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How the Raptors stifled Domantas Sabonis in win over Kings

On the latest episode of "Strictly Hoops", C.J. Miles and Amit Mann discuss the schemes and strategy behind the Raptors limiting Kings center Domantas Sabonis to 9 points while forcing a career-high 9 turnovers. Full episode is on the "Raptors Over Everything" podcast feed.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: --a career-high 9 turnovers for him. The Raptors were all over him. But there were very specific things that they were doing. And obviously, postame, Nick Nurse was like, I'm not going to tell you guys, even though earlier on in the season, he said that I'm not going to tell what we did with DeAndre Ayton when they slowed him down because we have another game against them.

There's not another game against the Kings. So why couldn't he tell us what they were doing? But I mean, you probably know.

CJ MILES: That's Nick being Nick,

AMIT MANN: Yeah, I know.

CJ MILES: --I guess in that position. He's having fun. But with Sabonis it's that, first of all, you've got to match his physicality, right? He's a physical guy on his drives--

AMIT MANN: OG and Precious, yes.

CJ MILES: --likes to hit people, likes to do things. So it was big bodies. First possession of the game is the perfect way you guard him, right? Ends up in an iso at the end of the clock against Pascal.

AMIT MANN: Mm-hmm.

CJ MILES: Drives left, tries to hit Pascal with a shoulder. Pascal takes the bump and doesn't let him get by right away. He goes into his post move. OG comes collapsing down.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: All of his drives-- he's a playmaking big, gets lots of drives, gets lots of stuff from the high and mid post, always saw bodies. I felt like there were no clear ways for him to either-- where he felt like he was in an iso by himself or clear plays to just dump off and make straight line passes.

They did a good job of being active. You could hear it. I watched the game over on the Kings broadcast. And that's all they talked about was the fact that Toronto was so good at getting deflections.

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

CJ MILES: And they kept having to bring it up because those guys were so active in that game. But they're matching his physicality, not giving him just these clear plays because he's such a good decision maker, and just scrapping. The guards came down, swatted at the ball when he'd bring it down some. Just seeing bodies is the biggest thing you do.

You treat him like you treat any playmaker at any position. You make him see length and-- which these guys have a lot of. And make him-- and just try to shrink the floor.

AMIT MANN: Sure. And having Precious and OG to take that initial hit-- and that's what I was so impressive with about Precious last season in the playoffs against Joel Embiid. And I mean, Joel Embiid, obviously there's a size mismatch. But if you're able to take that initial hit from a big like him, you're in a pretty good spot.

And OG, obviously strong as an ox. Precious Achiuwa, extremely athletic, extremely strong. They're able to take that, and you're already in a good spot with your defense, at least with your one-on-one coverage. And after that, I mean, it was the late help which I really loved that the Raptors were doing.

And that is-- that's been a staple of what they do. But the activity, as you mentioned, active hands, active feet, engagement, cohesion, these are things that we just have not seen consistently from the Toronto Raptors. And it's a long road trip. But this game, doing this on the first game of this road trip is a terrific sign, because you have talked about it, I've talked about it, I mean, I've tweeted about it. The season is not gone, right?

CJ MILES: Not at all.

AMIT MANN: There's still time for them to make a move here.

CJ MILES: Not even close.

AMIT MANN: But it has to start on this road trip.