Raptors withstand hot Heat bench
Toronto starters called upon to get job done against Miami in narrow win
TORONTO It came back to the Toronto Raptors starters and they did not disappoint.
After the much-appreciated Toronto bench carried the load the past few games, the bench mob ran into a pretty solid bench opponent in Miami that took it to Toronto’s reserves and outscored them.
With Goran Dragic going off as he seems to just about every time the Raptors and Miami Heat meet on the schedule, it came down to finding the difference in each team’s starting five.
The Raptors’ two all-stars answered the call.
Through a half, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan had 20 points between them.
They got it going in the second half, with DeRozan finishing with a club-high 27 points and Lowry bumping his point total to 22 to hold off an underrated Heat squad by a 115-112 score. The Heat bench — led by former Raptor James Johnson and CJ Miles clone Wayne Ellington — were a stern test for Toronto’s bench, which has been the talk of the town for the last little while.
Johnson had 16 points while Ellington chipped in with 15 to keep the Heat in this one throughout. Bam Adebayo finished with 11 points and the returning Dwyane Wade rounded out a strong bench presence for the heat.
The Raptors play Wednesday in Chicago before a deserved weeklong break for the all-star game.
IN PRAISE OF PATIENCE
The coaching fraternity is a strong one, so it’s no surprise that Erik Spoelstra had a strong opinion on what he thought Dwane Casey’s recent milestone of 300 wins in a Raptors uniform meant.
“I think it’s great for coaching because coach Casey, like myself, has needed great stability and consistency and support from the organization and from ownership and management to be able to weather some storms and build a culture and find some success,” Spoelstra said.
“Without that stability so many of us would have been cast aside. I think it’s a great reflection right now in some areas, but in a lot of other places it’s still a turnstile.”
Spoelstra talks from experience, having heard his own job called for and speculated about on numerous occasions, only for the Heat organization to shut out the noise and stick with the man they know.
“Yeah, it’s unfortunate,” Spoelstra said of the rarity of that stability in today’s game. “That is how we all feel as coaches. I mean how many more coaches would have an opportunity like I’ve had or coach Casey has had if they had just had some stability?
“I say it all the time and people kind of laugh at it, but it’s true,” Spoelstra said. “I probably would have been fired at least two or three times if I was with a different organization — at least (that many), maybe four or five times!
“You know we’ve lost in the finals, we’ve had seasons where we didn’t make the playoffs. We’ve had stretches during regular seasons where we would lose five straight. Coaches get fired for that. Coaches get fired for a lot less than that these days, but if you really want true accountability there has to be consistency and an opportunity to build leadership and culture on your team.”
Spoelstra has clearly been watching Casey’s tenure closely.
“(Casey) has done a tremendous job here,” Spoelstra said.
“A lot of different challenges, a lot of different teams and he has had to change his philosophy over the years and found success in a lot of different ways.”
DESERVED RECOGNITION
It was 1,000 games for the most consistently entertaining element of Raptors basketball.
The team mascot Raptor celebrated that milestone Tuesday night and did so in style with friends including Stuff from Orlando, a host of other mascots from around the NBA, and local mascots such as the Toronto Blue Jays’ Ace and the Maple Leafs’ Carlton the Bear.
No one in his city, let alone the NBA, holds a candle to Raptor for creative skits and hijinks. He may not be quite as nimble as he was pre-Achilles heel tear, but he remains full value for your entertainment dollar.
KERR EARNED THE RIGHT
There was much made of Golden State head coach Steve Kerr turning his clipboard over to his players and letting them basically do the coaching during timeouts, normally his domain, in a win over the Phoenix Suns the other night.
Dwane Casey saw absolutely nothing wrong with it.
“It’s funny because I told Kyle (Lowry) a while ago that he could run a film system way before this,” Casey said.
“We haven’t done it yet. But you’re looking for anything to keep guys focused.”
So no surprise that Casey was in favour of what Kerr tried — but he cautions it’s not something any team could get away with.
“I like it, yes,” he said.
“It works for certain teams, for his team, an older team, a veteran team, a successful team. I don’t know how much it would work for a young team that has trouble keeping up with attention to detail. They can miss a detail and still make a three.
“They’re a little bit different. Everybody can’t be them.”