Reggie Evans was borderline incredulous as he tried to explain what had transpired at the Air Canada Centre on Friday night.
He stood at his locker and seemed a little bit perplexed, a tad stunned and entirely surprised what had happened in a 101-81 spanking of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“It was crazy,” he said in that lilting tone of his. “I think our defence overshadowed our offence and in the past, we were strictly just a lot of offence. . . . I think our defence kind of sustained us throughout the whole game and it carried over to our offence, a lot of easy transition buckets.“It was a good feeling know that defence really won the game for us.”
The shocking part? He was telling the truth and not overstating his team’s case.
Whatever coach Jay Triano and his staff have been hammering home to the team since training camp began kicked in for 48 minutes of regular-season basketball as Toronto held the Cavs to 38 per cent shooting overall — and just 21 for 65 from two-point range; the Raptors hammered the Cavs 46-33 on the boards; they forced 19 turnovers and 11 steals.
The sound you hear is jaws dropping around the NBA.
“The things that we addressed in training camp and the things we wanted to get better at from last season were better defence, better rebounding and after two games, okay,” said Triano.
“If you’re not consistently working on it every single day and you don’t come into the game ready to do those things and know that it’s going to be hard work, it’s not going to just happen, then you’re not going to be successful.
(source:thestar.com)
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