Have the Toronto Raptors found something off the bench? Finally?
Kyle Lowry subbed out as usual later in the first quarter, replaced by the surging Chris Boucher and Aron Baynes, and Pascal Siakam followed him, in a bit of a hockey line change. Stanley Johnson and Norman Powell also entered.
Later in the quarter, Lowry replaced OG Anunoby and Yuta Watanabe subbed out Fred VanVleet. Toronto was trailing by five points when that group entered. By the time one of them was removed (Johnson for Siakam), Toronto had swung to an eight-point lead. It was impressive stuff at both ends of the floor.
Watanabe and Johnson hit surprise three-pointers, but don’t bring a lot to the table offensively. However, they are menaces defensively. They are in the right spot, know the systems and create some havoc. They are earning time through their hard work and defensive efforts.
Nurse just wants to see some consistency, as the bench wasn’t anywhere near as successful the rest of the game.
“Yeah, we’ve got to get them to put two halves together because they did a great job, I thought, of just playing hard,” Nurse said of the first stint.
“Now we’ve got to make sure when they come out to start the fourth quarter it’s very, more important time than the start of the second or into the first, so they’ve got to get ready and just bring that same energy, you know, just energy and then keep moving and cutting on the offensive end.”
The Raptors rank sixth in net rating in first quarters this season. They’re 24th in second quarters, 26th in third quarters and seventh in fourth quarters. That last one seemed interesting, considering all the collapses and seemingly poor late-game efforts we’ve seen from the Raptors.
–As COVID-19 continues to rage and the NBA struggles to come up with counter-measures to keep everyone safe , it was interesting to hear Nurse talk about coaches and mask-wearing recently. Coaches have been keyed on for failing to keep masks on at all times.
“I think there’s obviously (cause) for concern, you know, more cases, more contact tracing, obviously a handful of postponements, and I just, you know, they’re just trying to step it up a level and do anything they can to keep the games going,” Nurse said.
“It isn’t always easy. Sometimes I’m in the huddle or on the floor, and I’m doing all kinds of things to try to keep my mask on, to let guys hear me, and after the third time, they said, ‘coach, you know what, I can’t hear what you’re saying.’ Every now and then you got to pull, try to pull it down quick, but I gotta try to limit that the best I can. And sometimes in the heat of battle, it’s difficult. But saying that we got to do a little better job, I got to do a better job. and we’ll try to do as best I can,” Nurse said.
–One idea, especially now that fans are out of the picture in Tampa Bay and elsewhere: Turn down all of the in-arena stuff to a minimum.
Nurse even said the noise level has been different depending on where they have played.
“Every game there’s a whole new thing. Like Golden State was really loud in that arena even though there was no one there, the music and the extras that we’re going on were loud and the next night you go to Portland and it was like no noise, nothing going. There was a whole different, kinda dead atmosphere,” he said.
Not trying to be the COVID police, but noticed last night that even though the league is trying to crack down on post-game greetings (fist bumps were the recommendation), the Raptors and Hornets didn’t shy away from handshakes and hugs.
For now, maybe they need to go the route coaches have long travelled: A post-game wave from a distance.
–One more on Boucher: He had his fourth game with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for the Raptors. That tied the franchise record, also held by Serge Ibaka, Charlie Villanueva and Donyell Marshall.
The strangest thing I found while researching this? Original Raptors starting centre Zan Tabak once had a 20-point, 15-rebound game.
Also wild? The franchise leader for 20 and 10 games is Chris Bosh with 124 more of those games than No. 2 Jonas Valanciunas. Yeah, Bosh was underrated.
THREE STARS
1 — Chris Boucher
2 — Kyle Lowry
3 — Terry Rozier
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