Raptors rally but fall short against Mavs: Griffin
Things could not have looked much worse for the Raptors as the night unfolded. But in the end they rallied, as they often do, to close within three points of the Mavericks with under a minute left before falling 106-102 at the Air Canada Centre.
Toronto had trailed by as many as 15 points.
The Raptors showed the makings of a winner even in defeat, even after losing top player DeMar DeRozan to injury. It seemed not even the euphoria of a six-game winning streak and scoring the first 10 points of the game could help Toronto against the more-experienced-at-winning Mavericks, led by Monta Ellis, Dirk Nowitzki and Tyson Chandler.
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey had this game against Dallas figured out in advance — even before the loss to the talented Mavericks had started. Beware the lob pass to the basket, he said. Beware Chandler’s athleticism and Nowitzki around whom the Mavs’ game revolves. He is the hub. Casey also took time to trash the stats gurus who, earlier in the week, had predicted his Raptors as a 100 per cent playoff lock after just 15 games and 13 wins.
“They can take that and the paper they write on . . . ” Casey did not finish his sentence. “It’s a long season. I’ve been around this too long and there are a lot of good teams. The beginning of the season you can set the tone as to how you’re going to live the rest of the way, but by no means does it designate or determine where you’re going to be at the end. We want to just keep going, keep improving. Last year helped us as far as adversity is concerned, to fight through stuff, but we still have a lot of learning how to play consistently.”
The first half of the game reflected his measured concern. Over the first 24 minutes, in a contest that was expected to be free-wheeling and high scoring as befits two of the top two scoring teams in the NBA, DeRozan and Jonas Valanciunas each pitched a shutout, combining to go 0-for-9 from the field with no trips to the foul line. DeRozan entered tied for third in the NBA in free throw attempts.
Sparkplug and team leader Kyle Lowry even sat for nine straight minutes after apparently angering Casey via his early play. First he objected to a clear push-off offensive foul as he went up for a shot, then dropped the ball at his feet to show his annoyance at the refs, was warned for that action, then took another quick foul 10 seconds later. Do you think the refs were looking for him?
In any case, Casey is aware how quickly things can change and it’s why he continues to cite defence as the key to his team’s success if they are to rebound from nights like Friday.
“We try to score off of our defence, play up the floor, create a turnover, try to do it quickly,” Casey said. “Our guys are doing a good job of really understanding what we’re trying to get out of our offence, attacking the paint, drawing and kicking, making shots at the end of the day.
“But again, we like for it to start a lot on defence. Try to get a turnover, bust out, run the floor. If we have an open-three at the end of it, take it. Those things we’re trying to encourage and I think it gives our guys some confidence. We have to continue to complete the plays, but we’re playing with a lot of confidence right now on offence.”
The Raptors on the floor to start may have thought it was going to be easy, win No. 7 after exploding out of the opening tipoff with 10 straight points in the first 2:52 before Mavs coach Rick Carlisle called a timeout to try and stem the tide. It worked; by the end of the first quarter the Mavs led.
DeRozan continued to struggle, then, turning the corner on a drive at the 3:37 mark of the third quarter slipped and went down, clutching at his leg. He limped off the court after a couple of minutes down and was confirmed with a strained left groin. That is not good news, as he’s day-to-day. The personal shutout marked the first time he had played over 16 minutes and failed to score in five years.
In any case, the Raptors for the second time this season were wearing the purple dinosaur uniforms and at certain times reminded fans of some of those early teams. On board for the evening as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations was the popular Jalen Rose, who spoke of the Vince Carter repatriation by the fans on his night a week ago and spoke fondly of his experience in Toronto.
“That was awesome to have not only a city or a state rooting for you, but an entire country rooting for you,” Rose said. “You have to look no further at the progress of Toronto basketball at the crowd that showed up in Cleveland with the ‘We the North’ chants on LeBron James home court and then to get a win. That says a lot about how far the team’s come.”
Rose also spoke of the emotion he saw from Carter as he watched the video with the visiting Grizzlies over a week ago.
“The way he was overcome by emotion, the way he shed a couple of tears, that’s how I felt when we traded him for Aaron and Eric Williams and Alonzo Mourning, who never was deciding to make the trip,” Rose said. “To see both sides decide to repair the relationship. He’s the greatest Raptor in team history and they’re awesome fans here. Both sides deserved that and I was happy to see it.”
