RAPTORS VS. PACERS Dashes of Nash and Parker fuel Joseph
If you want to think like Cory Joseph, don’t overthink it. Don’t start prattling on about how you can replace Kyle Lowry with Joseph and not miss a beat. Don’t wonder whether Joseph could score 30 with DeMar DeRozan’s shot volume. Don’t get too high, and don’t get too low. Joseph will repeat that soothing bromide, whenever you ask.
Just appreciate that going into Game 3 of this nervy first-round series for the Toronto Raptors against the Indiana Pacers, the 24year-old local kid has been the coolest cat in the room. Joseph spent four years with the San Antonio Spurs, observing their holy trinity of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. He appeared in a lot of playoff games. But for the first time, he’s really playing in them.
“I feel like my game, since I was young, I’ve always left it out there on the court,” says Joseph, who is averaging 17 points on .786 shooting in two games, and who has been the team’s best backcourt defender all season.
“That was the first staple. But also going (to San Antonio) has heightened my knowledge. To just be able to see people go through it — Timmy, Tony, Manu, everybody lead by example — helped me so much more. No matter what the circumstances, I always felt like I was going to play hard. You know, just understanding the difference between the season and the playoffs helped me a lot.
“I don’t worry about (being ready for this), I really don’t. I don’t worry about doing well, or doing bad. I mean, if the opportunity’s given, I’m going to go out and play hard. Simple. Like I said, we’re not going to war, we’re not in the army. It’s basketball. You go out, you play hard, and you can be satisfied with yourself.”
Joseph boils things down like that. It’s clear he has internalized the Gregg Popovich perspective that allows you to take your dedication to the game seriously, while realizing it’s a small part of a much bigger, more serious world. And while Lowry and DeRozan have tried to find their playoff feet, Joseph is dancing. In his 48 playoff minutes for Toronto, Joseph has made 11 of his 14 shots, 11 of his 12 free throws, and piled up 34 points, six assists, four rebounds, two steals and three turnovers. The Raptors have blitzed Indiana with Joseph — and the bench mob — on the floor. If you want to jam the smallest possible sample into the biggest possible frame, his player efficiency rating is 32.9 in this series so far. Steph Curry’s was 31.5.
Don’t get excited. This is not — not — predictive. It is, right now, a nice little run.
“He’s young, but he’s been in San Antonio for many years,” says veteran forward Luis Scola. “That’s like an advanced, speed-up school for playoff basketball, you know? The other day he was asking how many playoff games I have played, and I knew where he was going: he was just trying to show off that he had played more playoff games than me, being the oldest player on the team. “So for him it’s natural.” Still, keep it in perspective. Joseph is doing much of his damage against Pacers backup Ty Lawson, whose career has teetered. Joseph is not a star; he has become a pro. A lot of people were surprised he was drafted, despite drawing eyeballs in Canada early on.
“It was his motor,” says analyst and former national team point guard Sherman Hamilton. “And don’t make the comparison, but it’s the same thing with Steve (Nash) when I first met him at 16 years old. The skills weren’t superior: he couldn’t shoot it the way he could, couldn’t handle it the way he could, but he just had this relentless motor. He never stopped moving. Cory has some of that.”
Hamilton notes traces of Parker in Joseph, and he’s right. The Toronto native is not as quick as the balletic Spurs point guard, but you can see the family tree: the way Joseph changes speeds; the way he calculates angles to finish drives; the way he creates contact, piling his shoulder into a defender and carrying him to a harmless place.
You can also see the limits of his jump shot: the slow raise, the reliable hitch. When Joseph was signed to a four-year, $30-million (U.S.) contract last summer, Ujiri figured the difference between Joseph being a backup and a starter was the ability to hurt people with a reliable three-point shot. It still is.
“He’s a good basketball player,” says Scola simply. “You want to be big, you want to be athletic, all those things are very important. But . . . you’ve got to be a good basketball player. He got a feeling for the game, he can shoot, he knows how to play.
“Probably, he was playing on a team with so many good players that he was doing less things than he was able to be doing, and he kind of surprised everybody when he got here, but most likely he had those things forever — he just had a chance to show it. So you know, he’s obviously a starter in the NBA, and for us, it’s a luxury to have him. He will be a starter soon, and for the rest of his career.”
Don’t overthink it. Cory Joseph’s a really good basketball player, but don’t go crazy. Be like Cory. Be cool.