Gasol’s back, Powell and OG soaring for Raptors
Well, that was a hairy one in Oklahoma City. Though Toronto never trailed after the first quarter and led by as many as 30 points, this is the new NBA and almost no lead is safe.
The Dallas Mavericks found that out the hard way last month when Toronto roared back in historic fashion and this one was way more stressful for the visitors then it needed or should have been. That said, in the end, it was an impressive road win against a Thunder team that had really been rolling.
I liked the creativity Nick Nurse showed (and how he threw us all off) by going gigantic and starting both the red-hot Serge Ibaka and the returning Marc Gasol. That made Pascal Siakam an oversized small forward and OG Anunoby an unfair-sized shooting guard. It reminded me of when Ron Artest used to spend a good chunk of time while with Indiana at shooting guard. Even if you’re built like a house like Artest or Anunoby, if you have the lateral quickness and defensive instincts, you can defend that position despite not being the traditional size (it is tougher today though with so many teams playing a second shooting guard at the two).
Anunoby was really good at both ends of the floor. He was everywhere defensively in the early going, including while matched up with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has been terrorizing the league lately. Anunoby’s only played more minutes once in his career (the overtime loss in Indiana last month) and it was easy to see why Nurse rode him, despite having more available players than he has become used to at his disposal. He was smothering, something Toronto could have used more of from others, in the end. He tied his career-high with five assists, many of them great extra pass reads to an open Norman Powell, and he might be the team’s best off-ball cutter, something they need now that Danny Green isn’t around anymore.
A benefit of the team going big and Powell rolling (more on that coming) was it allowed NBA minutes per game leader Kyle Lowry to only play 33 minutes, his fewest of the season in a game where he didn’t leave due to an injury. With Fred Van-Vleet ahead of schedule, according to Nurse, Nurse will be able to keep Lowry’s minutes under control on a nightly basis starting as early as Friday against Washington.