Raptors’ Valanciunas elevates his game

Mardi Gras had come and gone by the time the team rolled into New Orleans, but one Toronto Raptor in particular rolled out of town on a pretty big high.

It’s been a while since Jonas Valanciunas left a game feeling as good as he did after Wednesday’s 94-87 win over the host Pelicans.

Valanciunas had one of those games where his defence was on point, his shot was on target and the help was on time. Those almost-perfect games don’t come very often, but when they do they can give a guy a boost — and Valanciunas was in need of a lift.

“He did an excellent job last night on both ends of the floor,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said. “He scored. He played with a lot of zip and pep in his step, and that was good to see. I thought he had his head down there for a little bit (coming into the game), but I thought he played with a tremendous amount of confidence against one of the top centres in the league.”

With Valanciunas in the game for 33:32 — a full dozen more minutes than he has had in the past nine games — the Raptors got a game-high 25 points out of their centre, not to mention the game-high 13 rebounds. And they got solid defensive play to go with it.

Casey is and always will be a defence-first coach. You prove

yourself on that end and then you get the opportunity to play offence. Valanciunas quite simply wasn’t getting the job done on the defensive end until Wednesday.

“He proved he could do it,” Casey said. “If a guy has trouble guarding a certain situation, he can’t stay in. … But he did an excellent job. It’s a good step in the right direction for his growth, and he has been doing a good job of guarding pick-and-roll situations.”

Valanciunas knows exactly what is expected of him on the defensive end, and he had plenty of success keeping a beast like Pelicans big man DeMarcus Cousins from going off.

If there is a change these days, it is that when J.V. gets beat in his one-on-one matchup — and Cousins did win some of the battles — there’s one or sometimes two guys behind him with help. They go by the names Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker.

“Yeah, that’s our strength,” Valanciunas said.

“We are all helping each other. We are all ready. The scheme is to guard your guy one-on-one, but if something breaks down, you have help behind you.”