There’s a method to Raps’ mad science
Nick Nurse calls it coaching “on the balls of your feet” by being a step or two ahead of the opposition, forcing issues rather than reacting to them, and it’s the juicy part of the game to the Raptors head coach.
Maybe it’s a new lineup or substitution pattern. Maybe it’s a tweak to defensive schemes, a play call that seemingly comes out of nowhere.
Maybe it works for a minute or two and maybe it doesn’t. Maybe it results in four consecutive stops or four consecutive baskets.
It’s the give-and-take that alters the momentum of a night.
“What’s a good example?” Nurse wondered one night last week. “Miami was playing a ton of zone when we went to play them and boom, we got into our zone first and changed the game. You know, so you’ve delivered the first blow.”
If there’s one trait that Nurse has shown throughout his first season as head coach, it’s a willingness to try different things, different combinations, different lineups, slightly different offensive and defensive plans game to game.
Start Serge Ibaka one night, start the now-departed Jonas Valanciunas or Marc Gasol the next. Run out a threeguard look one game, play three relatively big guys later the same night.
Zone? The Raptors play more zone defence than 20 other NBA teams, but never for more than 10 possessions in a row.
It’s not junking up a game. It’s getting on the front foot in a battle of wits and strategies with the fellow on the other bench.
“It’s not chaos, really,” he said. “It’s just, can you get to the point where you’re going to deliver something that they’re not expected, or … maybe your game plan was executed really well early and it was nothing you hadn’t been doing different, but you feel like you’re out in front of things a little bit.”
Of course, the vagaries of the game come into play — “A lot of it matters if the ball’s going in or not, too,” Nurse says — but being prepared and able to call audibles, and to have worked on them in real circumstances, matters.
As with almost everything the Raptors and Nurse have done the entire season, the versatility and willingness to try different things is a prelude for what might come in the playoffs. Getting real, live, game-speed prac- tice for something that might seem unorthodox could come in handy for a three- or fourminute stretch of a crucial postseason game. And an 8-0 run that comes about because the Raptors do something they haven’t done in weeks can be vital in turning the momentum of that game.
And even if it doesn’t work in the practice scenario of a specific regular-season game, that doesn’t mean it can’t be tweaked a little bit and used again down the road.
Sunday, for instance, the Raptors used two odd lineups that failed to varying degrees: four guards surrounding Ibaka, and a big frontcourt of Ibaka, Pascal Siakam and Marc Gasol. But it did give Nurse and his staff some live-speed game video to watch and see how they can teach those two groups how to perform better.
That’s the big picture process that’s been so important all season, and why fans might see more moments that seem to make little sense in the short term but are “teaching moments” for the staff and players.
“There’s times when you can never catch up with it, either,” Nurse said. “The other guy’s just (punching and changing the game), and those aren’t any fun.
“You just never can kind of catch up with what’s going on, and your team’s not playing well and you’re not making shots and the calls and everything. That isn’t that fun. For the most part, it’s been pretty fun.”