Raptors hit bumps on road
MIAMI— A couple of hours before his team would be dissected, Raptors coach Dwane Casey was lauding the Miami Heat.
An “analytical dream,” he called them for their willingness to shoot three-pointers and get to the rim, eschewing the mid-range game almost completely.
A “hard-playing team,” he also mentioned because they defend with passion and aggression and don’t take possessions off.
It was a warning, and while the collected media heard it loud and clear in the bowels of the AmericanAirlines Arena, it was lost between there and the court.
The surging Heat, continuing a dramatic turnaround to a season that began disastrously, proved to be everything Casey had mentioned, hammering the Raptors 104-89 to bring to an end a tough fivegame road trip for Toronto.
An 11-day journey — that began with back-to-back games, followed by three days off before ending with three games in four nights — finished 2-3 for the Raptors, who are simply treading water at the moment, hanging on and scratching out wins here and there while waiting for all-star point guard Kyle Lowry to get back and bring some normalcy to a team that hasn’t had any all season.
The Heat, meanwhile, are going in an entirely different direction. Saturday’s win was their 21st in their last 25 games as they make a late-season push for the eighth Eastern Conference playoff spot.
They are doing it with sharp shooting — they made a trio of three-pointers among seven straight baskets to open the game — and with a tenacity on defence that has become their trademark.
The game was contentious, to say the least.
The Raptors picked up five technical fouls; Patrick Patterson was ejected in the fourth quarter; there were bumps and pushes and hits and glares; Jonas Valanciunas laid out Dion Waiters on the first play of the second half.
But Toronto did not match the overall aggression of the Heat.
Playing without DeMarre Carroll, a last-minute scratch because of a sore left ankle, the Raptors offered little resistance and got nothing offensively. Shooting less than 40 per cent from the field and under 25 per cent again from three-point range, the same issues plagued them Saturday that have popped up since Lowry had surgery on his wrist: On nights when no one is making shots, it doesn’t matter how hard they play. There is not enough scoring to carry them through.
DeMar DeRozan suffered through a5-for-16 shooting night and finished with 17 points for the Raptors, who ended the night with the majority of the starters on the bench watching extended garbage time.
Goran Dragic, who missed almost the entire second half after taking an elbow in the eye from Cory Joseph, had 15 points for Miami, and Waiters made three from three-point range as part of a 20-point night.
It was the first time in months that the Raptors had a look at ex-teammate James Johnson, and some of them probably had to do a doubletake when they saw him. Slimmed down and about 25 pounds lighter than he was at the end of last season, Johnson has become a vital bench player in the Heat turnaround.
“My role on that team was for that team, and my role on this team is for this team,” he told reporters Saturday morning about the change in fortunes. “Every role is going to be different . . . So that is just what it is. It’s a business and happy to still be here.”
Casey was impressed with Johnson’s transformation.
“He’s done a great job of transforming his body,” Casey said of Johnson. “He’s lighter. He’s not carrying around extra weight. He’s moving like a guard.”