Balanced offensive attack helps Raptors down Magic

And just like that, our beloved Raptors move to 3–0 in the bubble after a convincing W over the Magic (109–99). Let’s get right into it with our customary 4 things we liked and 1 thing we disliked.

LIKE #1 — Father-Son Relationship

Meet the best player on the Orlando Magic. His name is Nikola Vucevic. Last season, he put up 20.8 points per game on 51.8% shooting. This season, he’s averaging 19.5 points while hitting 47.6% of his attempts. Those are very good numbers. All-Star numbers even. But for some reason, when he goes up against Marc Gasol, the dude looks like the Monstars stole his basketball prowess.

We all remember the first round of the 2019 playoffs when Gasol limited Vucevic to 11.2 points on 36.2% shooting across 5 playoff games. Also, just for fun, in their last 8 meetings (which include those 5 playoff games), the Orlando big man is putting up 9.6 points while hitting a hide-your-eyes 30% of his shots. Yowsa.

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: we don’t get out of the second round last season without Gasol (sorry JV stans). What he did defensively against Vucevic and Embiid was a masterpiece — it should be hanging in a museum somewhere.

Against Gasol last night, Vucevic did not disappoint (Raptors fans that is; I’m sure he disappointed Magic fans though) as Gasol once again held him well below his season averages: 12 points on 4-for-10 shooting.

It was also good to see Gasol get it going on the offensive end. In their first two bubble games, he was averaging 7.0 points (on just 4.5 shots per game) on 44.4% overall shooting and 25% from three. Against Vucevic and the Magic though, he almost doubled his shot volume (8 shots) and hit 5 of them, including 2-for-3 from long-range, to finish with 13 points. If we can get a Gasol who scores in double digits more often, combined with his all-world interior defense, there’s a very good chance we’ll find ourselves back in the Finals.

LIKE #2 — A Well-Balanced Attack

If the Lakers game was the Lowry & OG show and the Heat game was the Fred & Pascal show, then the third game against Orlando kind of belonged to everyone. It was a well-balanced offensive attack with everyone chipping in. Name me another team that has this many players capable of going off for 20+ points on any given night. I’ll wait.

Here is what the good guys did to the Magic:

Siakam had 15.

OG had 12 and was a team best +17 (including playing his usual nightmare-inducing defense). He even busted out Siakam’s spin move just for fun.

Gasol, who we covered above, had 13.

Lowry almost finished with a triple-double (8 points, 10 assists, 9 rebounds).

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson even chipped in 7 points including a couple impressive drive-and-kicks.

Ibaka had 11.

Norm finished with 14.

But it was FVV once again who led the way (in an encore performance after his career-best outing against the Heat) with 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting (2-for-5 from three) to go along with 10 dimes, 4 boards, 1 steal, and zero (!!!) turnovers.

Give me Fred VanVleet over Kemba Walker or Ben Simmons any day. There I said it! We’ve already seen what FVV can do on the biggest stage. We haven’t seen Kemba make it out of the first round while Simmons’ refusal to shoot threes will always be Philly’s downfall.

Also, how do you beat this Raptors team 4 times in 7 games? Everyone in the regular rotation is a plus-defender. We also got 8 dudes who could go off offensively on any given night. Just sayin.

LIKE #3 — Point of Attack

Since the seeding games have started both Lowry and FVV have upped their respective games. Lowry is averaging 18.3 points while hitting 44.4% of his triples to go along with 7.0 assists and 10.3 (!!) boards. The lone weak spot has been his overall shooting (36.4%).

FVV has pretty much been the fire emoji during these seeding games — and, dare I say, he’s outplayed even Lowry. VanVleet is putting up 23.3 points per game, 8.3 dimes, and 4.7 rebounds while shooting an impressive 50.0% overall and a blistering 52.5% from downtown. He might be coming for all the Finals MVP votes now.

LIKE #4 — Offense Wins Games…

But defense wins championships! Consider this your friendly reminder that the Raptors have the second best defensive rating, they are second in steals, second in opponent second-half points per game, and first in opponent points per game (106.1). During the seeding games, they have even taken their defensive effort up a notch by holding their opponents to 98.0 points per game (that’s an 8.1 improvement! Let that sink in for a moment). Oh yeah, there’s also this courtesy of our friend Marshall Vic:

Against the Magic, the game was pretty much over in the first quarter as they limited Orlando to just 11 first quarter points.

Thanks for coming out Magic — see you in the first round.

DISLIKE — Easing Into Things

While our starting line-up has brought it from the get-go, our second unit has been easing into the seeding games (that’s my polite way of saying they haven’t been very good).

Against the Lakers, our second unit combined to score 15 points on 25% and 11.1% shooting splits. Against the Heat, our bench played better (45.5% and 25% shooting) but was outscored 56–22. But it’s progress people!

Against the Magic, the incremental progress continued. The bench combined for 40 points highlighted by Norm’s 14, Ibaka’s 11, and even RHJ’s 7 points. Our second unit hit 44.8% of their shots including 36.4% of their triples (up from 11.1% and 25% in the first two games).

The lowlight off the bench though has unfortunately been Terence Davis — who we all had high expectations for in the bubble (and come playoff time) in the hopes he could consistently be the eighth man off the bench. In the first 3 games of the re-start, he’s putting up a humble 2.3 points while hitting just 33.3% of both his overall shots and his three-pointers. The good news is that we are 3–0 so far despite TD2 under-performing so he has time to turn things around.

There’s nothing more fun then that random game where TD2 goes off — and you know it’s coming soon!

Until next time…

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