SOLID REBOUND
Raptors work out some kinks and bounce back with big win
ATLANTA — The Raptors got everything they needed out of Atlanta over four days with perhaps the exception of a game.
The rebuilding Hawks, fresh off a win over the Utah Jazz on Monday night that a number of Raptors players and staffers attended, were no match for the rested Raps, who spent the better part of their extended visit here fine-tuning things as they got a rare lengthy break in the middle of the schedule.
Wednesday’s 108-93 win was nothing if not thorough.
The Raps arrived here determined to work on their rebounding, which had been a real concern over the past few games and their end-of-game play, which has been well below where it was a year ago. There was also the issue of re-establishing the ball movement that has been at the root of all the change this year.
With the rebounding, they got a chance to work on protecting their own basket to limit second-chance points and extending their own possessions with some good work on the offensive boards.
The ball movement was there too. with the Raps assisting on 24-of-38 made buckets.
Alas, there was no real chance or need to work on the end-of-game issues because this one was so far out of reach early on, most of the fourth quarter was basically garbage time.
The game wasn’t all together pretty for the Raptors, but they did make easy work of the Hawks and did show enough signs that the few days of work here did bear fruit.
“For us, it’s a unifying factor, it’s a positive as far as practice, no distractions,” Casey said of staying on the road and getting some practice time away from home. “We did the same thing last year, I thought it was really productive. It’s good. It gives sort of a training camp mentality for our team, especially when you have an opportunity to have a good, physical, hard practice.”
Individually, the Raptors saw a handful of players work out some kinks in their game in Atlanta as well.
Both Serge Ibaka and OG Anunoby came into the game struggling from long distance. Anunoby, in particular, appeared to have hit that rookie wall as far as his offence was concerned.
Anunoby, who needed to see the ball go in the basket in a month in which he was shooting just 15% from distance, saw 2-of-3 go down in a nice all-round game that including 10 points, five boards and an assist in 24 minutes.
Ibaka, who wasn’t much better from distance in the month, shooting 20% from behind the arc, and bumped that up with a 2-for-4 night from three-point land, part of a 12-point, three-rebound, two-assist night.
“It becomes a mental game, it’s something guys have to work on,” Casey said of those three-point shooting skids. “There’s different things you can do if you don’t feel your shot but I don’t think you can ever tell a guy don’t shoot the ball, especially when you say you’re going to be a threepoint shooting team.
“Hopefully those guys can read situations or points in the clock that you can DHO it, drive it again, don’t settle,” Casey said. “Again, if the shot clock and the game is telling you to shoot the ball, you’ve got to step into it. It’s going to hit, it’s going to click. Those guys have shot the ball well before and they shot them in practice so that’s what you have to live with when you’re developing a three-point shooting mentality and three-point shooting team.”
In other words, don’t expect Casey to ever take the green light away from his players.
As a team last night, they were a solid 14-for-34 from distance, which is a huge improvement over what they had been shooting from there for the month.
The Hawks meanwhile, well, they are most definitely in a rebuild mode in case that wasn’t already apparent.
Somehow they have 14 wins this season, but how that occurred is anyone’s guess.