Raptors heading home humbled
Toronto suffers worst loss of season in San Antonio as starters get some rest late
SAN ANTONIO — It was a still an hour and a half before the Raptors and Spurs would tip it off at the AT&T Center and Toronto head coach Dwane Casey was already sounding the alarm bells.
“We’re in the same situation we were in in Golden State,” he said referencing an earlier beating on the current road trip. “You have a team that is one of the elite teams who just got beat losing a close game in Atlanta and they come in here like a wet hen and are gonna be fit to be tied. We gotta match that intensity.”
Casey would have been thrilled to be wrong on this one, but he wasn’t.
The Spurs came just as Casey feared, making everything tough for the Raptors from an offensive standpoint and shooting the lights out to build an insurmountable lead in the first half.
The 110-82 final was the worst beat-down the Raptors have suffered all season.
Kawhi Leonard — who missed two games and returned in that loss to Atlanta, but was still not himself — was back to his usual high level of play, hitting six of his first seven shots of the game and five of his first six from behind the arc to help put the Raptors in that huge 19-point hole at the half.
Leonard, who missed those games dealing with a bout of gastroenteritis, was not himself upon his return to the lineup in Atlanta, finishing (for him) an unheard of minus-7 in a game and hitting just three of his 12 shot attempts.
Safe to say that two days later, Leonard was as right as rain and he wasn’t alone.
Joining him with stellar shooting nights for the Spurs were LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker. Between the three, they missed a total of 12 shots while making 25 and leading the team in scoring with 25, 23 and 15 points, respectively.
Unlike that Warriors game, there was no real comeback in this one although the Raptors did manage to hold the Spurs scoreless for nine or 10 possessions late in the first half and early in the second before an animated timeout courtesy of coach Gregg Popovich got that out of the Spurs’ system.
Even then the Raptors weren’t able to cash in on the other end and by the end of the third quarter the San Antonio lead was up to 30.
Initially, it looked like Jakob Poeltl might be in for his second eye-opening night of the trip, but even he was not immune to the pounding the Spurs put on the Raptors after a solid start that saw him help the Raptors get four consecutive stops as he came into the game.
This was the second loss by 10 or more points this season for the Raptors, but by a substantially bigger margin. If one goes looking for excuses, the Raptors wouldn’t need to look too hard.
This was the final game of a sixgame road trip that the schedule maker gifted the Raptors over Christmas and into the new year.
It began on Dec. 23 in Utah and ended Tuesday in San Antonio.
Kyle Lowry, who has been so dominant this trip and made as good a case as anyone for league honours not just for the past week, but the entire month of December — losing out on both to John Wall of the Wizards — looked particularly fatigued.
Lowry, who came into the game shooting 50 per cent from three in December and was over 80 per cent for the month of January, went 0-for-7 from behind the arc. It’s not like he forgot how to shoot overnight.
Casey wisely unloaded his bench very early in the fourth, meaning Lowry finished the night playing just 29 minutes, which should help him through the rest of the week, which includes three more games in short order.
Lowry finished with just six points in those 29 minutes, while DeMar DeRozan, who would also get some extended rest in the fourth, finished up with a team-high 26 in 31 minutes.
The six points by Lowry snapped a streak of 114 consecutive games in which Lowry has scored in double digits, the fourth longest streak in the league.
Terrence Ross once again had a good night coming off the bench, giving the Raptors 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while Cory Joseph just got into double digits with 11.
The Raptors spent Tuesday night in San Antonio and travelled back to Toronto Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s home game against the Utah Jazz.