Raptors’ Green a real difference maker
CHICAGO As it turns out, Nick Nurse was right: Danny Green is a pretty important player for the Toronto Raptors.
After the team lost the veteran shooting guard early twice during the week, Toronto’s head coach referred to Green’s glue-guy tendencies and how useful he is late in a game.
On Wednesday, Green had to exit due to an injury, leaving him only able to watch as Dwane Casey’s Detroit Pistons stormed back for a stunning win in Toronto. Then Green fouled out after a couple of dubious late calls Friday, which took away one of the best options to try to slow down Kyrie Irving in an overtime loss in Boston.
Green was thoroughly unhappy with some of the calls and came back with a flourish for Saturday’s 122-83 obliteration of the lowly Chicago Bulls. Green hit all seven of his shots, including a trio of three-pointers, and was solid defensively. He also handed out three assists in a plus-35 performance.
Green joked after the game that he’d never turned in a perfect game before, but he did hit all seven shots once while with San Antonio, and went 6-for-6 another time.
Green’s on-court, off-court splits are the best on the team (Toronto is +11.5 when Green is on the court, -3.2 when he sits) and he has rejuvenated his career in a contract season while boosting the Raptors.
“He’s a champion. He’s got a ring, he played under one of the best coaches in NBA history, and probably the world in Gregg Popovich,” Kyle Lowry said when asked why Green has fit in so ideally.
“So, he kind of brought a lot of things with him to us.”
Green said being healthy has helped a lot. His undetected groin issue set him back quite a bit last season. The Spurs needed to throw him in contract-wise to make the Kawhi Leonard-demar Derozan blockbuster trade work.
But had the Spurs been able to pull out a crystal ball and predict he’d boost his outside shooting a full 10 per cent and post the second-best field goal percentage of his career (yes, it’s early), it’s hard to imagine they wouldn’t insist on getting back either Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby in the deal.
FRED GETS RIGHT
Fred Vanvleet was a crucial player for the Raptors last year, one of the premier reserves in the NBA, but injuries had set him back this season before he broke out against the Bulls.
“He looked like his old self,” Nurse said. “He’s very talented, he’s a 45 (per cent)-plus shooter, and he’s shooting in the 20s this year, or low 30s, I don’t even know, but it’s pretty low for him. He just looked like a different guy out there, and that’s good.”
Nurse said Vanvleet would have been given some time off to heal had the club not suffered so many injuries. As players come back, that still might happen.
Vanvleet refused to use the injuries as a crutch, saying he simply needs to hit shots.
“Start, bench, whatever. Obviously, getting out there and getting an extended run, it’s helpful to get a rhythm,” Vanvleet said.
Vanvleet also noted it was helpful to finally see some extended minutes alongside Siakam, one of his key Bench Mob partners last season.
“He was one of the guys I had a lot of success with. Those things help,” Vanvleet said. “We’re gonna find our rotation, we’re gonna find our lineups that work for us. Last year we had a five-man unit. That’s over. We’ve got to figure out something else that works this year. We’re working toward that now.”
LOWRY OK
Lowry didn’t return Saturday after tweaking an ankle in the third quarter, but said he was fine after the game.
“We were going to run him until the end of the quarter, that was kind of the plan. It’s a little bit unfortunate,” Nurse said.
The Raptors had Sunday off to enjoy the Florida sun before returning to practice Monday ahead of backto-back road games against the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks.