Nurse’s early exit sets stage for strong finish
The frustration and the anger got to Nick Nurse, and somehow the rest of the Raptors took it out on the Memphis Grizzlies.
The head coach was tossed from the game in the third quarter for arguing a non-call and the Raptors all of a sudden started to defend, pulling away for a 128-113 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
The turnaround was shocking.
The Raptors had been brutal defensively before the ejection, giving up 70 points in the first half while showing very little fight or toughness. But they had a string of eight consecutive stops to key a 28-6 run after Nurse’s exit for the fourth win in their last five outings.
Norm Powell finished with a season-high six three-pointers as part of a 29-point night, while Pascal Siakam drilled five threes and scored 32.
And Fred VanVleet, operating as the lone point guard on the active roster, provided a huge steadying boost for a team that was reeling. He had 32 points to go along with nine assists in almost 40 minutes on the court.
The Raptors played the majority of the game without Kyle Lowry, who left with back spasms in the second quarter, and the entire game without OG Anunoby, still out with a calf injury.
Lowry played fewer than eight minutes, making his only two field-goal attempts before he walked gingerly to the locker room. With no true point guard on the roster other than VanVleet, an extended Lowry absence would be problematic.
The Raptors could recall Malachi Flynn from his G League assignment, but he would have to spend at least a little time in COVID-19 quarantine before he would be allowed to play.
Toronto concludes its road trip with games in Washington on Wednesday and Boston on Friday.
Jonas Valanciunas was outstanding for Memphis with 27 points and 20 rebounds, the third 20-20 game of his career. á Losing Lowry: With Lowry out nursing his bad back and Flynn in the Orlando bubble with G League Raptors 905, Toronto was forced into some different looking combinations.
When VanVleet had to rest, the Raptors went with no true point guard. It was Powell along with Terence Davis, Yuta Watanabe, DeAndre’ Bembry and Chris Boucher to start the second quarter.
While that lineup was adequate for a while, the Raptors needed VanVleet to play almost every minute of the second half to have a chance to win. á T for trouble: There is one category in which the Raptors are the runaway leaders in the NBA: complaining too strenuously.
When Siakam and Stanley Johnson were assessed technical fouls in the first half — both for arguing non-calls — it brought their team total to 28 this season, including the ones that got Nurse thrown out of a game for only the second time in his NBA coaching career. No other team in the league has more than 20.
Lowry leads the team with five, and VanVleet has three. á P for three: Siakam made three three-pointers in the first half on Monday and two more in the second half for his most productive game from beyond the arc this season. He hadn’t made more than three in a game since the season opener on Dec. 23, and was in a 3for-29 funk before Monday’s game.