Essentials
- Teams: Toronto Raptors (20-6) at Detroit Pistons (5-21)
- Date: December 19
- Time: 7:30 p.m.
- Television: FSD+
Get in the Game
The Toronto Raptors are an Eastern Conference force to be reckoned with despite the absence of the injured DeMar DeRozan (torn left adductor longus tendon). The fact that Kyle Lowry is enjoying his best season as a pro certainly helps the team compete, but one still has to question how T-Dot is surviving without its second-best player.
DeRozan is the team’s second leading scorer and top free-throw earner, but Toronto general manager Masai Ujiri acquired pieces in the offseason to help mitigate absences on the wing.
To be clear, I’m not saying the Raps are better without DeRozan. After all, he was the team’s lone All-Star last season. NBA.com’s advanced stats tool (subscription required) tells us the Raptors are outscoring teams by 9.1 points per 100 possessions with their starting 2-guard on the floor, which is actually better than the Dallas Mavericks.
Why bring up the Mavs? Well, they’re on pace to have the most efficient offense in league history, and yet the Raps outscore teams by a higher differential with their All-Star.
All is not lost without DeRozan, though. In his absence, Toronto still outpaces opponents by 7.6 points per 100 possessions (that figure was 3.4 last season). So what gives? It’s a combination of things really.
First, DeRozan had been struggling shooting through his first 16 games, as evidenced by his 39.4 percent field-goal mark. Nonetheless, he made up for it a bit with his 7.8 trips to the charity stripe. DeRozan is an aggressive player who provides difficulties for defenses especially when slashing to the hoop. Toronto lost the freebies, but improved its shooting in his absence.
Still, it is rather impressive that Toronto has been pretty good without him, and that’s where the GM deserves some praise. Ujiri snagged two really good reserve players this past summer in James Johnson and Lou Williams, and they’ve paid huge dividends.
After getting killed on the wing by the Brooklyn Nets – specifically Joe Johnson and Paul Pierce – in last year’s playoffs, the Toronto front office knew it needed to get tougher on the perimeter. Thus, it brought the 6’9’’ Johnson to town, and he’s making his mark.
Johnson is a physical defender who loves to challenge players. He tries to crowd air space and push up on opponents. The goal is to make his primary assignment uncomfortable, and boy does it work.
According to NBA.com, with Johnson on the floor, the Raptors only allow 98.2 points per 100 possessions, a figure that would place them in the league’s top-three defenses if projected over the entire campaign. It’s worth noting, he does have knack for getting shot happy, but Toronto will live with the occasional errant shot provided he defends at a high level.
Still, Johnson isn’t much of a shooter, which means he compromises the Raptors’ spacing. That’s where the addition of Williams comes in.
The 6’1’’ Lou is more a 2-guard, but he can masquerade as a point guard because of his ball-handling skill. He settles for contested shots a bit too often, which explains the need to play him at the off-guard position.
Indeed, Williams has a scorer’s mentality, and he can shoot you into games with it. He’s a good open shooter and finds imaginative ways to get to the rim and create contact. Per 36 minutes, Williams is averaging 23 points and 6.9 free-throw attempts.
One might scoff at the fact he’s only making 41 percent of his shots, but that’s hardly a concern for Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. If Williams is making positive plays and missing, the coaching staff will stick with him because he’s opening up the floor for teammates with his drives and spacing.
On the flip side, when Williams simply doesn’t have it, Casey isn’t shy about sitting him.
Put it all together, and one can see what makes the Raptors such a dangerous squad. Johnson and Williams are key cogs to a team that boasts are pretty good interior group (Jonas Valanciunas and Amir Johnson) as well as some terrific point guard play.
It will be interesting to see how the Detroit Pistons match up with a Toronto team that has figured out how to be a successful ball club. The Pistons are still trying to develop chemistry and good habits with a roster that’s hardly ideal, while the Raptors have figured things out.
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