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So, Nick Nurse, head coach of the Toronto Raptors, do you bear in mind when the final time was you had the top-eight gamers in your rotation obtainable for a similar sport?
“I don’t,” Nurse mentioned previous to his membership internet hosting the New York Knicks at Scotiabank Area on Sunday afternoon.
Effectively, it was a trick query. With rookie Scottie Barnes again from COVID protocols and one missed sport because of a sore knee, the sport marked the primary time this season the Raptors have had their top-eight gamers (by minutes performed per sport) wholesome and obtainable.
“Then no marvel it’s so arduous to recollect,” mentioned Nurse.
It might have been trigger for celebration, given the struggles the Raptors have had conserving wholesome this season. With long-term accidents to Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby, Khem Birch and Yuta Watanabe, in addition to assorted bumps and bruises – and all of this earlier than Omicron hit – Toronto has had just one sport once they haven’t had a minimum of two of their prime eight unable to play.
However with Scotiabank Area devoid of followers for the second-straight sport because of restrictions on indoor gatherings to lower than 1000, issues had been a bit muted.
How good the Raptors are or might be this season continues to be a thriller, even three months into the season. With their top-five gamers – OG Anunoby, Scotty Barnes, Pascal Siakam, Gary Trent Jr. and Fred VanVleet – having performed simply 50 minutes collectively within the group’s first 32 video games, their barely optimistic web ranking gave away little.
Nonetheless, as Raptors president Masai Ujiri sat in part 118 all by himself, free of his typical spot within the video room, he needed to be inspired by what he noticed.
The Raptors jumped on the struggling Knicks early and had been in a position to hold the stress on for many of 48 minutes. The ball moved; the offence was by no means pressured; there have been contributions massive and small all through the lineup and the Knicks had been by no means in a position to critically threaten.
The 120-105 win was Toronto’s second straight and improved them to 16-17 on the season. The Knicks fell to 17-20 whereas the Raptors pulled previous them and into tenth place within the Japanese Convention, the final spot for the play-in event.
The Raptors had been led by VanVleet, who popped off for a season-high 35 factors on 11-of-17 taking pictures, together with 7-of-13 from deep. Siakam added 20 factors, 14 rebounds and 7 assists whereas Anunoby and Barnes mixed for 27 factors and 4 steals.
The Raptors shot 47 per cent from the ground whereas holding the Knicks – who received 19 from Canadian nationwide group guard RJ Barrett – to 42 per cent earlier than Nurse emptied his bench with slightly below 5 minutes to play.
With so many wholesome our bodies there was even a query of who would begin as a result of, till at this time, Nurse by no means had to decide on if he wished to go with his perceived prime 5 with both Birch or Achiuwa at centre, as a result of the choice had by no means been offered.
Nurse ended up going with a smaller group with each Birch and Achiuwa coming off the bench.
The starters didn’t waste any time going to work. They staked the Raptors to a 17-6 lead with VanVleet scoring 10 fast factors. However the early surge wasn’t one man feeling it. The scores got here off defensive stops; off ball motion within the half court docket and with the Raptors pushing in transition.
As has been the case with the Knicks all season, they picked up steam when their starters went to the bench, however the Raptors had been in a position to hold discovering combos that labored. Birch was the primary participant in off the bench, coming in for Barnes, however Barnes went again in for Siakam a couple of minutes later earlier than Nurse dipped any additional into his depth.
The Raptors began the second quarter with a 15-1 push that featured steals by Anunoby and Barnes that led to buckets; playmaking by Siakam resulting in a simple shot within the paint for Achiuwa and even Chris Boucher ending off a 2-on-1 with an alley-oop from Achuiwa. The Raptors led by as a lot as 17 however took a well-earned 56-45 lead into the half.
They stored it rolling from there. A pair of Barnes triples halfway via the third quarter gave the Raptors a 19-point lead and would have had Scotiabank roaring had there been anybody there, however the Raptors bench did their finest to make up for it. A VanVleet three out of a Knicks timeout stored the momentum and his dish to Siakam pushed the Raptors result in 24.
The items appeared to suit. With VanVleet in a groove scoring, Siakam was content material to combine issues up and provoke the offence, bringing his second profession triple double into view Barnes stored doing what he’s been doing all yr – making performs in gaps at each ends of the ground, with some minutes as defacto level guard added. Anunoby hasn’t discovered his three-point stroke after lacking 15 of the earlier 18 video games, however was efficient bulling his approach to the rim and attending to the road.
With extra selections obtainable even an off evening from Trent Jr. – he picked up his fifth foul early within the third quarter and fouled out halfway via the fourth – didn’t matter. Nurse nonetheless had loads of strings to tug and with the lineup deeper, the Raptors’ bench – a weak level all season – was in a position to maintain its personal with 15 factors on 7-of-10 taking pictures via three quarters, serving to the Raptors take a 96-74 lead into the fourth.
The fixed was the defensive vitality remained excessive, which has been the Raptors’ imaginative and prescient since coaching camp.
“I’m at all times fairly open minded about what it appears to be like like,” mentioned Nurse of his determination to begin small and go from there. “Once more, relying on who we’re enjoying nonetheless issues, however I’m hoping that this group will give us our greatest defensive group on the finish of video games and issues like that, and if they’ll get some reps collectively and get some connection and issues like that hopefully it’s gonna be an actual powerful defensive group and that’s the top aim, to determine our greatest defensive group after which work out the place the offence comes from every evening.”
The great factor is that, for the primary time this season, Nurse was ready to experiment, to vary his thoughts and alter it again once more.
The Raptors regarded like they’re presupposed to look, and so they didn’t look half dangerous.
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