Raptors make it four straight wins
Six players get into double figures
Sometimes it’s just a matter of taking care of business.
In a nutshell that was the goal going into a game with a f atigued Phoenix Suns squad. Mission accomplished for the Toronto Raptors.
At times it was pretty, but games like this one with a team that is well rested, owns a deeper roster, and has more experience are rarely that pretty.
The Suns battled, no question but for the majority of the evening the lead was around 13 ending up 126-113 in Toronto’s favour for its fourth consecutive win.
The Raptors spread the scoring around with six different players getting into double figures and no one scoring more than the 20 points Lowry had to go with his 10 assists.
For what seemed like the umpteenth time he finished a few ( four short) rebounds shy of a triple double.
The game featured a career high four three-pointers from rookie OG Anunoby who finished with a careerhigh tying 16 points but was probably most impressive locking down Devin Booker who he held scoreless from the field in the first half.
For the Suns the game may have been a little more costly than just a loss.
With just over a minute remaining in t he game, Booker pulled up lame as he tried to stay with Fred VanVleet and had to be carried from the court.
That would be a big blow for the Suns, who rely heavily on the Kentucky product.
SUNS DON’T QUIT
Give this young Phoenix team plenty of credit. They don’t quit. The Suns were down by as many as 17 points in the first half and crawled back to within nine by the break. In a game that few gave the Suns any chance at all mostly because they were playing the second of back- to- back games against a rested opponent and were playing their sixth game of a six-game road swing. They should have been dog tired. And perhaps they were but they didn’t give in.
Sure, Booker didn’t have his shot going after playing 39 minutes in the win over Philly on Monday but he was active with his defence and deflections.
Anunoby made Booker’s night tough including an 0- for-7 from the field in the first half but he got to the line and chipped in with five rebounds and four assists in that half as well.
ANOTHER BIG TEST
Anunoby isn’t exactly easing his way into his NBA career.
Since he joined the Raptors starting lineup Nov. 14 in Houston following a hip injury to Norm Powell, Anunoby has been the primary defender on James Harden, Jrue Holiday, Bradley Beal and Victor Oladipo twice.
It’s not an easy road for a seasoned veteran let alone a true rookie and Anunoby had another big chore covering Booker.
Anunoby has had both good and bad moments defensively throughout the past 2½ weeks but he’s never backed down, never given in regardless of the high level of responsibility.
Head coach Dwane Casey said before the game: “OG is learning to guard dynamic players like this ( Booker), that use the pick- and- roll. You used to have the power threes but those guys, Carmelo ( Anthony) moved out ( of the conference), and we haven’t seen ( LeBron) James yet from Cleveland. So his matchups are kinda guys who are like Booker. It’s gonna be interesting to see. I know he had Beal earlier and did a decent job, as well as you could with a young player on him, and this will be another learning experience.”
Casey knows he’s asking a lot of his rookie but the team believes he’s capable of being that lockdown defender. But even lockdown defenders have to learn at this level and Anunoby is getting a quick education. Casey has definite i deas about where Anunoby needs to take his game next.
“Guarding the pick- androll,” Casey said. “Guarding those actions, pick- and- roll actions, pin- down actions, multiple schemes, you know, pin- down into a pick- androll, which direction are you sending him. All those things that he’s learning to do. Stationary, he’s good. Just playing one- on- one in a station- ary situation, he’s got that. But learning those multiple actions and then guarding that is his next level.”
BRIEFLY
DeMar DeRozan rarely disappoints. Watch him closely enough in a game and you can always find something he’s doing that isn’t necessarily in his every day bag of tricks. Tuesday night in the first quarter he had a behind the back pass to Serge Ibaka for an easy bucket and then later in the third he was on the run with a full head of steam and delivered an underhand bullet pass to Anunoby for the uncontested dunk ... Jakob Poeltl may be getting calls from some dance studios the way he tiptoed through the lane on a feed from VanVleet just before the end of the third quarter. Poetry in motion is not that much of an overstatement. The man has magic in both his feet and his hands.