DeMar DeRozan had to watch the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Game 3 loss unfold from the bench, but he managed to be a fairly good sport about it.
The Toronto Raptors guard checked out of the game with 2:12 remaining in the third quarter as the Raptors were down 16 to the Cleveland Cavaliers and never came back in. Head coach Dwane Casey decided to have CJ Miles run with the starters instead, and it worked to an extent as Toronto battled all the way back to tie the game before LeBron James’ game-winner at the buzzer.
After the contest, backcourt partner Kyle Lowry told the media that DeRozan was up cheering on the bench for his teammates during the comeback and wasn’t pouting about his benching, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated.
Raptors' Kyle Lowry on DeMar DeRozan's benching: "We had a group going in the fourth and coach road with it. I'm not worried about it. A tough shooting night. DeMar was up cheering with everybody else. He's a great teammate. He was't pouting or anything." pic.twitter.com/dY8uwPWJf7
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) May 6, 2018
Though DeRozan scored 46 points in the first two games of the series, he was clearly ineffective in his 28 minutes Saturday and finished with a playoff-low eight points. The star guard deserves credit for taking his benching in stride, but the timing here is pretty poor after he was mocked following Game 2.
