The Toronto Raptors are on the brink of advancing to the next round after demolishing the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 5 Monday night.
For the first time in this series, the Toronto Raptors looked like a third seed playing a sixth seed. Their 118-93 win was the first time the team had put together a solid game on both ends of the floor. It also provided a glimpse of the threat this team can be in the East.
The decision to remove Jonas Valanciunas from the starting lineup in favor of Norman Powell has transformed this Raptors team. Without the slow-footed Valanciunas, the Raptors have been able to snuff out the Bucks' perimeter attack.
While it took a long time to match the Bucks' four-wing approach with one of their own, the old adage of "better late than never" has rung true.
The revamped starting lineup currently has a plus-19.3 net rating, which is a dramatic improvement from the minus-20.6 net rating the lineup had with Valanciunas at center. While Valanciunas has not been great in this series, he has mostly been put in a position to fail.
With the Bucks starting four wings, it simply was a matchup nightmare for him defensively. When you add Thon Maker dominating him on the defensive end of the floor, he simply couldn't make an impact with the starters.
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There are two major elements to the Raptors' defense that improved as a result of inserting Powell. The first is that it gave the Raptors someone to cover Khris Middleton.
Middleton had been dominating DeMar DeRozan early in this series, as DeRozan has shown little interest in that end of the floor. For the series, Middleton is shooting 30 percent with Powell on the floor and 42.2 percent when Powell sits.
It's not just the scoring from Middleton that Powell has limited. While his jumper has been inconsistent at times, Middleton was able to get consistent penetration before Powell was switched onto him.
This allowed Middleton to manipulate the defense, get it to collapse and create quality shots for others. Without Powell on the floor, Middleton's assist-to-turnover ratio was a staggering 4.50. With Powell on the floor that number is sliced in half, down to 2.25.
The one downside to this move has been that it has opened things up for Tony Snell. DeRozan's poor off-ball defense has allowed Snell to get open and roast the Raptors from the perimeter.
For the series, Snell is shooting 54.1 percent with DeRozan on the floor and 33.3 percent when he sits.
This issue was prevalent in previous games when the Raptors would try to hide DeRozan on Snell, but has become amplified over the last two games with that assignment becoming full-time.
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The trade-off of shutting Middleton down in favor of allowing Snell to go off is a swap the Raptors would make every time. By limiting Middleton's ability to get into the lane, it's caused the Bucks offense to stall out.
With the Raptors getting more stops, it's allowed the team to get out in transition and attack before the defense is set.
The other advantage created by sitting Valanciunas is it has helped Serge Ibaka be more dominant defensively. At center he can provide help defense that had been lacking in this series. He also adds shot blocking and an ability to snuff out the pick and roll.
With a safety net in the middle, it has transformed the Raptors' defense.
With these changes, it appears as thought the Raptors have solved the Bucks' offense. Whether Toronto sticks with this perimeter approach moving forward remains to be seen. Against the Cleveland Cavaliers, this lineup would likely surrender too many offensive rebounds.
So it will come down to whether or not Dwane Casey can make the appropriate adjustments in time. With less room for error, the team cannot wait until the fifth game to adjust again. Otherwise they may not make it to a fifth game.
