Raptors ground cold-shooting Hawks
ATLANTA • Kyle Lowry found his game and the Toronto Raptors finished this road trip 3-1 with a workmanlike 124-108 win over the coldshooting Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night.
Lowry, the NBA’s assists leader, picked up 17 more as part of his 11th triple-double as a Raptor, by far the most in franchise history and exToronto star Vince Carter eclipsed the 25,000 career points mark on — what else? — a slam dunk just before the buzzer.
He got a lot of help from big men Jonas Valanciunas, Pascal Siakam and Serge Ibaka, who each scored in double figures and helped Toronto dominate the boards, while Atlanta bricked its way out of the game, hitting just 5-of-25 three-point attempts before nailing five of the next 11 once the result was academic.
Lowry had been struggling with his jump shot over the past week, but found the range and also consistently found Valanciunas on the pick and roll. Valanciunas had 17 points and 10 rebounds in the first half alone as Toronto built a 5544 advantage in a game that started in ugly fashion, with both teams missing 14 combined shots to begin the game before Lowry connected on a couple.
The young, rebuilding Hawks, including flashy point guard Trae Young who was kept in check, struggled to score, aside from veteran Jeremy Lin, who had 26 points.
Carter needed to score 13 points to get to 25,000 for his career (nearly 10,000 of them came while with Toronto), but managed only seven until a late flourish, with his Hawks teammates force feeding him the ball.
Carter clanked a pair of three-pointers inside of the final minute, hit a couple of free throws, missed a short jumper, then received a dish for the jam.
The Raptors outplayed Atlanta in every facet of the game, allowing their Southern swing to finish in fine fashion.
After falling in overtime on Friday against rival Boston (a team that has since fallen on its face in spectacular fashion), the Raptors pummelled Chicago, beat up-and-coming Orlando at the buzzer and manhandled the Hawks to move to 15-4.
Valanciunas finished with 24 and 13, Siakam 22 and four, Ibaka 19 and nine, while Lowry’s numbers were 21 points, 17 assists (one short of his career high) and 12 rebounds.
MORE KAWHI ON THE WAY?
Kawhi Leonard once again sat a night after playing, as the team continues to manage his workload. However, head coach Nick Nurse indicated that Leonard might be getting toward the point where he plays both parts of back-to-backs (the next set comes Dec. 11 and 12 in Los Angeles and Oakland).
“I don’t really know on that. I think we’re getting closer,” Nurse said.
“I will say this, there’s been zero issues as far as any, too much minutes, or too long a run. He feels good, so I think the early plan here through 18, 20 games is going really well.”
Leonard is averaging a career-high 33.4 minutes per game when he is in the lineup.
UNEXPECTED SCRATCH
While Leonard was never going to play and OG Anunoby was expected to miss another game due to his sore wrist, C.J. Miles had planned to return after missing four games due to a groin issue.
However, the team had other plans having seen Delon Wright quickly reinjure himself after coming back from a similar injury earlier this season.
“Nothing happened, it was just a call, the training staff decided to make sure (there were no setbacks),” Miles told Postmedia before the game.
“I’m still aiming for this immediate time, the next couple of days (the team hosts struggling Washington on Friday and Miami on Sunday). It was just today. It wasn’t even decided until when we got over here and I worked out and stuff,” he said.
Anunoby told Postmedia that his wrist is feeling better at least.
ISSUES FROM DISTANCE
Toronto came into the game attempting the eighthmost three-pointers in the NBA, but shooting just 33.6 per cent from beyond the arc, which ranked 24th.
With Leonard rested, Toronto used its eighth different starting lineup in 19 games this season and Nurse indicated that might be part of the issues early on, though he expects the shooting to stabilize in time.
“I think that stuff usually levels out. Career numbers are career numbers and guys usually will go up and down, comparatively and get back to who they are,” Nurse said.
“I think the quality of the threes (attempted) is pretty high. There’s some, there’s a couple every game that you kind of say, ‘That one I maybe wouldn’t have taken,’ but I think the quality of them is pretty good. And that’s all we should be worried about: Each trip down are we taking the shots that we’re looking for.”
Sticking with the trend, early on in this one the Raptors missed four wide open three-pointers before sinking the next three, but then went cold again.