Hawks scorched from outside as Valanciunas paces Toronto
ATLANTA — On a night starter Jonas Valanciunas earned credit for setting a high-energy tone in a runaway win, Toronto coach Dwane Casey still criticized a lackadaisical final few minutes from his backups.
The explanation from Casey was simple: “We’re building for something bigger.”
Valanciunas had 16 points and 13 rebounds, and the rested Raptors used strong 3-point shooting to beat the Atlanta Hawks 108-93 on Wednesday night.
Playing in their first game since Saturday’s loss at Minnesota, Toronto made 14 3-pointers, including eight in the first half. The Raptors improved to 25-6 when making at least 10 3s this season.
Toronto’s big lead was 32 points, but Atlanta’s reserves, led by rookie John Collins’ 13 points and career-high 16 rebounds, had the stronger finish to the game.
“It was a letdown at the end,” Casey said. “I was disappointed at the way that last group went in. It’s a game of habits and that’s what I just told the young guys . ... You create bad habits and it shows up in weird places.”
Casey wants his players to win home-court advantage throughout the conference playoffs. The Raptors entered the game 1 ½ games behind Boston in the race for the No. 1 seed in the East. Raptors 108, Hawks 93
Fred Van Vleet added 19 points off the bench and All Star starter DeMar DeRozan had 14 as Toronto moved to 3-0 against Atlanta this season. The Raptors won the first two games of the season series by an average of 23.5 points.
“It feels like this year they’ve played really, really well against us,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “I think you have to give them credit whey we have not played well.”
Dennis Schroder led Atlanta with 20 points. Kent Bazemore had 13 points.
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The Raptors had good reason to feel comfortable. They arrived in Atlanta on Sunday and in a rarity had time to focus on fundamentals in two practices.
“We tried to focus on getting back to the basics,” said Jakob Poeltl, who had six points. “... I think it showed tonight.”
Toronto had 12 blocks and 10 steals.
Before the game, Casey wasn’t sure what to expect following the unusually long rest.
“It’s an unknown,” Casey said. “Hopefully it’s good, the break is good, but sometimes rust is something else, too, when you get out of game rhythm.”
The Raptors showed no rust. They were never threatened after stretching their lead to 17-6 with an 11-0 run, capped by Serge Ibaka’s 3-pointer, in the first quarter. strain. He suffered the groin strain on Jan. 5 ... Schroder matched his career high with eight rebounds. I’ve been working for all year . ... It will be fun.”