Watanabe’s offensive and defensive characteristics live in the super small lineup
The Raptors, who lost the opening 10 games with 2 wins and 8 losses, strengthened their defense by making heavy use of the small lineup with Pascal Siakam as the center, and have since recovered to 5 wins and 3 losses. Yuta Watanabe has become a part of the rotation because she can protect the perimeter and the importance of sized wings has increased.
However, the Kings match, which lacked OG Anunoby, who is the key to the defense, was swung around by the guard combination of De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton at a speed, and the defense turned behind and scored three points one after another. By the third quarter, he had lost 104 points and had 13 points behind.
The Raptors, who have not been able to find a clue to the counterattack even in the fourth quarter, will compete in a super small lineup with Watanabe and Stanley Johnson as big men from the remaining eight and a half minutes. Then, Watanabe’s drive was decided immediately from Stanley’s pass, and Watanabe stopped Fox’s drive continuously even in the defense. In addition, Watanabe, who set up a double team, created a counterattack mood from a pass cut and a defense set up at speed.
The Raptors, who are willing to make height mismatches, often have scenes where the guards defend against the center opponent, but they are surrounded by multiple with quick contraction and do not allow easy shooting. The off-ball rotation was quick for the pass-out, and the excellent pressure defense worked, so the Kings turned nine in the fourth quarter alone.
In the offense, Kyle Lowry and others drive one after another on the thinned inside to contract the defense, and Watanabe who received the passout scored a 3-point shot from the corner and reduced the point difference to a single digit. From here, the Raptors continued to have a hard time deciding on a shot, but Watanabe jumped into the offense rebound from the corner and got a second chance to bite, and Fred VanVleet evaded the block with a splendid step-in in the remaining 2 minutes and 3 points behind. I approached.
Kings assembles offenses around the rookie Halliburton, who has a great performance in clutch time. Watanabe, who was entrusted with the Halliburton mark, overtook Halliburton on his own drive to decide the layup, and with one minute remaining, he was close to one point difference. However, when Watanabe collapsed under the goal in the help defense, the ball passed to Halliburton, who had been free, and with a 3-point shot, he was separated by 4 points again, and Kings escaped.
Watanabe scored 12 points in his career high and recorded 6 rebounds. By participating in 13 out of 19 games and getting a stable participation opportunity with an average of 12.3 minutes, it has become possible to show a calm play while playing hard with defense, rebound, loose ball, etc. I have come. In this game, the role of defense is diversifying, as it marked Halliburton as a guard instead of Big Man in spite of its small lineup.
Due to the overcrowded schedule, the Raptors are not able to make a development to seize the opportunity from the strong defense, but Watanabe has gained trust in defense and hard work, and it is also being appointed in the development to catch up. I did. In this game, not only did I create a catch-up mood, but I didn’t go down to the bench until the end, including the clutch time, which changed by one possession difference. On the other hand, on the offense side, the 3-point shot is 37%, which is the highest point, but the 2-point shot is only 18%, and the finishing power inside is a concern.
If we can increase the drive-like shape that we fascinated at the end of the game against Kings, we should be able to score even more. Watanabe was not expected to contribute to the score before the opening of the season, but the situation has become so difficult for the team that he wants to ask for it, and Watanabe is becoming more important.
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