Energy on display in Raptors victory
Earlier in the day, Dwane Casey labelled this point of October “the dog days of training camp” but his young pups looked quite pleased to be let out of the kennel on Tuesday.
Rookie OG Anunoby made his Toronto Raptors debut in a 116-94 pre-season pounding of the Detroit Pistons and was a bundle of energy while point guards Delon Wright and Fred VanVleet showed well in their minutes.
Jakob Poeltl was effective off of the bench and Jonas Valanciunas looked particularly sharp.
Add in elder statesmen Serge Ibaka and C.J. Miles having their best outings of the fall and this was an encouraging pre-season tilt for the Raptors.
Granted, Detroit was finishing up an inexplicable back-to-back and was missing top two-way player Avery Bradley, but Toronto thrived even with Kyle Lowry having a rare off-night and Norman Powell not doing much either.
None of that mattered because the players pinged the ball all around the court, playing the type of pace-and-space basketball seldom seen in these parts.
Toronto had 11 assists on its first 15 baskets, with the rookie Anunoby getting three early helpers, something he only did a few times while at Indiana.
The rookie was a surprising addition to the lineup as he works his way back from knee surgery.
He showed no fear, launching a trio of three-pointers (they all rimmed out), attempting a dunk from far out and sinking a nifty reverse, left-handed layup in the fourth quarter for his only points.
DeMar DeRozan, one of the NBA’s premier scorers, is trying to get with the program and he had nearly as many assists (eight) as shot attempts (10). On several occasions DeRozan made an extra pass leading to a good look.
“It’s a fun way to play, that’s the way the game is going,” Casey had said. “The game is so well-scouted now, they know what you are (going to do). They are prepared because of video, internet, whatever it is, they’re prepared. This style, the way we want to go, is hard to prepare for. They can’t help on Kyle or DeMar. (Opponents will) figure it out, but it will take a while.”
Casey said the team ran far more set plays, allowing defences to anticipate. Now, with the ball zinging, “I don’t know where the ball is going, so for damn sure the defence isn’t going to know where it is going.”