Moments that Mattered: Ibaka's shooting, Davis' handles, & corner 3s

Serge Ibaka's shooting has come along way, Terence Davis is improving as a handler, and the Rockets love to shoot corner 3s.

Wasn't it nice to see Toronto Raptors basketball on television again? Sure, it wasn't the prettiest basketball we've ever seen, but it was basketball and that counts for something.

Last night's game was ultimately about getting back onto the court and trying to work off some of the rust that has built up over the NBA's hiatus. At the start, it looked like there was lots of work to do. Raptors forward Pascal Siakam committed five turnovers in the first quarter alone, including one on his first touch of the game when he couldn't corral a pass from Kyle Lowry.

Eventually, the Raptors of old began to come out and Lowry began complaining to the refs and even hit the deck for one of his trademarked charges midway through the second quarter.

While there wasn't much to take away from the game in terms of strategy, lineups, and minutes distribution, there were a few things that jumped out to me.

Serge Ibaka's 3-point shooting

Nurse has been heaping praise on Serge Ibaka for his development as a 3-point shooter lately. He said Ibaka is constantly coming to him toward the end practice to make sure he has a little bit of time left over to get up a few more shots.

That kind of hard work has certainly presented itself this year as Ibaka has gone from a below-average 3-point shooter, shooting 29% last season, to an above-average marksman this year, shooting nearly 40% from long range.

"I give him a lot of credit he's really, really worked on his mechanics of his shooting and he's continued to do so almost every single day," Nurse said Friday night. "You can just tell, I think when it gets swung to him and he gets ready to let them go and just, he wants to shoot them, he's hunkering down, he's shooting them with conviction, and he's hitting them in the heart. I think that's a big part of it, it's just a confidence in the work that he's put in that he feels good about his game."

Ibaka went 2-for-3 from long range last night, but it was one of his 2-pointers that really showed how far he's come as a 3-point shooter this year.

Midway through the first quarter, Fred VanVleet hit Ibaka with a pass at the top of the arc. Last year, Ibaka shot 29% on above-the-break 3s, meaning teams could just leave him out there, letting him fire away. This year, however, Ibaka is shooting 41.5% on above-the-break 3s, forcing guys like Houston's P.J. Tucker to respect his shot.

Here, Ibaka's improved 3-point shooting forces Tucker to come right up to defend the shot, allowing Ibaka to drive past him for a layup.

That improved 3-point stroke not only makes him a more lethal weapon on the perimeter but it opens up driving lanes for him as opposing teams are forced to respect his shooting ability.

“I’ve put in a lot of time [on my three-point shooting] because the game has changed now,” Ibaka said. “As a big, you have to spread the floor. The better you can shoot 3s, the better your teammates are going to be because you open things up for your teammates to drive, pass to guys in the post and then defenses have to worry about Pascal in the post, and Kyle, Freddy, OG and they have to worry about me. It just gives us more weapons on offense as a team.”

Terence Davis' pick-and-roll offense

Raptors rookie Terence Davis II said he's spent a lot of time working on his pick-and-roll game over the COVID-19 hiatus. It was an area of his game that he really struggled with before the shutdown, scoring just 0.68 points per possession when handling the pick-and-roll. That number ranked worst on the Raptors and in the 24th percentile across the league, according to NBA stats.

"I work on it every day," Davis said Friday.

The Rockets' unorthodox switch-everything defense made things a little complicated for Davis when running the pick-and-roll, but he did get an opportunity to play a two-man game with Chris Boucher in the second quarter. 

Here, Davis played things perfectly. When Boucher rolled out to the corner, Davis took a few steps in, and when both Rocket defenders stepped up to stop him, he kicked the ball out to Boucher for a pretty good 3-point look.

"I think I did OK against the switch," Davis said. "Pretty much against the switch you've always just got to keep the ball moving so you can spot mismatches."

Davis said he thinks he's coming along as a ball-handler and an offensive creator and if that is indeed the case in the seeding games, the Raptors' rookie should be able to lock down that eighth-man spot in Nurse's rotation.

Raptors' corner 3 defense

Last night's scrimmage had the makings of a corner 3s bonanza. Nobody in the NBA allows more corner 3-pointers than the Raptors (12.4 per game) and nobody takes more corner 3s than the Rockets (11.1 per game).

As you can imagine, Houston wasn't afraid to put up corner 3s last night. They let it fly 21 times from the corner, with Tucker taking seven corner 3s, Ben McLemore taking six, and Danuel House Jr. taking four.

NBA Stats

Some of those 3s I'll chalk up to the Raptors not really caring that much in a scrimmage game, but others were a combination of great strategy from the Rockets and the Raptors not deviating from their defensive gameplan. Ultimately, McLemore's off shooting night did Houston in. He went 1-for-6 from the corners as the Raptors were more than happy to let him fire away.