Toronto's Round 2 Defence - Underrated or Lucky?

[S.R.]

Miami had a pretty good offense in the regular season and vs. Charlotte, but their ball movement has really, really been disrupted vs. the Raptors. Toronto didn't have this kind of effect vs. Indy - have they stepped it up that much or gotten lucky (Miami floundering)?

Miami:

AST AST% AST/TO
Regular Season 20.8 54% 1.48
vs. Charlotte 19.1 50.6% 1.58
vs. Toronto 12.8 35% 0.82

Their scoring has fallen off just a bit, but they're being forced into playing like the Raptors - more creating off ISO and leaning on Wade rather than moving the ball and spacing the floor. They're playing Toronto's style of basketball right now, it's ugly, but the Raps are up 3-2.

(Knock on wood a whole bunch of times) If the Raps can win another one, what are the chances they can bring a similar impact to round three, disrupt the Cavs new free-flowing offense, and drag Cleveland into the same kind of back alley street fight that they've managed to drag both the Pacers and the Heat into?

[Atothe]

Miami had a pretty good offense in the regular season and vs. Charlotte, but their ball movement has really, really been disrupted vs. the Raptors. Toronto didn't have this kind of effect vs. Indy - have they stepped it up that much or gotten lucky (Miami floundering)?

Miami:

AST AST% AST/TO
Regular Season 20.8 54% 1.48
vs. Charlotte 19.1 50.6% 1.58
vs. Toronto 12.8 35% 0.82

Their scoring has fallen off just a bit, but they're being forced into playing like the Raptors - more creating off ISO and leaning on Wade rather than moving the ball and spacing the floor. They're playing Toronto's style of basketball right now, it's ugly, but the Raps are up 3-2.

(Knock on wood a whole bunch of times) If the Raps can win another one, what are the chances they can bring a similar impact to round three, disrupt the Cavs new free-flowing offense, and drag Cleveland into the same kind of back alley street fight that they've managed to drag both the Pacers and the Heat into?

This is the big question. Can the Raps force the Cavs to play like them if they beat the Heat.

[Apollo]

I think their defense is neither underrated or lucky. Even Spoelstra said he was shocked at how good the Raptors D has been playing in keeping them under 100.

The Raptors need Carroll on Bron if they have any hope against that Cavs. If they make it to the Cavs.

[Mess]

I guess underrated. It's not like either team is playing garbage on offense just for the fun of it. Need to give both teams respect for how hard they're playing.

[Nilanka]

We have a tendency to give up open 3s still. We're lucky those haven't been falling for Miami.

[white men can't jump]

We have a tendency to give up open 3s still. We're lucky those haven't been falling for Miami.

Are we though? Miami was 27th in the league in 3pt % as a team.

[Nilanka]

Are we though? Miami was 27th in the league in 3pt % as a team.

Not disputing the stat. But these are professional basketball players missing wide open looks. Are you saying we're conceding open looks by design?

[white men can't jump]

Not disputing the stat. But these are professional basketball players missing wide open looks. Are you saying we're conceding open looks by design?

Well, how many wide open(6+ ft space) looks are they actually getting?

NBA.com says it's 5.8 3PAs a game, and they're shooting 26.1%.

For open (4-6 ft space), they're getting 7.6 attempts, and shooting 53.8%.

They're hitting 5.6 3s a game out of 13.4 attempts in those open/wide open scenarios and shooting 42%. Seems to me they're hitting their 3s at a very good rate. Even better when you consider they aren't a great shooting team. They could be hitting more wide open ones, but the flip side is they've been hitting more than they should for the just open ones.

So yeah, they can't actually be getting much more production behind the 3pt line than they have been. And they don't really generate a lot of attempts so it's not a huge worry either. They're not missing tons of shots. They're barely creating shots. They are dead last out of teams still standing and 2nd last counting eliminated teams in the playoffs in 3PAs/game.

[Jclaw]

I think the defence has been playing well. Remember, towards the end of the season and even in the playoffs, people were talking about the historic levels of offence the Heat were putting up. Had to do with their revival once they moved Deng to the 4. Even in the Charlotte series, they had a pattern of scoring really well in their wins (averaging 110 pts per win). They've needed overtime to crack 100 even once against us. And you think of charlotte as a defensive team.

[ball4life]

Remember when Casey was credited for that custom designed defence to stop Lebron Vs Mavs. May be he can custom design it one more time...


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[slaw]

Underrated. Wildly underrated.

Everyone gets caught up in the offensive side of things for a variety of reasons but the game is played on both ends and Raps deserve way more credit than they are getting for Miami's performance. The Raps first quarter defense last night - and then that stretch in the second quarter - set the tone, got them the lead and won them the game. That was world class defense. I have never, ever seen a Raptors team play defense like that. Ever.

[DanH]

Getting teams to sink to their level is a pretty hilarious, and seemingly effective, strategy. Remember, early in the year, they turned two matches against Golden State into fistfights and both came down to the wire.

[mjt20mik]

Cleveland will destroy us based on the fact that they are been shooting the 3 extremely well. Our 3 point close outs are terrible!

[CalgaryRapsFan]

Underrated. Wildly underrated.

Everyone gets caught up in the offensive side of things for a variety of reasons but the game is played on both ends and Raps deserve way more credit than they are getting for Miami's performance. The Raps first quarter defense last night - and then that stretch in the second quarter - set the tone, got them the lead and won them the game. That was world class defense. I have never, ever seen a Raptors team play defense like that. Ever.

I actually think the fact that their defense is playing so well is part of the reason the offensive struggles are standing out so much. Such a good defense should be leading to more easy wins, yet every game has been a nail-biter. Even a semi-competent offense would have buried Indy in 5 games and Miami in no more than 6.

I don't think the defense is underrated. I just think the offensive woes are taking all the headlines, and rightfully so.

[Apollo]

Are we though? Miami was 27th in the league in 3pt % as a team.

Yeah, one of the bright spots in facing Miami after a tough Pacers series was the Heats' poor long range. I don't think the Raptors are covering the Heat any better on the perimeter than the Pacers.