Little things were big deal for Raptors
In the giddy emotion after the Toronto Raptors came back to win Game 5, nobody was sure what happened. One Raptors employee said, “I can’t believe we won that game.” Another just shook his head. Asked for an explanation, one Raptors executive grinned and said, “There’s no explanation.”
There was, sort of. Toronto had won 102-99 after trailing the Indiana Pacers by 15 late in the third quarter. They outscored Indiana 25-9 in the fourth. It was made, mostly, of little things. To start, it needed Bismack Biyombo. Late in the third, with Toronto down 15, he shoots two free throws. Biyombo shot 48.3 per cent from the line as a stone-handed rookie, then 52.1, then 51.7, then 58.3. This year, he was at 62.8. His free throws dive at the rim, but they both go in.
“This is the first season I haven’t taken a day off,” said Biyombo Wednesday. “I come back in the gym on every other day off, I come back at night, I come before people get to the gym, I stay after. The key was, how can I improve not getting all this Hack-A-Player that’s been going around the league? In the summer, I worked a lot on my free throws and try to improve, and it was a matter of repetition and getting my confidence high.
“In the fourth quarter, you don’t want to give the coach a reason to take you out of the game.”
He is one of four Raptors to play the entire quarter.
With Indiana coach Frank Vogel sticking with his bench, Kyle Lowry, swollen elbow and all, hit a jumper around a solid Biyombo screen. Biyombo hits two more free throws. 90-81, 9:23 left. Lowry drives and sets up Biyombo for a dunk as Vogel screams for a travel call. 90-83.
The building is starting to go, now. Timeout, Indiana. Vogel finally brings back starters Paul George and George Hill. Rodney Stuckey, a lifetime .827 free-throw shooter, misses two.
Lowry runs at George in transition, and as George tries to shield the ball from Lowry he stumbles, and rookie Norm Powell takes it away for a reverse layup. 90-85, 8:08 left. Powell was asked Wednesday what makes him nervous. “Nothing,” he said with a grin. C.J. Miles hits a jumper with 7:41 left. It’s Indiana’s first basket of the quarter, after four misses. They will, in the final 12 minutes, go 4-for-15.
Cory Joseph knifes to the rim for a layup off another Biyombo screen. 92-87. Stuckey, who has played nine years in the NBA, tries to dribble between his legs, loses the ball, twirls out of bounds at the feet of Drake. Drake claps. Vogel brings back Monta Ellis and Myles Turner for Stuckey and Ian Mahinmi.
Joseph finds Terrence Ross for a three. It’s his only basket of the night. 92-90. Powell flat steals a pass intended for George, and as Powell rises at the other end for a dunk, the ball slips out of his hand. He stuffs the ball through anyway. 92-92, 6:31 left. 17-2 run.
“He was going to get cussed out if he missed,” says DeRozan, who notes that Norm and Ross are athletic enough to put the ball down, even if it slips. Timeout, Indiana. Solomon Hill for C.J. Miles. After three straight Terrence misses, DeRozan for Ross.
Lowry draws a charge on George, who had 37 through three quarters and finishes with 39. The Pacers suffer a shot-clock violation. Lowry drives and hits DeRozan on the left wing at the three-point line. DeRozan went 9-for-25 from the left wing this season, but doesn’t hesitate. 95-92. DeRozan, who had 53 points in the first four games of the series, has 32.
“A lot of shots, even the shots I don’t take, I still work on ’em,” says DeRozan. “I still work on ’em so I can be comfortable for ’em whenever they do come.”
Another Indiana miss. DeRozan is freed by another Biyombo screen, and finds Joseph in the right corner. Joseph isn’t a three-point shooter — 27.8 per cent this season — but he was 9-for-18 from the right corner. 98-92.
Lowry does a pile of things. He hits two free throws despite his swollen elbow. He bats out an offensive rebound with Toronto up 100-96. With a 102-99 lead, Lowry defends the hell out of Ellis. Indiana has 2.7 seconds left.
“That’s Kyle, man,” says DeRozan. “Kyle, that’s one guy who’s going to figure it out.”
And then, the final play. Powell is supposed to foul George on the catch to prevent a three-pointer; he does not. Joseph is not supposed to leave the in-bounder, Solomon Hill; he does. George slips the ball to Hill, but he isn’t quite ready to shoot, so he brings the ball down to start his shooting motion. If Hill catches and fires in one motion, the ball’s in the air when the buzzer sounds. Because he has to set himself, it’s not. Game over. Raptors win. That’s all it took. All it took was everything.