TORONTO -- Lou Williams wouldn't answer the question on Friday. Less than 24 hours until Game 1 against the Washington Wizards, a reporter asked the Toronto Raptors guard if the basket feels smaller in the playoffs.
"It hasn't started yet," Williams said. "So we'll see what happens. After Game 1, you can ask me that same question, I'll let you know."
The answer was obvious on Saturday, and it was bad news for the Raptors. They bricked shot after shot, finishing with marks of 38 percent from the field and 20.7 percent from the 3-point line in the 93-86 overtime loss. Casual fans tuning in for the playoff opener would have had no idea that, in the regular season, this was the league’s third-best offensive team.
For an overtime game, it was rather anticlimactic. The drama leading up to this -- Washington's Paul Pierce told ESPN that Toronto didn't have "it" and was not intimidating, then Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri told a raucous crowd, "We don't give a shit about 'it!' " -- eclipsed the action on the court. Toronto fans had a brief cause for celebration when backup guard Greivis Vasquez hit a game-tying 3-pointer in the fourth quarter and proceeded to shimmy halfway down the court, but the joy vanished shortly thereafter.
In the first four and a half minutes of the extra frame, the Raptors didn't score a single point and gave up four offensive rebounds, setting the stage for swingman DeMar DeRozan to drive to the basket untouched and deliver the saddest dunk of Toronto's uneven season with 29 seconds left.
The Wizards didn't fare much better with the ball in their hands, shooting 39.4 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from deep. Unlike Washington, though, the Raptors got this far on the strength of their scorers. The last thing they should want to do is engage in a defensive battle.
"It wasn't the most masterful offensive display," Wizards coach Randy Wittman deadpanned, quite pleased.
DeRozan entered the playoffs playing the best basketball of his life, averaging an efficient 24.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists over a six-and-a-half-week stretch. He was named Eastern Conference player of the month on Friday, then shot 6-for-20 from the field the next day. Kyle Lowry, who started at guard in this year's All-Star Game, went 2-for-10. Williams, the favorite for Sixth Man of the Year: 4-for-16.
These are Toronto's most important players, guys who are expected to go 1-on-1, take and make big shots. It didn't help that swingman Terrence Ross missed all six of his 3-pointers, most of them uncontested.
"That's who we are," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "And we just gotta make 'em. We had great looks and I believe in our shooters and they believe in themselves."
Lowry in particular was out of sorts. He is Toronto's engine, the man who re-signed for four years and $48 million last summer. The goal then was to get the Raptors back to this point, then handle it better than last season, where they lost Games 1 and 7 at home to the Brooklyn Nets. Lowry, who finished with seven points, eight rebounds and four assists in 33 minutes, wasn't even on the floor in overtime -- he'd fouled out on a Bradley Beal leaner late in the fourth. Beal waved goodbye as he walked to the bench. Lowry missed significant time late in the season due to a back injury, but said he felt fine.
DeRozan said he thought Lowry was over-aggressive on both ends at the beginning, and he told his backcourt mate to slow down a little. Casey said Lowry will knock down the same shots next time, and was much more concerned about his team's woeful rebounding.
"I'm very mad and very upset but I gotta deal with it," Lowry said. "It's something I've dealt with before and it's not going to keep being like that. It's something that comes with who I am. At the end of the day, a bad game is one bad game. I've got another one Tuesday."
Toronto can't change its style now. It is going to rely on DeRozan, Lowry and Williams making jump shots and getting to the line. Despite Casey's reputation as a defense-first coach, that's what has gotten the Raptors this far. When it works, as it almost always did during Toronto's 24-7 start to the season, it looks awfully impressive. When it doesn't, as it has for several stretches since, it can look just awful: lots of ISOs, contested jump shots and a glaring lack of ball movement.
"We noticed they were settling for long jumpers and we just said we've got to rebound," Pierce said.
One by one, the Raptors downplayed the dismal offensive showing. Williams refused to call the game ugly or say that the rim seemed smaller. Casey went as far as to say that he wasn't concerned about shooting, and DeRozan praised his team's aggressiveness, saying they just "missed a lot of easy shots as a team."
In other words: They just didn't have it.
