Hardwood Highlight of the Night: Pressure D leads to James Johnson alley-oop in transition
It was a tale of two halves for the Toronto Raptors in Wednesday's marquee matchup against the Chicago Bulls.
Both teams were without their starting point guards and are battling for the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. On a nationally televised ESPN game, the Raptors appeared poised to finally come out on top versus a Bulls team that had already beaten them three times this season.
Toronto took a 54-50 lead into the half thanks to some strong defense and a well-executed offense. The team displayed the two strengths during a sequence a few minutes into the second quarter - pressuring the Bulls on one end led to an easy basket for James Johnson on the other.
The sequence started with Amir Johnson hounding Bulls center Joakim Noah, who was operating with the ball beyond the arc looking for an open teammate.
Noah eventually found an open man, kicking the ball out to Nikola Mirotic on the wing. But Toronto's Patrick Patterson picked up right where Johnson left off and was all over Mirotic.
Patterson forced Mirotic into the corner, and even though Chicago's rookie was able to get him close to the block, he never appeared comfortable.
With Patterson draped all over him, Mirotic didn't have a good look at a shot and instead attempted to dish the ball off.
He unwisely rose off of his feet and completely telegraphed his next move - a cross-court pass that Raptors guard Lou Williams could see coming from a mile away.
Williams intercepted the pass, leading to a two-on-one with James Johnson in transition. He pushed the ball down the court until he had Chicago's lone defender, Tony Snell, backpedaling into the paint. Williams tossed up a lob for Johnson, who threw it down to complete the alley-oop.
The entire play can be watched below:
Toronto's good fortunes didn't last, however. The team stopped playing defense late in the game, getting outscored 39-21 in the fourth quarter, and came up short in a 116-103 loss. Chicago swept the season series 4-0 and took a 1.5-game lead over the Raptors for third place in the East.