NBA

Rebounding Raptors taking advantage of smaller Nets

TORONTO — These things don’t just happen. In Games 1 and 2 of their first-round playoff series, the Raptors have hammered the Nets on the backboards by 30 rebounds, including a massive 52-30 second game edge. The whys and hows are complex, complicated, intricate, something to baffle the greatest of minds.

“Just go get it,” Raptors reserve forward Patrick Patterson said.

Okay, maybe it’s not THAT complicated.

But figuring how to offset the Raptors’ rebounding strength in the remainder of the series, which resumes Friday with Game 3 in Brooklyn, has become a chore comparable to the Riddle of the Sphinx for the Nets.

“We know we’re a bigger team. We’re a more athletic team. So getting outrebounded by them is inexcusable,” Patterson said. “We know that’s one area we’re better at and we can take advantage of.”

Jonas Valanciunas, the Raptors 21-year-old, 7-foot, second-season center has 32 rebounds — 10 offensive — in the two games. Kevin Garnett leads the Nets with 12. No Net has more offensive rebounds than Kyle Lowry, the Raptors’ 6-foot point guard.

“I get lucky when it comes to offensive rebounds,” said Lowry, whose four offensive boards are equaled only by Net Andray Blatche, surpassed by none from Brooklyn. “If I get a defensive rebound, it’s like an automatic fast break.”

The Nets’ season took off when they adopted their small lineup, and that helped them navigate the NBA landscape to the playoffs. But of course, there are drawbacks with small lineups. For starters, they’re small.

“They’ve done a great job. Look at that record since they went to that philosophy. But there are things you give up in certain areas and we give up when we’re big,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey, whose team is prepped for a hostile atmosphere in Brooklyn. “It’s give and take. We try to minimize how much they take with their small lineup and how much we take with our big lineup.”

Well, in Game 2, the Raptors took 19 offensive rebounds.

“I wouldn’t call it a dominance,” Casey said. “I call it taking advantage of certain situations.”

Six of one, half-dozen of another.

“Coach stresses ‘pound the glass,’ especially with them playing with four smalls,” said Game 2 hero DeMar DeRozan. “We’ve got Amir [Johnson] in there and he can get every rebound. And JV [Valanciunas] is becoming a hell of a rebounder.”

But they will have to do it against a Nets team that will be bolstered by a crowd still fired-up by Toronto general manager Masai Ujiri’s earlier “F— Brooklyn” proclamation.

“Their crowd is loud. They get chants going. Your crowd is always going to give you energy,” Lowry said, noting he loves a hostile environment. “It’s everybody against you, us against the world. It’s what you play for. You want to shut the crowd up.”

And one way to do it, perhaps, is to continue — not the dominance — but taking advantage of rebounding situations.