No Leonard, no problem
Back-to-backs lessening star’s full impact
For whatever reason, the NBA-leading Toronto Raptors have had little trouble dealing with what typically are the toughest games on the schedule to play.
Even without top player Kawhi Leonard, who sits half of every back-to-back (at least for now), Toronto is now 5-0 when he sits out the second night of back-tobacks after Wednesday’s 124108 win over Atlanta.
“It’s not an excuse to play back-to-backs because all teams have to do it,” said Jonas Valanciunas after the game. Valanciunas has had his two best scoring games of the year in those contests, including 24 against the Hawks, his high for the year, has shot 60 per cent from the field, rebounded more and fouled less in those games.
“You can’t feel sorry for yourself. You have to go out there and play with the same energy and the same fight every game,” Valanciunas said.
Kyle Lowry has been absurdly good in those outings, stepping up as the key Raptor in Leonard’s absence. There was the triple-double against Atlanta, 28 points and 12 assists against Washington, 20 and 12 against Philadelphia, 17 and 11 against Utah and the only blemish, a 3-for-11 shooting night against Chicago where he still nearly notched a triple-double.
“We have never had a doubt in Kyle. He is a true warrior and he is producing every night,” Valanciunas said of the point guard who consistently found him for pick-and-roll finishes on Wednesday.
“We need to play more back-to-backs, it turns out,” joked head coach Nick Nurse.
“They have done a good job and we talked about it this afternoon, that we had 12 bodies suiting up and that we were probably going to need all 12 … We were subbing pretty freely and playing some unseen lineups (like Greg Monroe and Serge Ibaka beside each other up front), and everybody did a great job.”
The next back-to-back will provide the biggest tests yet, since they come against the talented Clippers in Los Angeles and the powerhouse Warriors in Oakland.
BENCH LETDOWN
Nurse wasn’t thrilled to have to bring Lowry back into the game against Atlanta after the bench couldn’t salt it away, especially after Lowry took a shot to the nose. Earlier in the day he had praised the work of the bench in Orlando, but they couldn’t seal the deal and get Lowry his rest.
Atlanta’s reserves outscored their counterparts 72-40 and overall, Atlanta forced 19 turnovers while only committing nine. Those 19 forced miscues were converted into 29 points, which is basically beating Toronto at its own game, since the Raptors love to create easy points off turnovers.
Still, Atlanta can’t come close to matching up talentwise, so the game still wasn’t close.
VINSANITY RETURNS
Though a bit forced, the Vince Carter dunk to get him over 25,000 career points was a nice moment and it felt fitting that he did it against the Raptors.
In an extremely ironic touch, former Raptors general manager Rob Babcock, who made the ill-fated giveaway to New Jersey that sent Carter packing from Toronto, was in the building taking in the game.
The jam itself was vintage Vince, though he forgot to do his revving the engine trademark following the dunk because his thoughts were firmly on becoming only the 22nd player to ever score that many points.
AROUND THE RIM
Lowry and the rest of the locker-room were engrossed in the final moments of LeBron James’s return to Cleveland … Norman Powell is still a ways away from returning, but C.J. Miles and OG Anunoby are just about back … Lowry has one fewer triple-double as a Raptor than the 12 every other Raptors player managed combined. Lowry’s 17 assists against Atlanta were one off of his career best and two off the franchise record Jose Calderon and Damon Stoudamire previously recorded (Calderon did it twice).