Raptors rebound with authority
Valanciunas double-double while controlling Nowitzki sparks blowout win over Mavs
Basketball is so much easier when the occasional long-range shot goes in, when the ball moves and magically finds open shooters, when the defence stiffens and transition opportunities present themselves.
And as they search for some kind of identity to get them through a difficult portion of the season, the Toronto Raptors managed to parlay all those simplifying factors into a slump-busting win Monday night.
Finding a rhythm they had lost in weekend defeats in Atlanta and Miami, Toronto rolled to a thorough 100-78 win over the Dallas Mavericks at the Air Canada Centre.
The Raptors made nine three-pointers — just the second time in their last 10 games that they’ve reached even that minuscule total — and dished out 19 assists in a game they took over at the start of the second half.
DeMar DeRozan, operating primarily against Dallas rookie Dorian Finney-Smith after Wesley Matthews of the Mavs was lost with a strained calf at halftime, had 11 of his 25 points in the third quarter as the Raptors ran their record to 39-28 and won for the first time in three games.
Toronto’s 29-20 advantage in the third basically sealed the win against a Mavericks team that could get nothing going offensively.
Harrison Barnes had 18 points and Dirk Nowitzki 17 for the Mavs, but Dallas had no sustained offence.
Jonas Valanciunas, who had a tough assignment in guarding Nowitzki, more than held his own with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Patrick Patterson got untracked offensively, hitting a trio of threepointers as part of an 11-point night for Toronto.
The Raptors aren’t playing with one eye on the out-of-town scoreboard, but it doesn’t take them long after the game to check in on their Eastern Conference counterparts.
“I don’t think you live your life looking at it, but it’s important,” coach Dwane Casey said before the game of the conference standings and the battle for homecourt advantage in the playoffs. “I mean we’ve got what, 15, 16 games left?”
There is a sense of urgency to at least find some kind of consistency in the absence of injured point guard Kyle Lowry. The Raptors have been up and down in the nine games he’s missed after injuring his wrist.
“We’re trying to get a rhythm without Kyle,” Casey said. “We have a certain personality without him that we haven’t gotten yet.”
Casey did move around a lot of pieces to find some rhythm, going 10 deep in the roster by the time the second quarter began, even without Lowry and starter DeMarre Carroll, who missed another game with a sore left ankle.
The Raptors used an all-backup group of Patterson, Fred VanVleet, Delon Wright, P.J. Tucker and Jakob Poeltl to start the second quarter, a fivesome that held its own for the short stint it was together in the first half. The same group, to a much lesser success, finished the third quarter.
For Poeltl, the appearance capped a busy ACC day. Before getting his 12-minute run against the Mavericks, he had played 33 minutes with 11 points and 11 rebounds as Raptors 905 beat the Austin Spurs 116-87 in a D-League matinee.
DeMar DeRozan exploded for 11 of his 25 points in the third quarter against the Mavericks