The Cleveland Cavaliers winning the Eastern Conference is a foregone conclusion for most, but the Toronto Raptors might have something to say about that.
An 112-94 win over the Blake Griffin-less Los Angles Clippers isn’t that impressive, but when it is your eighth straight as it is for the Toronto Raptors, it might be worth noting. A month ago the Raptors were sitting in fourth place behind the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. Now? They are in second in the East and sitting two games back of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
They’ve improved their offense since Christmas. DeMar DeRozen and Kyle Lowery are still leading the team, but they’ve been getting contributions from elsewhere as well.
It has helped that Patrick Patterson has stepped up his game since then. He was averaging 5.7 points (shooting 36.8 percent from the field, 31.6 percent from three-point range) and 4.3 rebounds while playing 22.7 minutes a game. He’s only playing a few more minutes a game now (26.2) but he’s doing a lot more with those few extra minutes.
He’s now has a field goal percentage of 44.4 percent and 39 percent from deep, but more importantly, scoring closer to eight points a game. It is small, sure, but that’s the difference between a close game and a more comfortable win. Those small increases matter when you’ve become the Raptors’ third leading player in minutes over the past month.
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Terrance Ross was doing fine before Christmas, but he’s taken his 40.2 field goal percentage and 37.3 three-point percentage and increased them to a very impressive 49.5 percent and 42.4 percent respectively.
Jonas Valanciunas has been consistent all year with a nearly identical shooting percentage (55.6 percent vs 55.4 percent) when you look at his pre and post-Christmas numbers. Valanciunas and Ross are that steadying force any team needs between their leaders (DeRozen, Lowry) and the hot and cold players (Patterson).
The defense has worsened as far as defensive rating since Christmas is concerned, but if the offense can keep things up, that won’t be as big of an issue. It is understandable that some are still leery of this Raptors squad, but simply put, they’ve been playing great basketball as of late with a top flight offense and acceptable defense.
They’ve split the two games they’ve played so far with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but they’ve only gotten better as Cleveland has changed their head coach and not looked like the Eastern Conference favorite. All this makes them a little stronger in the East as they look better than the teams just behind them in the standings. There are still plenty of games left and the Raptors’ real issue is having another playoff meltdown, but currently things are looking fine north of the border.
Thunder Quieted by Nets
Every time the Oklahoma City Thunder start to worry about the media again, they do something like this to remind us they maybe shouldn’t be in the discussion with the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs.
Brook Lopez had 31 points and 10 assists for the Brooklyn Nets in their win over Oklahoma City while Kevin Durant bested him with 32 points and 10 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough for the Thunder.
It is only one game, sure. But the Thunder need to do whatever they can to get home-court advantage in the Western Conference as their path to a championship will likely go through both San Antonio and Golden State.
Time To Boogie
It happened on Saturday, but I think we would be remiss if we didn’t mention DeMarcus Cousins rampage against the Indiana Pacers as he scored a career-high 48 points. Those 48 points helped the Sacramento Kings secure a 108-97 win over Indiana.
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The win helps the Kings hold on the eighth place spot in the West and was their fifth straight. Times like this make it easy to forget the panic of the early season.