Wright stuff must travel
Backup can score at ACC, but can he do it away from home?
If the Raptors needed a reason to play against type and mercilessly terminate their first-round playoff series with the Washington Wizards in six games — and let’s face it, Toronto’s NBAers have a well-earned reputation of making closeouts harder than they probably need to be — perhaps they found it late Wednesday night.
It wasn’t long after Toronto reserve guard Delon Wright drilled a couple of game-defining three-pointers in the Raptors’ Game 5 win that various members of the Wizards were already dismissing Wright’s contribution as unrepeatable in Friday’s Game 6.
“Role players play better at home,” said John Wall, the Wizards guard, explaining away Wright’s key contribution at the Air Canada Centre.
Added Wizards swingman Kelly Oubre Jr., as quoted in the Washington Post: “The next game is a different story. We’re back at home. Just like Delon doesn’t play well anywhere else, you know, other than at home.”
It wasn’t exactly vicious trash talk. But in a sensitive-to-the-touch era, it counted as a laying down of the gauntlet. Maybe it’ll be enough to spur the No. 1-seeded Raptors, who’ve been less than stellar in a couple of games in Washington, to snap to attention and finish the series they currently lead 3-2.
“Yeah, I saw (Oubre’s comment). That’s his opinion,” Wright said Thursday. “I didn’t play as good (in Washington in Games 3 and 4) as I did at home, but he made it seem like I was a total bust. We’ll see in Game 6.”
In a lot of ways, home-road discrepancies don’t make logical sense. NBA courts are more standardized than they’ve ever been. Travel has never been easier. Hotels are invariably fivediamond.
The hardwood runs 94 feet everywhere. Visiting locker rooms are mostly passable, if not palaces.
And yet, home-road discrepancies happen. The same Wizards that have won eight straight playoff games at Capital One Arena have lost seven straight playoff games in opposing gyms. And heading into Thursday, visiting teams had a 10-29 record so far in the NBA post-season.
Wall wasn’t making stuff up in his observation about role players. In three playoff games at the Air Canada Centre this year, Toronto’s reserves are averaging a collective 41 points. In two playoff games in Washington, they’ve contributed just 27 points a night. At the Air Canada Centre, the backups are shooting 49% from three-point range while averaging about six makes a game from deep. On the road, they’re shooting 22% from behind the arc, making about two a game.
And Wright, to Oubre’s point, is averaging 16 points a game at the Air Canada Centre and a mere six points a game in the U.S. capital.
What’s behind that obvious contrast? As Raptors coach Dwane Casey was pointing out Thursday, all Wright did in Toronto in Game 5 was what he failed to do in Washington in Game 4.
“He took the shots the game gave him (in Toronto), as it did in Washington. Now the difference is it was Air Canada Centre versus the Capital One (Arena),” said Casey.
In other words: Same shots, different building. And suddenly Wright went from, in Casey’s words, “pump-faking air” to finding nothing but net. Suddenly he went from timid to fierce, from liability to linchpin. In pro hoops, as in real estate, it’s about location, location, location.
“That’s the difference, and he’s got to continue to do that,” Casey said. “He’s got the green light. He’s a very good threepoint shooter. Again, just step into it. Because the defence is giving him that — that shot. He did a good job (Wednesday) of setting his feet. Even the ones he missed were good shots.”
Wright hears this from plenty of sources beyond his head coach. His old brother, exNBAer Dorell, is among the chorus. (“Yeah, he’s always telling me to shoot the ball,” said Delon). Teammates, too, have pointed out it’s in every- body’s interest that Wright let it fly, home or road.
“We got on him a little bit — not got on him, but people told him he had to shoot the ball and take shots,” guard Kyle Lowry said. “The way our offence is, you’ve got to take open shots. If we pass up shots, it kind of takes us out of our offence a little bit.”
Should the geographical co-ordinates of a game make such a difference? Casey called the crowd in Washington for Games 3 and 4 “vicious” and “boisterous” and “rabid.” And maybe it was. Maybe it’s too much to ask for the Raptors to go against historic form and current NBA trend and give their fan base a Sunday off from the nail-biting stress of a Game 7.
“Game 6 is a must-win,” Lowry said. “Nah, it’s not a mustwin, but it’s a game we need to go out there, play our game, execute the game plan, play our game and understand where we are. We’re on the road. Things are going to be a little bit different.”
Maybe so. But this might not be a bad time to point out the Raptors won more games on the road during the regular season (25) than the Wizards won at home (23). And Friday’s game will also be the first postseason away date directly following a game in which Wright’s road-worthiness was openly questioned in a public forum by an opponent.
Wright, who turned 26 on Thursday, didn’t exactly return fire in the face of Oubre’s critique. But the Raptors role player flashed a confident smile as he strode away from reporters. “I’ve got a quote for you when we win.”