DeRozan’s struggles hinder the Raptors
DeMar DeRozan has again struggled in a playoff series as the Raptors find themselves 2-0 down. Unless he improves his play, Toronto is facing elimination.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are taking a 2-0 series lead to Toronto, after blowing out the Raptors in the first two meetings. Stop me if you’ve heard that one before. Much like last year’s Eastern Conference Finals, the Raptors failed to make any sort of impact at Quicken Loans Arena and head home in desperate need of a victory in Game 3. LeBron James has averaged 37 PPG so far and there’s nothing to suggest that number won’t increase as the series progresses. If Toronto are going to turn this domination into a more competitive battle, they’ll need better performances from just about everyone. But, most of all, they’re going to need a huge improvement from DeMar DeRozan.
DeMar disappoints
DeRozan went 2-11 in Game 2, failing to score a basket until the 4th Quarter when the game was already decided. He suffered the same sort of poor outing during the first half of the Bucks series, but rebounded well and finished strong. It was expected that DeRozan would take that momentum into the Cavs series. His contribution was needed for the Raps to avoid another slow start. Unfortunately, that’s what has occurred.
Playoff struggles, again
In Game 1, DeRozan hit just 7 of his 16 attempts for a 43% shooting performance. He scored 19 points, a low number considered the Raptors primary scorer. During the regular season, he stood up to the task, averaging 27 points. However, as we saw last year, he has struggled to remain consistent in the postseason and the Raptors have suffered. They’ve missed his 25-35 point production, failing to find that level of scoring from elsewhere.
If Game 1’s 19 point performance was bad, then Game 2 was just awful. DeRozan failed to get any rhythm going, and has once again abandoned his strengths as he tries to negotiate the Cavaliers trapping defence. Instead of posting up Kyrie Irving, when he gets him on a pick & roll switch, or driving past Kevin Love, DeRozan settles for a jumper that clanks off the rim. The odd time he did get to the basket, he put Cleveland under pressure, making them take note of his driving ability and having to rearrange their defense. If all DeRozan does is make them more wary of the Raptors offense, then things could open up for Toronto. They just need to make sure, when they do open up, their 3 point shots start falling, which has been another problem for them.
After struggling in Games 1-3 versus the Bucks, DeRozan changed up his offensive system for Games 4-6. Instead of trying to beat Milwaukee at their game, he beat them with his own. He used his speed to race past Tony Snell, his athleticism to beat Thon Maker at the rim and his length to post up and score over the smaller Matthew Dellevedova & Malcolm Brogdon. It’s not a coincidence that Toronto went on to win all 3 contests and close out the series, as DeRozan scored 33, 18 & 32 in those match-ups.
Something has to change
Perhaps he spent more time than normal reviewing game film, or he stopped overthinking his every move and carried on as he would in a regular season contest. Whatever DeRozan done to turn things around against Milwaukee, it’s vital he takes the same approach now.
Much like the Raptors, it’s not too late for DeRozan to turn things around. They’ve been here before. A win in Game 3 would settle them down, and help them push forward for the remainder of the series. Last year, most people wrote them off after two blowouts in Cleveland. It’s a similar story this time around. There’s a lack of pressure in knowing not much is expected from there here on out, and it seems as if they thrived on that in 2016. They’ll be hoping for that sort of effect again tonight.