Toronto Raptors: 6 Revelations from Game 4 loss to Wizards

3. DeMar DeRozan REALLY Likes to Shoot the Ball

DeRozan is a disciple of Kobe Bryant, the Black Mamba, which means if DeRozan has to take 50 shots to give him team a chance to win he’ll do it. Sure DeRozan only made 34.5 percent of his 29 shots, including only 25 percent on his threes, but all that matters to DeRozan is the points.

Count it up; 35 points made DeRozan the game leader in scoring, despite his horrendous efficiency.

DeRozan is a score; no matter how much playmaking is spliced into his game, he’s looking to put the ball in the basket. He is an unrelenting scorer, but it does come with drawbacks:

The whistle wasn’t blowing DeRozan’s way but he still pressed into the paint, attempting to make over multiple defenders. Is this a foul? undoubtedly. Did the referees call it? Absolutely not, but that doesn’t stop DeRozan from continuously attacking through, over and around multiple defenders.

This is partially a coaching issue; the Toronto Raptors are built around sharing the rock this year and yet DeRozan was able to morph into a black hole, without repercussion or revision. The team cannot survive off volume scoring and we saw that in Game 4.