The Toronto Raptors are a really, really good basketball team for a variety of reasons, but what stood out last night was just how many different ways this team can bury you even if their dominant starting unit is struggling. It wasn’t Kyle Lowry, it wasn’t DeMar DeRozan, it wasn’t Terrance Ross or even Jonas Valanciunas, it was Greivis Vasquez and Lou Williams that tore apart the Hawks defense.
Vasquez was 8-for-12 from the field, 3-of-6 from deep (all three of 3-pointers seemed like backbreakers in real time), for a total of 21 points in 17 minutes. It was just Vasquez having fun at the Hawks’ guards expense, former Hawk Lou went 6-for-11 from the floor, 4-of-6 from 3-point land in 26 minutes of action. (A classic “**** you for trading me for 80 cents on the dollar” game by Lou.)
The Raptors’ starting backcourt of Lowry and DeRozan may believe they’re the best backcourt in the NBA, which isn’t the case, but what’s gone unnoticed for the most part is how the Raptors may have assembled the best back-up backcourt in the NBA in Vasquez and Lou.
Greivis has gotten so comfortable playing without the ball in this offense that the majority of his 3-pointers last night were wide open with the Hawks’ guards failing to closeout fast enough to get a hand in his face as he broke the team’s back with a devilish smirk on his face.
Lou, a newcomer, looks just as comfortable as it’s clear Dwane Casey’s style of play is a better fit for his game than Mike Budenholzer’s. Lou is just more Jason Terry than he is Manu Ginobli, and that’s okay. Lou was doing it all for the Raptors last night as Lowry struggled the majority of the night that ended with a technical at one point in the game.
From the Hawks standpoint, this was another brutal game defensively that produced more questions for this team than answers. Questions like, “Why is Shelvin Mack still getting minutes when teams aren’t acknowledging his existence from beyond the arc?” or “Why does Paul Millsap always seem to struggle against powerful bigs like the Raps?” or “Why is this defense playing so poorly as a unit?”
These are all fair questions, I think, but I found myself thinking, “they just don’t have the depth to beat a team like the Raptors” the entire night, and that’s a problem. Sure, the Hawks were shorthanded without Thabo Sefolosha, but the Hawks bench is not producing like it needs to in games like this.
Budenholzer’s decision to only play Mike Scott 11 minutes was an odd one, and Dennis Schroder really struggled defensively against the best backup backcourt (that sounds cool, doesn’t it?) in the League. Budenholzer stuck with Millsap for 36 minutes and it result in a 3-of-9 night, 0-for-3 from 3-point land.
On the bright side, Al Horford got back on track putting together a 23-9-4 line, excelling in the pick-and-roll burying what seemed like every midrange shot the Raptors dared Al to take. I counted at least two very generous roles by the Basketball Gods on Horford’s shots tonight, but I’ll take it.
The Jeff Teague MVP Experience continued, as the point guard added 24 on 14 shots (and was a perfect 8-8 from the charity stripe). Teague’s currently averaging a 18-7-2 line, with a career line of 10-4-2, so yeah, Teague is playing out of his mind right now.
Still, the Hawks fell to a much better Toronto team that’s quietly become *the* team in the Eastern Conference everyone is going to start to worry about come playoff time.
