The Rotation: The Raptors might be in over their heads and the Rockets land a haymaker

Welcome to The Rotation, our daily playoff wrap-up of our favorite stories, large and small, from last night’s NBA action.

The Raptors might be in over their heads

by Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh)

I played high school baseball for three years, not well, but I had was on the team and they let me wear a uniform and everything. I grew up in Rochester, NY and my arts-focused high school played in the city league. We could always hold our own there, usually we won more than we lost and we at least felt like we were playing the same game as our opponents, on the same rocky fields.

Then, twice a year, we would play the local all-boys Catholic school, McQuaid. It was like our entire team had been called up to the majors. Their field was pristine, with chalk lines drawn that day. They had actual dugouts, and a whole collection of weirdly shaped nets sitting in foul territory that we assumed were used for some sort of baseball practice ritual we weren’t enlightened enough to be privy to. Their uniforms were clean, they all fit, and their players were faceless and indistinguishable — athletic bodies that appeared to be coming off a Jesuit assembly line somewhere inside the massive brick building.

I played McQuaid six times in my high school career and I knew we were in over our heads every time. But, like humans are prone to, I once let fantasy creep in and take hold of me. My senior year, at their field, we were miraculously up 4-2 somewhere in the middle innings. It was HIGHLY implausible, but our best pitcher was on the mound and if we could just keep from making a mistake we might do the impossible. Spoiler alert: our pitcher got hit in the head with a line drive and we lost 24-4. I believe the game was called after seven innings because they were up 20.

You didn’t come here for stories about my athletic ineptitude but this anecdote feels apt, considering the thrashing the Toronto Raptors took from the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1. It wasn’t just that the Cavaliers are better (they are), it is the way that knowledge seems to weigh on every movement of Toronto. The scoring margin starts growing and that weight gets exponentially heavier. The Raptors are as prepared as they’ll ever be for this matchup. That preparation may or may not be enough to pull off the upset, but whether it is or isn’t matters far less than how much the Raptors believe in it.

Perceptions of self can change. The Raptors can steal a win and get some mojo. They can win this series, as overmatched as they looked in Game 1. But they can’t get lost in staring at LeBron’s brilliance, or Kyrie’s mesmerizing crossovers, or the beautiful rainbow arcs of 3-pointers dropping in over the top of them. They have to know that they belong.

Play of the Day: At least the Spurs got this one right

By Jeff Siegel (@jgsiegel)

There wasn’t much that went well for the San Antonio Spurs in their massive Game 1 loss on Monday night, but before things got out of hand, we got a bit of the classic Spurs’ motion-based offense on this play:

The play starts in similar positioning to the Princeton offense, where a guard brings up the ball on one side of the floor, another guard is on the other side, and the three frontcourt players are spread out across the wings and free throw line. In this case, Tony Parker dribbles the ball on the right side of the floor as Manu Ginobili is opposite him and Kawhi Leonard spots up in the right corner. LaMarcus Aldridge sets a down screen for David Lee to come to the free throw line, where Parker hits him, triggering the rest of the play.

As soon as Parker enters to Lee, both he and Ginobili cut to the basket and receive opposing down screens from Aldridge and Leonard. The Aldridge screen for Parker is timed slightly earlier than Leonard’s for Ginobili to give the play the correct flow; Lee takes a dribble and hands the ball to Parker, who curls into the paint to collapse the defense. Ginobili whips around the screen on the other side as Parker gets into the paint and gets a handoff himself. With all the motion around the free-throw line, Houston’s defense is all over the place — James Harden closes out to Ginobili but is easily blown by for the floater. If Ginobili feels the defense collapsing, he can kick out to a wide-open Parker in the corner or Leonard, who has lifted up to the right wing behind Ginobili.

This play closely resembles a weave, except that instead of taking place outside the 3-point line, where Parker and Ginobili aren’t as dangerous, the Spurs use a little more movement to get them the ball in areas where the defense has to respect their scoring ability, which warps the defense and opens up shots all over the court.

The Rockets landed a haymaker

By Wes Goldberg (@wcgoldberg)

I don’t want to overreact, but if this wasn’t a haymaker by the Rockets, they at least have the Spurs on the ropes.

Houston beat San Antonio by–well–they led by 30 points for most of the game, and ran them off floor. The Rockets controlled the tempo from the opening tip and pulled away throughout. And it wasn’t only how fast they ran up and down the court, or how early in the shot clock they launched. They were a step ahead of San Antonio all night. Just look at this:

A simple pick-and-roll between James Harden and Clint Capela. Capela sets the high screen, Danny Green fights over and David Lee hedges. Capela is rolling and Kawhi Leonard is on his way to provide help defense. It’s all hunky dory, except Leonard thinks he’s got, like, an extra half second more than he actually does. Harden flicks the ball so quickly to Capela that it seems like a David Blaine trick only if David Blaine was a good magician. You have to watch the video several times before you realize that Harden passed the ball from between his legs.

The Rockets used the Harden-Capela pick-and-roll to torch the Spurs from the inside out. Both finished with 20 points as they seesawed their way to a Game 1 win.

This is what Houston does. They play fast, launch 3s and make quick decisions. They force you to keep up, and suck you into their rip current. This is a problem for San Antonio, because they can’t play that fast. The Rockets played at the fourth-highest pace this season. The Spurs played at the second slowest.

Down 23-11 in the first quarter, Popovich subbed in Davis Bertans (who played just 43 minutes in all of round one) in a desperate attempt to keep up with the Rockets pace. It was an early sign that the Rockets landed a punch, and Popovich was a little woozy.

Gregg Popovich tried to slow it down by posting up LaMarcus Aldridge, but that was a disaster. He couldn’t post up Ryan Anderson without throwing up a prayer or fumbling away the ball. He was a minus-36 in 25 minutes. San Antonio has an Aldridge problem.

They also have a David Lee problem. His help defense is slow at best, and Houston took advantage of him on the weak side all night.

The Rockets kept landing punches. 30 assists on 40 makes. 22 3-pointers. 27 fastbreak points. 36 points in the paint. It was wave after wave of pick-and-rolls and 3-pointers. By the fourth quarter, Pop gave in and sat Kawhi for the last 12 minutes.

Next: On the waterfront with Blake Griffin: His future with the Los Angeles Clippers

The Spurs spent all of Game 1 searching for answers, and never found one. Popovich has a couple of days to come up with something, but this fight might be in a class San Antonio can’t compete in.