Run-and-gun Raptors fall short against Mavs
DALLAS— For weeks they had ridden one of the best offences in the NBA to victory after victory after victory.
Winning some nights on the strength of individual performances, winning on other nights through teamwork and sharing the ball and everyone making shots.
It was fun to watch but it was never going to last forever and the crash, when it came, would be costly and might be ghastly.
It certainly hit here Tuesday night as the Raptors came up with one of their few subpar offensive nights and dropped a 98-93 decision to the Dallas Mavericks.
It was just Toronto’s second loss in its last 14 games and while not the end of the world, it did come just a day after they had moved to first place in the Eastern Conference.
“This is a long season,” Kyle Lowry said after the Raptors shot just 33.7 per cent from the field. “We weren’t not going to lose a game the rest of the year. It would have been great to do that but we lost so we have to get better from it.
“We’re mad that we lost but we have … to learn from it and move on to (Wednesday in Oklahoma City).”
As poorly as they played offensively, the Raptors had two great chances to steal a win in the final 45 seconds. But trailing by three, Serge Ibaka missed a shot to tie and then missed a jump shot the next time Toronto had the ball before a J.J. Barea bucket sealed the win for Dallas.
“Serge had a point-blank shot,” coach Dwane Casey said. “We got a shot before they could get their defenders in the game, we’ll take that. Serge had one to go in and out.
“Our rhythm was all off offensively and couldn’t make a shot.”
DeMar DeRozan, freshly minted as the NBA Eastern Conference player of the week for the second time this season and seventh time in his career, had an uncharacteristically bad night, going just 3-for-15 from the field and 0-1 from three-point range.
“It’s one loss, we ain’t panicking. It’s one loss to us,” said Lowry, who led Toronto with 23 points.
“Myself and DeMar didn’t shoot great percentages (a combined 9for-33), Serge didn’t have a great shooting night … we missed some layups, it happens. I think we still could have played harder, could have played more aggressive but we gave ourselves a chance.”
And, as generally happens, a tough night offensively turned into a so-so night defensively, even against a Dallas team that went into the game dead last in the Western Conference with a 9-25 record.
It wasn’t that Toronto was awful defensively—the Mavs shot 42 per cent from the field but certainly didn’t dominate — but the Raptors’ inability to score led them into transition defensive situations they sometimes struggle with.
All of Dallas’s guards, especially the lightning-quick rookie Dennis Smith Jr., repeatedly beat the Raptors down the court, got into the paint and exposed Toronto’s defence.
Smith and Barea were particularly effective in the first half, when Casey said the Raptors lost the game.
“Defensively I thought we tried to lock in at the end but, again, the way they started the game, going coastto-coast, we were still on Christmas break,” Casey said. “It’s on all of us.”
The Raptors could very well have been getting one of their last looks at the Maverick icon Dirk Nowitzki, the 39-year-old who is in his 20th NBA season.
Nowitzki was solid if unspectacular, finishing with 18 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the floor while grabbing seven rebounds.