‘THE ELIMINATOR’ OFFERS KUDOS TO HIS STAFF
It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
All that fine defensive work a year ago in the Raptors’ playoff run that led to a championship is still there to use and Nick Nurse is making as much use of it as he can.
Nurse said the coverages the Raptors used against the Philadelphia 76ers in the spring in their Eastern Conference semifinal were still in play Monday as he merely sat Rondae Hollis-jefferson down in front of a projector, pointed to the player whose role he would be playing and then made sure Hollis-jefferson understood the role.
“You say, ‘This is what it looks like,’ and then he says, ‘I can do that,’ and you say, ‘Will you?’ and he says, ‘Yeah.’ Then you are OK,” Nurse said.
But the kind of defensive dominance the Raptors have had on display for the bulk of the last three weeks is more than just pointing a player in the direction of the film room.
Nurse and his coaching staff have developed specific defensive schemes for the likes of Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard, Damian Lillard, Luka Doncic,
Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid over that time frame and, even in losing some of those games, those schemes have been successful.
Nurse, as the head coach, gets the lion’s share of the credit for these schemes. One morning, a sports radio host dubbed him the “Eliminator” for the Raptors’ ability to erase an opponent’s most productive player on a given night.
And Nurse certainly has plenty to do with these schemes.
But by no means is he doing this alone.
Behind him, he has three lead assistants who he considers head coaches in waiting in Adrian Griffin, Nate Bjorkgren and Sergio Scariolo.
Nurse was quick to bring them into the mix when the plaudits started flowing Tuesday for the team’s defensive dominance.
“I’ve said many times and I should probably say it more often: as far as a coaching staff goes, those guys are big time,” Nurse said of his staff. “All three of those guys — Adrian, Nate and Sergio — they are all head coach-level guys and they take these game plans and they dig into them. They eat them up and spit them back out to our players in an incredible way, an incredible format and they are really good men.”
But without buy-in from the players, none of the best laid-out plans mean a thing. Nurse knows this too.
“Give guys all the credit, they’ve gone out there and executed the stuff pretty high level,” he said. “And played hard, right? They’re playing hard, man.”
COACH KYLE, EVERYONE
It won’t be long — not much past this weekend, if even that long — before Kyle Lowry is back in the lineup with his broken left thumb healed and the rest of the season to dig into.
In the meantime, Lowry is making his presence known both during timeouts in games and during practices, so of course Nurse was asked to describe Lowry’s coaching style.
“Ummm, total authoritarian,” Nurse said to nodding agreement from many in the media. “Just joking. He’s very direct. He’s good.”
Lowry is only about winning and it’s no surprise at all to hear he’s been voicing his opinion when he thought it could help while he hasn’t be able to be on the floor to let his thumb heal.
“He jumped out there in a drill today to say we (weren’t) quite doing this right,” Nurse said Tuesday, offering an example from that day’s practice. “Here’s what it should look like and then he walked them through it and the drill got better, so he’s a good coach. He tells them what is wrong and then he goes out there and shows them how to do it right. That’s good.”
DAVIS CHOOSING HIS WORDS CAREFULLY
Terence Davis II is new to the NBA, but he wasn’t about to cost himself any money via fines from the league office when he was asked about a three-shot foul he was assessed Monday night against the 76ers.
Replays clearly showed Josh Richardson trying to draw contact from Davis, who deftly avoided it before Richardson flopped to the ground like he had been fouled.
Davis was asked what he said to the ref after Richardson missed all three freebies.
“I just said ball don’t lie,” Davis said. “That’s all I said to the ref, ball don’t lie.”
The crowd reaction after the three misses, though, was music to Davis’ ears.
“I loved it. I loved it, I really did, I really did,” he said. “It felt like the crowd had my back right there because, clearly, you guys seen it. Yeah, ball don’t lie.”
INJURY ROUNDUP
Nurse had hoped to have Serge Ibaka and his severely sprained ankle back on the floor for Tuesday’s practice, but it appears it’s going to be a little more time before Ibaka is ready to resume basketball activities.
The new timeline suggests he could be back for Friday’s game in Orlando or possibly Sunday’s game back home against Utah.
Lowry could be back by the end of the weekend while Patrick Mccaw, Stanley Johnson, Dewan Hernandez and Matt Thomas all remain out.
Thomas has a minor fracture in his middle finger on the left hand and while he can do most of the practice work and get through shooting drills, he’s expected to be out at least four weeks to allow the finger to heal.