The Rotation: Raptors look scary and the Wizards do not
Welcome to The Rotation, our daily playoff wrap-up of our favorite stories, large and small, from this weekend’s NBA action.
This is what the Raptors were supposed to look like
By Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh)
Finally, and gloriously, the Toronto Raptors were able to wrestle the moment to the ground. Instead of the universe pinning them on their backs to dangle a loogey perilously close to their face, today, the Raptors are the loogey-danglers.
They haven’t quite closed out the Bucks but, after a 25-point Game 5 win, Toronto has found a rhythm. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan played solid, albeit muted, basketball. Serge Ibaka hit shots. Norman Powell dribbled, and hit shots. Jonas Valanciunas provided a few minutes of beast mode and the Raptors bigs helped hold Milwaukee to just two offensive rebounds. Just what the dino-doctor ordered.
It wasn’t a perfect game by any stretch of the imagination but something like this is what the Raptors envisioned when they acquired Ibaka and P.J. Tucker at the trade deadline — a team that’s versatile and deep and can beat you at both ends of the floor, in a variety of ways. A team that can feel out an opponent’s pressure points on defense, and squeeze, while relentlessly scaling walls on offense.
The work is not done. Over the past two postseasons, no team has swung more wildly between looking thoroughly dominant and utterly hopeless — the Raptors have that market cornered. But for one night, they looked like the team that could really challenge the Cavaliers. That’s a start.
This is not what the Wizards were supposed to look like
By Brandon Jefferson (@pengriffey_jr)
John Wall and Bradley Beal have longed to be mentioned among the best backcourts in the NBA. A group that once looked like an exclusive trio (Steph Curry/Klay Thompson, CJ McCollum/Damian Lillard and Kyle Lowry/DeMar DeRozan occupying those three slots) has begun to let the Wizards duo make room for itself.
For the first time in years, Beal was able to play more than 70 games. His health has been one of his biggest detriments to his career early — whenever he looked ready to breakthrough or solidify himself some body part would end up tweaked. Wall, has finally made the leap from star to superstar. In a year where there are multiple players worthy of taking home the MVP, it isn’t a stretch to include Wall’s name in the conversation. Aside from an abysmal 2-9 start to the year, Washington has been one of the best teams in the league this season.
However, for every step forward this tandem seems to take they always manage to find a way to take two steps backwards.
After two dominant performances to start their first round series against Atlanta the Wizards looked like the team in the East most likely to sweep their opening matchup, not Cleveland. Yet, the awe-inspiring, crowd-roaring, celebration-inducing show in D.C. was incapable of traveling on the road.
In Game 3 they were never able to claw out of a big hole they dug for themselves early. Game 4 saw both teams take turns going on prolonged runs, but the Hawks’ spurts in the second and fourth quarter allowed them to bring home a second double-digit victory.
Game 3 was more of the same for Wall. He’s taken this opportunity to square off against Dennis Schroeder as a personal insult and wasted no time in letting the German point guard know about it. While he has the highlight of the night with his behind-the-back fast break slam it was Atlanta that was the better team.
Beal was missing in action for most of that game, but in Game 4 he found both himself and his jumper as he poured in 32 points. Whoever Atlanta threw his way was getting a bucket put on their head. Yet, he couldn’t do it all and in the end his big night will go unnoticed.
It’s not uncommon for the other top guard tandems to have their rough stretches — they’ve even had some in the playoffs: Lowry in Games 1-3, Klay’s shooting 35 percent on 3-pointers, Lillard and McCollum’s Game 2 — but it seems that the Wizards duo is the most inconsistent.
In the rare moments that the two are clicking at the same time, Washington looks like the first worthy Eastern Conference foe in the last seven years. More often than not, Wall and Beal work together like a light switch; in order for one to be on the other must be off.
Saying goodbye to Portland’s flare screens
By Jeff Siegel (@jgsiegel)
The Golden State Warriors put the Portland Trail Blazers, and their flare screens, out of their misery last night. They will be missed.
Portland head coach Terry Stotts and his staff boast one of the most creative playbooks in the league. Chief among these innovative sets is Portland’s consistent use of flare screens to take advantage of sleeping defenders who think their job is done. In the first quarter of their Game 4 drubbing at the hands of the Warriors, the Trail Blazers ran one last flare pick-and-roll:
The play starts with Damian Lillard in the middle of the floor and Allen Crabbe in the corner. Al-Farouq Aminu sets a down screen for Crabbe, who comes up and screens for Lillard. Crabbe’s defender, Andre Iguodala, has to respect Lillard coming around the screen and pulling up for a three; after all, Iguodala sees that every day from Stephen Curry. While Iguodala is reining in Lillard, Crabbe continues on his way, running behind Noah Vonleh as Lillard lofts the ball across the court to his Crabbe on the opposite wing. With Iguodala well behind, JaVale McGee steps up to Crabbe, but Crabbe seizes the advantage and blows past him. Vonleh is also rolling to the basket as another threat with which the Warriors have to contend.
It takes a lot of discipline and communication for the defense to stop these plays, because the initial pick-and-roll with Lillard is dangerous enough on its own; even though it’s just a decoy to get Crabbe open on the weak side, Lillard can still pull up for three or get to the rim himself if the defense doesn’t commit to stopping him. The Trail Blazers run this kind of action for their stable of guards and wings, all of whom are threats to hit the three on the initial catch and can drive past a closing big man to get to the rim.
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Don’t worry, though. Just because Portland has been eliminated doesn’t mean the flare pick-and-roll is gone; Boston ran the exact same play a few times in the first quarter of their Game 4 win over Chicago on Sunday.