Toronto

Though DeMar DeRozan, Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker have garnered most of the attention over the past few weeks, quietly, Cory Joseph has done a fine job holding the fort for the injured Kyle Lowry.

Joseph had averaged 11.5 points (on 46.5% shooting), five assists and four rebounds per game in March, as well as playing stout defence, before another fine effort on Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets.

Head coach Dwane Casey thought the Raptors — including Joseph — had an off-night defensively against Orlando on Monday, so he was eager to see how they’d fare against all-star Kemba Walker.

Joseph answered the bell for a large portion of the evening, helping hold Walker to a 3-for-18 shooting night through three quarters.

However, the Raptors faltered when Joseph rested to start the fourth and there aren’t five better closers in the NBA than Walker, who is best-known for his absurd run with Connecticut back in 2011. That included a plethora of late-game shot-making.

Walker was at it again on Wednesday, erupting in the fourth quarter for a pair of clutch three-pointers and the game-sealing assist to Marvin Williams, who hit Charlotte’s 16th three-pointer of the night, on 32 attempts.

Joseph ended up with only one fewer point than Walker, on far better shooting and had a big block on Walker late, and a far better +/-, but Walker escaped with the last laugh.

“He hit two threes. One in the corner and the other one, good move, I was right there, fingertip to fingertip, literally,” Joseph told Postmedia afterward.

“I felt his hand touch my fingertips and he was still able to hit that shot.”

P.J. POWER

It is no coincidence that the Raptors had made a habit of closing games strongly and playing mostly great defence since Tucker arrived from Phoenix at the trade deadline.

Ibaka and Delon Wright have had a lot to do with it too, but Tucker had set the tone — until the Raptors allowed 44 fourth-quarter points to the Hornets, of course.

“I think it rubs off. P.J.’s defensive disposition, the way he thinks defence, helps everybody,” Toronto head coach Casey had said before Tucker’s worst game of this Raptors repatriation.

“Adding Serge and adding P.J., two excellent defensive players. They think defence, have ability to read situations. They’re strong, they’re tough, they’re mentally tough, all the ingredients to be a good defender. Adding those two guys, just the physical and mental toughness and thinking defence, reading defence, where it’s natural, really helps us.”

DeRozan has played the best defence of his career alongside Tucker and part of it is because Tucker challenged him to step up, but Tucker refuses to accept the praise.

“That’s him, that’s not me,” Tucker said.

“Everybody’s trying to give me credit for that. That’s him just buying in to wanting to win on both ends of the court and just wanting to win period. I think he’s trying to do everything he can for us to be able to win.”

Jonas Valanciunas played some of his best defence of the season in the third quarter of a close game on Wednesday, cutting off the Hornets guards while also recovering quickly enough to block a couple of shots, earning praise from Casey post-game.

Meanwhile, Tucker returned to the bench because DeMarre Carroll was back from injury. Casey said a team rule is players can’t lose their jobs to an injury, so Carroll will continue to start.

Tucker on whether he starts or is a substitute: “It doesn’t matter.”

LET THE SPECULATION BEGIN

Four weeks and a day following wrist surgery, Raptors star Kyle Lowry has returned to the court to shoot with his right hand. Lowry had been waiting until he could shoot without pain before ramping up his work, so his return date should now be coming soon.

The team would prefer some practice time so that Lowry can get used to newcomers Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker (they have not yet practised together), but they might only get one or two in before the end of the regular season, at most.

The time has come to speculate on Lowry’s return date. This corner figures the home date against Miami a week Friday is a good bet, but we could see Lowry pushing for one of the mid-week road tilts.

TOURNEY STARS

The Final Four is days away and few — if any — NBA teams have as many former NCAA stars as Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Hornets.

Walker went on that all-time run, first doing ridiculous things in the Big East Tournament, before leading Connecticut to the championship with more memorable performances. Backup guard Jeremly Lamb was UConn’s second-leading scorer on the way to that championship.

The next year, with a lot of help from Anthony Davis, swingman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist repeated Walker and Lamb’s feat, making the all-tournament team on the way to the title.

Big man Cody Zeller’s Indiana team lost to Kidd-Gilchrist’s Kentucky squad in the Sweet 16 and reached that same point a year later.

Centre Miles Plumlee won an NCAA title at Duke in 2010, while veteran Marvin Williams did the same for arch rival North Carolina back in 2005.

Most recently, Frank Kaminsky was the best player on two Wisconsin Final Four squads.

AROUND THE RIM

Tucker is one of the active leaders in terms of longevity without playoff games to show for it. “It’s not fun being in the top 5 most games played in the NBA and not being in the playoffs, “Tucker said. “Glad to get that monkey off my back,” next month … DeRozan’s total of 136 points over the four games heading into this one was a new Raptors record for any four-game win streak, according to Elias. DeRozan’s 145 points over the first four games of this season is the mark for any four-game stretch … DeRozan hit buzzer-beating jumpers to end both the first and second quarters … The Raptors went from shooting 59% against Orlando and 66% from beyond the three-point arc, to starting this game 1-for-9 from three.