Raptors look to hold success against Wizards
Washington coach Brooks says it’s a ‘pick your poison’ scenario
TORONTO — Washington Wizards head coach Scott Brooks ambled into the pre-game media briefing focused on that night’s National Basketball Association matchup, but still firmly aware which Toronto Raptors had done the most damage from three-point range during Saturday’s season opener.
Asked about containing the Raptors’ revamped long range attack, Brooks didn’t even need to glance at a stat sheet while rhyming off the relevant numbers.
Serge Ibaka hit three treys, as did backup guard Delon Wright. Key reserve CJ Miles totalled 12 points, all from three-point range, and formed part of a Raptors attack that stayed on Brooks’ mind entering game two of their Eastern Conference quarter-final.
Toronto converted 16 of 30 three-point attempts in Game 1, and their long-range success proved crucial in winning a game that saw both teams make 41 field goals.
Saturday also presented the Wizards with a dilemma entering Tuesday: whether to make adjustments to address the Raptors three-point shooting, or to change little and hope they regress to their season-long averages.
Brooks acknowledges that problem has no simple solutions when the Raptors play well.
“Gambling is probably not the right word, but we’ve got to pick our poison,” Brooks said. “Some guys are better shooters than others … You’ve got to take some percentages and go with them, and live with them. They made their shots.”
The deluge of three-pointers flows from a game plan the Raptors overhauled between seasons to address an offence the club found stagnant compared to the uptempo, three-point gunning style that defines the contemporary NBA.
So the club added proven threepoint shooters like Ibaka and Miles, and encouraged incumbent stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry to trade mid-range two-pointers for high-yield threes. During the regular season the Raptors averaged 33 three-points per game, good for third in the NBA, while their 11.8 three-point field goals per game ranked fourth.
But more than numbers, comparisons with last season provide the starkest illustration of the shift in philosophy toward the long-distance offence that earned the Raptors a 1-0 lead in this opening round series.
This season’s Raptors shot 35.4 per cent more three-pointers than last year’s club did, and converted 33.5 per cent more threes than they did in 2016-2017.
Amid all that volume, accuracy suffered slightly.
This year’s Raptors made 35.8 per cent of their three point attempts, down half a per cent compared with last season.
But they entered Game 2 coming off a game in which they converted 53 per cent of their threepointers.
Before Tuesday’s game, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said his club wouldn’t take similar success for granted, and that they were prepared to start fresh in game two.
“When you get into a playoff situation, just because you win one game that doesn’t mean anything,” Casey told reporters before the game. “It’s a sevengame series and you’ve got to go in with that mindset: you haven’t accomplished anything.”
The return of second-unit point guard Fred VanVleet gave the Raptors another three-point option Tuesday night. VanVleet led the club in three-point accuracy this season.