Toronto Raptors: How They Dominated Game Three
By Ryan Greco
Very rarely is a physical basketball game considered beautiful, but the Toronto Raptors just painted a masterpiece of hustle and defence in a 101-85 win in game three over the Indiana Pacers.
This was the most dominating playoff performance by a Toronto Raptors team in the history of its franchise.
From beginning to end, the defence and hustle from this group never allowed Paul George to get comfortable, or allowed any of Indiana’s big men to give any second chances on the glass.
These were two things that burned the Raptors greatly in the second half of game one, and nearly cost them game two.
The Raptors coaching staff and its player rectified those mistakes in an emphatic way, holding George to just one of eight from behind the arc, and out rebounding the Pacers 15 to nine on offensive rebounds.
More from Tip of the Tower
- Cam Phillips making his mark on Toronto Argonauts offence
- Toronto Argonauts: 4 storylines ahead of matchup against Redblacks
- Federico Bernardeschi ready for new challenge with Toronto FC
- Toronto Argonauts overcome Roughriders in entertaining Touchdown Atlantic
- Buffalo Bills: Von Miller drawing inspiration from Bruce Smith
DeMar DeRozan also appeared, and was seemingly pissed from being tied up in a broom closet somewhere in the Air Canada Center for the first two games, while Jonathon Nicola sported a rubber mask trying to get some shots off in the NBA before the feds caught up to him.
Nicola has now been arrested (can’t blame a guy for trying?), and DeRozan has returned in the form of smart shot selections, and knowing when to pass off to his teammates.
Look Demar, I understand Kobe has retired and you were probably feeling a little down earlier this week, being from Compton and all.
But I’m glad you have decided not to follow in your hero’s footsteps with the shot’s you were taking.
We’ll chalk it up to a ‘Kobe’ hangover, because that was the last time the Lakers franchise is going to be relevant for a few years.
Now back to this ass kicking we just witnessed in Indy last night.
The number one thing that will be discussed until Saturday night will be the relentless defence and offensive rebounds that both Jonas Valanciunas and Bismack Biyombo produced.
It will be a key factor moving forward, no doubt, but there is one thing I want to drive home more than anything else for the rest of this series.
The respect of the officials.
If the Raptors continue to stay aggressive for the remainder of this series, with the exception of George, this team will get the calls in every other individual matchup moving forward.
Rookie center Myles Turner and his arm hooks on JV are the perfect examples of that. Meanwhile, even George himself was not immune to the ‘non calls’ that were happening in the opening minutes, receiving a technical foul in the first quarter for his lack of special treatment from the refs.
I hate to be like this, but in the NBA officiating has always been biased to the higher ceded teams or more veteran players, or both – it’s just how it goes. Any Raptors fan that paid attention to the last two playoff series’ can attest to it.
At any rate, the referee’s established early this was going to be a physical game, and the Raptors finally stopped trying to be who they weren’t, and embraced their strengths in this series, foul outs and crying from superstars be damned.
As this game wore on, we also finally got to see what $60 million gets us.
DaMarre Carroll managed to do exactly what the Raptors brought him on to do, and last night he was worth every penny shutting down George.
Granted George had 25 points on the night, but anyone watching that game knew how hard he had to work just for that.
Next: DeRozan gets back on track
The Raptors now have one more in Indy, and even if George does his thing, which he sort of did last night if you are just looking at the stat sheet, it won’t matter during complete efforts such as these.
Now we have something to talk about.