Raptors by the numbers: Ross, Patterson finding success with shot again

While DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry grab the headlines and get deserved All-Star recognition for the Raptors’ success this season, Toronto’s bench has shown it’s also worthy of praise, especially during the team’s eight-game winning streak.

When general manager Masai Ujiri and the Raptors front office shuffled Toronto’s role players in the offseason, they were willing give up offence for an improved defence. Cory Joseph and Bismack Biyombo, two defence-first players, were brought in as free agents and the DeMarre Carroll signing pushed Terrence Ross back to a reserve role after mostly starting in 2014-15. Patrick Patterson was expected to replace Amir Johnson in the starting lineup, but ended up back on the bench when the team opted to use free-agent Luis Scola as the starting power forward.

The changes meant that Ross and Patterson were going to be relied on for secondary scoring – an area where the Raptors thrived led by Lou Williams and Greivis Vasquez last season.

As expected, the bench scoring has dropped off, ranking 27th in the NBA with 27.3 points per game, but that doesn’t mean the reserves aren’t getting it done. In fact, they’ve proven to be among the most productive units in the league. There are a number of accepted conventional wisdoms in the NBA. One of the key ones is that quality bench players are expected to come in and hold leads handed to them by the starters. If they can extend those leads, that’s a bonus. More often than not, the Raptors’ bench players have been able to do that, as evidence by their positive plus/minus numbers when three or more of them share the court. During the win streak Toronto’s reserves are averaging a plus/minus of +6.5 per game.

There’s even reason to believe those units can get better. Early on this season Ross and Patterson struggled with their shot. Ross started coming around in mid-December, though, and Patterson has turned the corner since the start of 2016.

So what’s changed? Really, not much, except they’re now converting more of the same open looks they were getting before. The NBA defines an "open" look as a shot taken when the closest defender is within 4-6 feet and a "wide open" look when the closest defender is no closer than 6-feet.

"This kind of sounds simplistic but we’re running the same offensive sets for them. When they’re open they’re making shots," said head coach Dwane Casey. "Shooters never forget how to shoot … and again, nothing replaces getting back into the gym and working and they’ve done that, doing extra work on their shot, and subsequently they seem like they’re going in."

Casey has been consistent with his message to Ross and Patterson: use solid defence to spark their offence. To their credit, they’ve both dug in defensively and are now seeing results on the offensive end.

"I never want my offence to dictate the way I play on the defensive side," said Patterson. "Granted my threes haven’t been amazing this season like they should, but [I’m] just working on my in-between game, or whenever teams run me off [the three-point line], or when I see an opportunity to attack the basket … working on other ways to score."

"We are just playing together. We are playing team basketball," added Ross. "It’s halfway through the season so we all know how we play. We know where we like the ball and the tendencies of the other players, so it’s all about playing together."

With Ross and Patterson firing more consistently from deep, it makes an already effective bench unit even more difficult to break down. That development bodes very well for the Raptors as they attempt to establish themselves as the top threat to Cleveland in the East.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr