Return of Lowry provides big boost against Pacers
Bring Kyle Lowry back into the mix and the Toronto Raptors start to look a whole lot more like the No. 1 team in basketball they hope to be.
Even without Kawhi Leonard, sitting out the second game of a back-to-back set again, the Raptors did away with the Indiana Pacers with relative ease, 121-105, their second win in as many nights over Eastern Conference contenders.
The Raptors became the first team to win 30 games this season as they moved back into first place in the NBA. And the struggles that had popped up in the absence of Lowry and centre Jonas Valanciunas — Toronto was 8-8 in its last 16 games heading into the weekend — seemed to disappear in wins over Milwaukee and Indiana.
Led by Lowry, who had missed all but one game since Dec. 12, the Raptors picked up where they had left off Saturday night. They scored 37 points in the opening quarter, and 70 in the first half. They shot 51 per cent from three-point range, going 17-ofr-33. And the bench, which had struggled in Milwaukee, outscored the Pacers’ reserves 52-25. The second unit’s performance allowed coach Nick Nurse to divide the minutes more evenly throughout the rotation: eight of 10 players player between 21 and 34 minutes.
Nurse didn’t pull any punches when describing what he wanted from his bench after the foursome of Norm Powell, OG Anunoby, Delon Wright and Greg Monroe went 1-for-15 from the floor with six turnovers between them on Saturday against the Bucks.
“They gotta step up, man,” Nurse said pre-game. “They've gotta play better, they've gotta play harder, they've gotta play with more passion, they've gotta bring it. I'm looking for that today. We're gonna need it.”
Powell led the charge with a season-high 23 points. But it was Lowry who helped give Toronto its swagger back by pulling the strings all night long, logging minutes with the starters as well as the bench, He finished with 12 points and eights assists.
The visitors: Bojan Bogdanovic led the Pacers with 21 points and nine rebounds, while all-star candidate Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis had 16 points. Toronto native Cory Joseph had nine points and four rebounds off the bench. The loss was just Indiana’s third in the past 16 games.
Big night: Ibaka, who dropped 25 points against Milwaukee, came up big again with 18 points and six rebounds. His most jaw-dropping play may have come on defence, though, when he swatted away a drive by Sabonis in the third quarter.
From the box: Toronto’s 30 assists were their most since a Dec. 11 win over the Los Angeles Clippers; their season high is 36 ... Eight of 10 Raptors scored 10 or more points. OG Anunoby, Chris Boucher and Lorenzo Brown were the only outliers ... C.J. Miles has not stepped foot on the court in four of the Raptors’ last seven games.
Up next: Vince Carter and the Atlanta Hawks come to town Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.