DeRozan surging for Raptors at right time
Since Jan. 1 has topped 30 points in 10 games
DeMar DeRozan has had some fine stretches with the Raptors since being drafted by the club in 2009, but none of them have felt like this.
He has scored at least 30 points in four of the past six games, shooting 50 per cent in that span and most recently lifted the Raptors to a big win over Miami on Saturday night. He shot 10 free throws in overtime, the latest period where opponents simply couldn’t stop him from getting where he wanted to go. Miami head coach Erik Spoelstra had said pre-game that the plan was to keep DeRozan and Kyle Lowry off of the line, but DeRozan got there anyway.
DeRozan has topped 30 points 14 times this season, 10 of them since Jan. 1. He now has 48 games with 30 or more, which trails only Vince Carter and Chris Bosh in franchise history.
“The last couple of weeks, this week, he’s played unbelievable, so I’m hoping he gets better even,” Lowry said.
Throughout this surge, DeRozan has insisted he hasn’t changed anything.
“I have no clue, man,” was his response to what is different.
“I just go out there and play and don’t think about what I did previously or what I’ve been doing, I just try to go out there and play and try to do something better every single night.”
He’s definitely done that. When he wasn’t piling up points, DeRozan was making excellent passes, primarily to Jonas Valanciunas. That’s not usually his game — he can move the ball, but it’s nearly always to set up three- point shots from the likes of Terrence Ross, Patrick Patterson, or Kyle Lowry. Finding Valanciunas inside for four dunks was a new wrinkle.
Just as impressive was his success on the defensive end. Because DeRozan plays so many minutes, scores so much and takes such a physical beating, he often doesn’t have much in the tank when he is defending and can make mental and physical errors ( ball- watching, not getting down into his defensive stance being two notable examples).
But he was completely locked in against the Heat, particularly seven- time allstar Joe Johnson, making several crucial defensive plays in the fourth quarter and overtime to help secure the win. Lowry wasn’t surprised. “I knew he had defence in him. He can do that,” Lowry said, pointing out others are asked to be the defensive stoppers.
“We have DeMarre ( Carroll), (James Johnson), Norm ( Powell), but he’s good at it. The opportunity comes … that’s what he can do.”
DeRozan was happy Dwane Casey let him go up against Johnson.
“He’s a helluva matchup but it’s a challenge and when you take on a challenge like that, it’s definitely fun.”
The version of DeRozan that was on display on Saturday wasn’t just an all-star, it was an All-NBA level talent.
You can bet Casey would be happy to see more of it.
“If he comes down and gives easy buckets away, at the end it’s worthless,” Casey said, describing a scenario often seen in the NBA, where a player has a huge scoring night, but lets his counterpart also go off.
“But he came down and did a man’s job on the other end, defensively, which is huge. He did it (Saturday) on both ends of the floor.”
The Raptors improved to 14- 4 against the top five teams in the Eastern and Western conferences.
A win Monday over Chicago, a team that has won eight straight against the Raptors would be another steppingstone in a season that so far has been full of them.