stops tonight we were able to get out and operate in the open floor pretty good.”
They came from some surprising places. The Raptors were without both of their second-unit guards as Delon Wright (groin) and Fred VanVleet (strained toe) were out. Also missing was second-year wing OG Anunoby. That meant the first steady dose of prime-time minutes for Lorenzo Brown, last year’s G-League MVP who made the team on a partially guaranteed contract.
Early in the fourth he stepped into a three that pushed the Raptors’ lead to eight, and then after a Dallas timeout he made a steal and went the length of the court to push the lead to 10, which stayed there for a few minutes until another Brown steal and lay-up pushed it to 12. During the fourth quarter Toronto held Dallas to 18 points on 7-of-24 shooting while forcing seven turnovers. Pascal Siakam had a steal and took it the length of the floor too.
“I just felt like I should pressure the ball a little bit more ’cause I feel like they were a little bit shaky at the PG position,” said Brown, who finished with nine points and two steals in 15 minutes. “So doing that helped me get going and helped the team as well.”
[snippet id=4267701]
The Raptors held the Mavericks to 41.3 per cent from the field – in-line with their season mark which is third in the league. But they did it two shifts – their stifling start and their lock-down finish. In the second and third quarter Dallas could do as they pleased and shot 22-of-45 and 8-of-15 by three, led by rookie sensation Luca Doncic (22 points and was 4-of-6 from deep) and Wesley Matthews who had 21 points and chipped in with two triples.
The Raptors had too much in the end. Kyle Lowry continued his torrid start as he put up 20 points and 12 assists – he leads the NBA in that category — while only making one turnover. He came into the game 16-of-30 from deep and went 3-of-6, including one triple that was taken and made just over centre, it seemed.
“That’s a disrespect thing, like a ‘you should be guarding me’ type of shot, you know?” said CJ Miles, who got his offence going a little with a pair of triples. “And he’ll let you know about it too, as we know.”
They’ve needed Lowry’s offensive mastery – although Kawhi Leonard’s 21 points and nine rebound was welcome too. Scoring has been the way of the NBA through the first two weeks of the season. Teams are averaging 112.3 points a game, the highest number since the 1970-71 season and six points higher than a season ago. The largest year-over-year increase in league scoring was a 4.4 points-per-game jump between the 1967-68 seasons and 68-69. Whether or not these precise rates are maintained it seems evident that something significant is afoot.
“When you’re marching out four guys with quickness and speed and long-range skill, and really many cases five — these guys [the Raptors] are playing [Serge] Ibaka at the five, who can really shoot threes. [Pascal] Siakam doesn’t shoot a bunch but he’s 3-for-6 [from deep],” said Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle before the game. “It’s a faster game and teams are going 10-deep pretty much on a nightly basis. I see [the offensive explosion] being more sustainable than unsustainable.”
There was no argument at the other end of the half from Nurse.
“I think it’s all kind of a combination [of factors] that’s doing it,” he said. “There’s the pace, there’s the spacing, the amount of three attempts that create longer rebounds and they’re easier turning around going the other way, easier transition. I think all those things are connected.”
And given we’re still in the relatively early days of the ‘space-and-pace’ revolution that has swept the game in the past five seasons or even less, we should all get used to it.
“I don’t envision it [changing] at this point,” said Nurse. “But I think who would have envisioned this five years ago even? Maybe we would have. So I think you’ve gotta always keep an open mind. It’s a good question because how do you know that it might not swing back to twin towers and two bigs. How do you know?
What’s happening is nearly unprecedented. In 2004-05 the Phoenix Suns set the NBA on fire with their up-tempo, three-happy attack. They led the league with 95.9 possessions a game and 24.7 three-point attempts. Those numbers would rank last and third-from last in the league now.
“I think I heard somebody say the other day that the ‘seven seconds or less’ Suns would be last in pace right now, and I cannot believe that,” said Nurse. “Like, do you remember how fast and exciting that was? It doesn’t seem like that long ago, did it? I remember people in Iowa were like ‘What are you doing?’ [and I was] ‘I gotta go home, I gotta go watch the Suns play.’ No connection to the Suns at all but they were so fun to watch at that point. It’s really something, the pace.”
So a team can’t live on defensive stops alone, but you need some, and you need at the right time.
The Raptors got them in the fourth quarter on Friday night against Dallas and are off the best start the franchise has ever had.
