The Toronto Raptors were looking to break the franchise record with a 12th straight win against the Oklahoma City Thunder who have been rolling lately. Kyle Lowry was in the starting lineup after taking a game off for rest. Fred VanVleet sat out this game with a hand bruise injury. Russell Westbrook has collected triple-doubles in four straight games and will be looking for his fifth straight. The addition of Corey Brewer has been great for the Thunder as he has started at the Shooting Guard ever since he was signed and the Thunder are 6-0 ever since he joined. Coincidence, maybe. But Corey Brewer is playing at a high level.
Both teams came out of the gate strong and the early start time did not seem to phase either squad. The Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams pick-and-roll was unstoppable all game long. JV was put into terrible situations where he could not decide to either contest Russ or stick with Adams in anticipation of a drop-off pass or a lob. Steven Adams went 7-7 in the first quarter for 14 points which fueled the Thunder’s strong start. Jonas was surprisingly overpowered by Adams’ strength in the post and could not keep him off the glass. The situation was not being helped with all the unforced turnovers the Raptors were compiling. OKC led Toronto 40-34 after the first 12 minutes.
Steven Adams dominated the match-up between him and JV. JV only grabbed two rebounds in the game.
The second quarter was the bench’s turn at getting back in the game. Impact player of the second quarter was Lucas Nogueira. Casey elected to go with Bebe over Poeltl because in the limited time that Poeltl played, he was ball watching and not effective. Bebe was scoring with ease on offense and was able to deter shots on defense with his length. The Raptors took back the lead and were abusing the Oklahoma bench. Ex-Raptor Patrick Patterson played limited minutes against his former team but did hit a three in the quarter. This OKC team relies heavily on their starters and once they were subbed back in the game, the momentum shifted once again. Toronto went up 54-44 prior to the Thunder starters entering the game and in a blink of an eye, the score was now 64-66 at halftime. Offensive rebounding and fast break points allowed the Thunder to get back into the game and take a 2-point lead at halftime. Kyle Lowry was plagued with foul trouble in the first half which hurt the Raptors.
The Raptors started the second half strong and were looking to build upon their early lead. Turning point of the second half occurred when Kyle picked up his 4th foul with 9:30 left in the third quarter. A tough and controversial foul call sent Lowry to the bench and OKC made their run once again. Russell Westbrook was on triple-double watch midway through the third quarter. The Raptors managed to take a 1-point lead going into the fourth. The score was 98-97 and the game felt like it was going to go down to the wire. The Raptors were able to withstand OKC’s runs with an all-around team effort, but the game did not feel as if the Raptors had the momentum.
Kyle Lowry was great when he was on the floor but struggled with foul trouble.
Kyle Lowry started the fourth quarter and came out with a vengeance. He was aggressive and was sharing the ball beautifully. OKC’s bench played much better this time around and were given the Raptors some trouble. The OKC bench allowed their starters to get some rest before they re-entered the game. The teams traded baskets back and forth. Both sides were unable to miss shots and were scoring at a high rate. With a little under 4 minutes to go in the game, Kyle Lowry picks up his fifth foul on another controversial foul call. Russell Westbrook takes a jump shot and Lowry contests it. Westbrook screams And-1 and the referee waits for the shot to miss before calling a late foul on Lowry. The home crowd and entire Raptors bench couldn’t believe the call. If Westbrook did not scream for the foul, would he have still gotten the call? Seems unlikely, but the superstars in the NBA get their foul calls. The Raptors went down the court and Lowry picks up his 6th foul on a bad screen. Lowry who had been frustrated by the referees and their foul calls puts his hands up in the air as he was leaving as if saying what am I even doing. Delon Wright had to step in and play key minutes in place of Kyle Lowry.
There were many plays down the stretch where the Raptors failed to convert. Delon missed a wide open layup after grabbing the offensive rebound. DeMar missed the technical free throw after Carmelo Anthony picked up a tech arguing a foul call. DeMar DeRozan was bodied up by Paul George and then Corey Brewer which forced him to lose his footing and turn the ball over leading to free throws for OKC. The Raptors were down 4 points with less than a minute to go. DeMar drove the ball into the lane where he was whacked by Corey Brewer on the shot attempt but the referees swallowed the whistle. DeMar ends up missing the shot and is livid. He begins to scream at the referees as OKC goes down the court and Russ hits a beautiful bank shot off the glass to put them up by 6. Casey calls timeout and DeMar continues to mouth off towards the referees in particular at Marc Davis. DeRozan gets ejected after picking up a second technical foul. Serge Ibaka was then ejected.
DeMar DeRozan struggled with the length and physicality of the Thunder defense.
To put the cherry on top, Dwane Casey was thrown out as well. The Dwane Casey ejection was by far the most outrageous one. Dwane did not say anything but the referee though he heard Casey say something but it was actually a fan in the crowd. Lowry and Casey could not help but laugh and smile at how ridiculous the situation had become. The referees had ruined what should have been a great game. Another officiating story of where the Raptors do not get the respect of the officials especially during crunch time. The Raptors streak was stopped and OKC continues to roll.
Toronto Raptors Oklahoma City Thunder
125 132
Player of the Game
Kyle Lowry
27 minutes, 22 points, 4 rebounds, 10 assists, 0 steal, 1 block, 4 turnovers, 7/10 shooting, 5/7 3PT, 3/3 FT
Even though he was plagued with foul trouble on the afternoon, Kyle Lowry was by far the best player on the court. Every minute he played the Raptors played with more ball movement, faster pace and looked a lot better defensively. The pit bull would not be posted up as easy as Delon Wright and Norman Powell were by Russell Westbrook. Casey had rested Lowry so that he could come out and play great in this one and he was, but the referees ended his night early. Lowry was sharp all game long and was on fire shooting the ball. Hopefully the Raptors come out hungry for the next game.
Things To Take Away From This Game
1. Offensive Rebounding
The Raptors’ Achilles heel all season long has been their defensive rebounding and even with their best defensive rebounder, JV, on the floor, it did not matter against the OKC Thunder on the afternoon. JV had a lowly 2 rebounds and no Raptor had more than 6 rebounds in the game. Dwane Casey and staff need to focus on boxing out drills, team rebounding and long shot rebounding. Offensive rebounds are back breakers when you force a miss from the opposing team and can be demoralizing for a team trying to get back into the game. Hopefully the Raptors address this issue before playoffs arrive.
2. Referees
The plays near the end of the game were controversial but the fouls called on Lowry early in the game were the most impactful. Kyle Lowry was easily our best player on the afternoon and for the referees to give him two bad fouls in this game really sucked the life out of the Toronto Raptors. They still had a chance to win this game, but without the floor general it was harder to create better looks on the offensive end and not to mention his peskiness on the defensive end as well. All in all, the Raptors should not let the game fall into the referees’ hands and the Raptors will have to prepare to not receive any calls when the playoffs begin.
3. Stopping the Point of Attack
The Raptors struggled to stop the head of the snake similar to many other teams in the NBA have also struggled with. Russell Westbrook came into this game on a four game triple double streak and he messed around and racked up another triple double. Westbrook ended the game with a monstrous line: 37 points, 13 rebounds, and 14 assists on 15/22 shooting. Toronto's defense did little to nothing from preventing Russell from scoring especially allowing Russell to get into the paint easily. Russell struggles from the outside and it was surprising to see the Raptors' defense going over the screen instead of under the screen to force RW to shoot the outside shot instead of a mid-range jumper. VanVleet's defense was also a factor that was missing, but losing one guy can't make a team this bad at defending. The OKC Thunder smashed the Toronto defense for 132 points which is going to be hard to beat.
Mr. Triple Double strikes again and leads his team to a sixth straight win.
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