Official Game Thread: Hawks - Raptors

[lethalweapon3]

^{"Really, Masai? Really?"}

I ask you... which is the best Toronto Raptors team ever? Butch Carter’s 2000 Raptors, with Vince Carter and T-Mac, plus Doug Christie? The 2001 Raptors, led by Lenny Wilkens and featuring "Half-Man, Half-Amazing," Alvin Williams, Oakley and A-Davis? Or the 2007 Raptors, with Bosh and Bargs, T.J. Ford and Sam Mitchell leading the way?

Think fast. Because the 2014 edition of the Toronto Raptors are very close to being better than any of the others.

A winning record the rest of the way is likely to lock up just the second Atlantic Division title in the Dinos’ 18 years of existence. And despite losing to Phoenix at home on Sunday, a win tonight against the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena (7:30 PM Eastern, NBATV for the non-locals, SportSouth in the ATL and Sportsnet up north) would have these Raptors (37-28) once again boasting a mark that’s better than any team from Toronto’s star-crossed past. With a 3-or-4-seed, they'd have the inside track to make their first conference semifinals appearance since Vince's Chapel Hill graduation year of 2001.

No one, aside from maybe their new GM Masai Ujiri, foresaw such achievements before the season, especially a division title in an Atlantic where the Knicks and Nets seemed certain to rule the roost. These accomplishments, and even a playoff berth, certainly didn’t seem probable when Rudy Gay led the way through a 6-12 start, including five straight losses before Ujiri dealt him to Sacramento in December.

At the time of the Gay trade, right after dispatching reserve point guard D.J. Augustin, Ujiri joined Frankie Muniz's Malcolm in expressing displeasure with the prospect of being helplessly situated in the middle. “The one thing I can say is that we will not be trapped in the middle. . . . We will not be stuck in no-man’s land.” Most of the free world deciphered those words to conclude The Tank Job was in full gear. Besides, where is Andrew Wiggins from, again?

Well, "au contraire, mon frère!" Instead, Ujiri expected the freeing up of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry would improve the offensive flow with Gay out of the picture, that young upstarts Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross could get more productive time on the floor, that Head Coach Duane Casey could more effectively implement defensive sets, and the team could benefit from better depth at several positions. And it looks as though his hunches were largely right.

Toronto has gone 31-16 since bidding adieu to Gay, victors in 11 of their last 15. DeRozan (31 points in each game versus Atlanta this season) reached All-Star status and has smartly been attacking the rim even more and drawing trips to the line since the All-Star break (3.1 three-point attempts per game pre-Break, 1.8 post-Break). A veritable disaster in November and target of trade rumors in December, Lowry probably should have made the ASG with DeRozan. Plus, Lowry is playing his most prolific offensive basketball this month (19.3 PPG, 9.1 APG, 6.0 RPG in March).

Hitting 48.6 percent of his three-point shots this month, high-flyer Terrence Ross is showing that perhaps he was in the wrong contest on All-Star Weekend. He’s helped create a dangerous inside-outside pairing with DeRozan at the wing spots. Although struggling with inconsistency (game-to-game, and in-game) and fouling too much, Valanciunas (66.1 FG% in March) is showing glimpses of that steady-double-double potential they’re expecting of their young center.

Unfortunately hobbled by a sprained knee and sore elbow lately, forward Patrick Patterson offered greater flexibility for Casey behind Valanciunas and Amir Johnson (14.4 PPG, 63.9 FG%, and 2.3 APG in March), relieving unnecessary stress on Tyler Hansbrough. Since getting included in the trade from Sacramento along with Patterson, Greivis Vasquez may never come close to his contract-year numbers in New Orleans, but he simply has to get out of bed to surpass what Toronto was getting out of Augustin. The dual-point-guard option of Lowry and Vasquez worked well for Toronto in their win versus Memphis last Friday.

Defensively for Toronto, opponents’ 97.2 PPG is the fifth-lowest in the league. They’re above-average in generating turnovers (14.6 per game, slightly more than Atlanta), but less than half of those come from Raptor steals (7.1 SPG). That might suggest Casey’s crew is committed to sound man-to-man defense, inducing bad shots and turnovers via stuff like offensive fouls, three-second violations, and fumbles out-of-bounds. They’re also likely to foul before their foes can put up any chippies in the paint, forcing opponents to earn their two points from the free throw line.

The challenge for the Raps is they still run about seven-deep talent-wise, six-deep with Pat-Pat unavailable. That problem became evident against the Suns, when Casey had to lean on Vasquez, Hansbrough, Steve Novak, Chuck Hayes, and John Salmons to come off the bench and keep his starters from fouling out. That quintet contributed just 11 of the Raps’ offensive total in the 121-113 loss, no match for Suns reserves Gerald Green (28 points) and the Morris Twins (26 combined points). Casey may want to deploy new acquisition Nando de Colo (acquired for Austin Daye), who has played well in spurts with the Spurs against Atlanta.

The Hawks have won four in a row and are well removed from their 104-83 can-opening loss in Toronto last month (Atlanta’s leading scorer and rebounder? Gustavo Ayón, of course!) They went into that game without DeMarre Carroll or Pero Antić, two key components to their momentary turnaround. Ayón went 9-for-11 while the rest of the team shot 21-for-67, and everyone struggled on defense.

Less than essential for handling Michael Kidd-Gilchrist last night, Carroll's defensive energy will be needed tonight to keep DeRozan in check. Despite nine defensive boards last night in Charlotte, Kyle Korver will be needed more along the perimeter tonight to deal with Ross.

To stretch that winning streak to five, Jeff Teague (4-for-14 versus Charlotte, but 9 assists in 29 minutes) needs to force the action and beat Lowry and/or Vasquez off the dribble. Even if the Teaguedrops in the paint aren’t falling, it’s likely to draw a Raptor big over and open up Paul Millsap (20.7 PPG last eight games) for putbacks, or at least a few trips to the free throw line for Teague (85.0 FT% against Eastern Conference opponents, 92.9 FT% against Toronto this season, and 89.1 FT% at home). Smart screens from Elton Brand and Antić should help open things up for Atlanta’s point guards to do work and strain Toronto’s resources on the interior.

Go Hawks!

~lw3

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[GrimeyKidd]

Hawks Cawwwwww

[benhillboy]

We got our azz handed to us last time but we didn't have The Macedonian. Might be a little different this time around. Leggo.

[Admin]

Kinda cool how this shows up on our Facebook page now with the pictures added. Makes them even better Lethal!

[Guest]

We got our azz handed to us last time but we didn't have The Macedonian. Might be a little different this time around. Leggo.

@benhillboy No DMC in that game either!

[BackForThe2ndTime]

Milsap's attempt at a GW looked bad. Should have been Teague's ball.

[rd79]

Millsap triple double, congrats! Now win that game!

[Hawkeyes007]

Hawks win 5 in a row! Hawks win 5 in a row! Hawks win 5 in a row! Hawks win 5 in a row! Hawks win 5 in a row!

[Atlantaholic]

Teague's getting into a groove again. Let's see if he can keep it going through the playoffs

[BackForThe2ndTime]

Hawks win! Big game by Sap and Teague!

[Admin]

Excellent way to finish this one off tonight. Teague looked good and Millsap had a really nice game, save for the final play of regulation that made me yearn for the days of LD drawing up plays. Can't understate the importance of Pero and DMC in our lineup either!

[Duff_Man]

The Raptors should fold as a team after giving up a 34 point game and a triple double to guys with "no talent".

[mtnbayou]

Congrats to Mansap for his first NBA triple double!!!!!

[Peoriabird]

The Raptors should fold as a team after giving up a 34 point game and a triple double to guys with "no talent".

LOL! This was for you NBASupes

[jrok23]

The first game I went to that was pretty packed compared to others, also congrats trillsap and jeff teague looked good. Let's go hawks

[benhillboy]

Congrats to Sap on "fu@kin around and getting a triple double."27-31 from the line, 7 total turnovers, 11 threes. Marvelous Ball. Pero and Kyle might stretch the floor more than any tandem in the league right now.

[Atlantaholic]

Congrats to Sap on "fu@kin around and getting a triple double."27-31 from the line, 7 total turnovers, 11 threes. Marvelous Ball. Pero and Kyle might stretch the floor more than any tandem in the league right now.

Teague getting his three point stroke going a little bit too.

[BrazilianHawk]

Congrats Hawks on one more nice win!Keep te streak going!

[AHF]

Let's go for the 6th seed hard if we aren't ending up in the lottery.

[Ruckus]

And yet another team supposedly more talented than us goes down. It's hard to not wonder where we'd be right now with a healthy Horford. We were like 8 games above .500 when he went down. And much of that losing streak was without him AND Sap.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Ruckus