Raptors learning to trust Johnson
His three-pointer wins game against Spurs
The possession played out as the San Antonio Spurs would have liked. The Toronto Raptors were trailing by a point with less than a minute remaining in Sunday’s game, and Kyle Lowry dribbled into the heart of the Spurs defence. Black jerseys met the point guard on all sides, giving Lowry just two realistic choices: step back and take a contested jumper, or swing it to a wideopen James Johnson beyond the three-point arc.
The spirit of basketball dictated making the pass, but it is not that simple. Before the play, Johnson had taken just 31 three-pointers this year, making only seven of them. Sure, he was a bit more open than usual because Amir Johnson hooked the arm of Spurs guard Marco Belinelli, James Johnson’s defender, in a move that was both clever and illegal. Still, this was a result the Spurs could live with. Lowry made the pass.
“I just took it with confidence,” Johnson said after the game. “Kyle, he’s a great guard, he’s going to set guys up, and I thought … he wouldn’t just throw that pass if he wasn’t all the way confident in me taking it. That’s what the work’s paying off for.”
The ball fell through twine, the final field goal in the Raptors win. It is a scenario that the Raptors are going to have to work to avoid if Johnson is going to continue to thrive in the starting unit, the result of the play notwithstanding. Raptors coach Dwane Casey made the bulky, athletic Johnson a starter on Sunday, the first time he has started alongside DeMar DeRozan this year. He replaced Greivis Vasquez, who replaced Terrence Ross before that. Vasquez and Ross are both high-volume three-point shooters.
With Johnson in, the Raptors now lack that sort of long-range accuracy. With Johnson starting, the Raptors do not have a single player shooting above the league average of 35% who takes those shots at a high frequency. (Amir Johnson has actually hit 49% of his threepointers this season, but he has taken only 29 of them.) Teams respect Lowry’s shot, even though he is hitting only 33% of his team-high 281 at- tempts this season. Opponents will not be running out to contest the shots of either Johnson or DeMar DeRozan. And that will create issues as DeRozan and Lowry look to get to the rim, just as it did in that key possession against the Spurs.
However, Johnson has something going for him in those instances. He might not be able to make defences pay by shooting over them, but he can take the ball right at them.
“Just keep attacking,” Johnson said. “Because they’re backed up, that means I’m going to get closer to the basket. They’ll bring another guy to help pack paint and somebody’s going to be open.”
“With J.J. out there, he’s going to be just as aggressive as me and Kyle,” DeRozan said. “He does a lot of things that make up for … not being a three-point shooter. He knows when to cut. He knows when to go for offensive rebounds. He kind of stays out of the way, picks and chooses his spots. I think it makes up for everything else.”
The key for Johnson, then, will be to act decisively and quickly. When Johnson sizes up the defence and slows down, he often struggles. Johnson is an excellent secondary creator, able to use his lateral quickness to hop by defenders to get to the rim, or to use his solid passing ability to enhance the Raptors’ ball movement. He has scored 36 points in 39 minutes over the last two games, missing just two of his 17 shots and turning the ball over twice, by relying on that formula.
“He does things to take attention and pressure off of me and DeMar,” Lowry said.
If Johnson is to stick in the starting unit — and that is not a certainty — it still feels as if another move is coming. Sending Amir Johnson to the bench and replacing him with Patrick Patterson seems a natural companion move, as Patterson is the team’s best highvolume three-point shooter. It is tough to win in today’s NBA without weapons beyond the arc, and the current lineup might not have staying power once the league adjusts, at least without Patterson.
That is a concern for another day. As of now, Johnson is starting because of his individual defence, something the Raptors desperately needed on the perimeter. The challenge for Johnson will be ensuring he is not a liability when the Raptors have the ball. The very early returns are promising.