Close games are welcome stress tests for star duo
Nick Nurse was joking a bit last week when he said he wanted his Toronto Raptors to get into a few games with white-knuckle finishes once he had Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry in the lineup at the same time.
Of course, the head coach would prefer a 15- or 20-point win to a buzzer-beater situation but, if a test came, he was interested to see how his top two players would handle it together.
“I think we want to see just some more minutes together, just some more cohesion together,” Nurse said when Lowry returned from a10-game injury absence. “When there’s close late games, where are we going, what are we doing, how are we getting the ball?
“It’s pretty simple when one of them’s on and one of them’s off. It becomes a little harder, in a good way. It’s a good problem that you’ve got two choices to make, who’s bringing it, who isn’t bringing it.”
Little did Nurse know what was coming.
Two of Toronto’s last three games have come down to final possessions and, while neither Lowry nor Leonard actually made a game-winning shot, they both made game-winning plays for teammates.
Tuesday against Atlanta, Leonard made the decisive defensive play and Lowry fed Serge Ibaka for the game-winning dunk. Sunday in Washington, Leonard rebounded his own miss and made a pass to Ibaka for the game-breaking three-pointer with fewer than 15 seconds remaining in the second overtime period.
Leonard and Lowry had both missed potential game-winning shots against Washington but game-winning plays count just as much — and are just as important.
Leonard has said often this season that the crucible of tight regular-season games can only help the Raptors when the playoffs roll around, and Sunday’s taut affair in Washington had him at it again.
“Helps us get better as a team,” he said of the 140-138 doubleovertime victory that extended Toronto’s NBA-best record to 33-12 and was their fifth win in a row. “Executing, just being familiar with those close games down the stretch. Seconds on the clock, one minute left, needing stops.”
Regardless of who has been on the floor or even available, the Raptors have done a pretty good job finishing out close games so far this season. They have a 15-7 record in games decided by 10 points or fewer, and a 6-3 mark in games that end with a margin of four points or fewer.
To illustrate their depth, Danny Green has won a game at the buzzer, Ibaka has had two late game-winning plays in a week, and Fred VanVleet made a big three-pointer to beat Indiana one night. The presence of Leonard and Lowry draws so much attention from opponents that it frees up space and opportunities for others. The more options available to Nurse, the better.
Some nights, the late-game execution is needed because the Raptor can’t bury teams when they have the chance, some nights it’s because the opponents have upped their level. But the fact the Raptors are able to win a large proportion of close games is good.
And the fact they’ve had two games to practise out of the last three is giving Nurse what he wanted, even if it is a bit stressinducing.