Lowry, VanVleet lead by example
Raptors 122
Rockets 111
NEXT: SUNDAY VS. BULLS
It was Friday morning when Raptors general manager Bobby Webster reached out to Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet to let them know they might be asked to do a bit more than usual later that evening.
Coach Nick Nurse wasn’t going to be on the bench, five of his assistants were also going to have the night off, and Webster wanted Lowry and VanVleet to know their leadership would be needed more than usual.
“Those guys are, in many ways, the de facto coaches out there, so (I was) just trying to get it in their head as early as possibly so they could think about it,” Webster said.
The message was heard. The two Raptors guards were tremendous as Toronto got back to .500 on the season with a 122-111 win over the Houston Rockets in Tampa, Fla.
Lowry finished with 20 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds, the 16th triple double of his career, while VanVleet made his first four three-pointers on a 25point night.
Norm Powell poured in 30 points as Toronto went to 17-17 on the season and began a three-game homestand by handing Houston its leagueworst 10th straight loss.
The Raptors saw a 15-point lead whittled to six in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter but Lowry came back in after sitting a spell with five fouls to make a key basket and VanVleet buried his fifth three for a nine-point lead with about twoand-a-half minutes left.
The game made Sergio Scariolo a winner in his NBA head coaching debut as he took over from the absent Nurse. á Challenging win: Scariolo is a perfect 1-0 in NBA coaches’ challenges after winning one in the second quarter of Friday’s game. And it was significant.
Scariolo called for review of a foul originally assessed to Chris Boucher and the call was overturned. Not only did it keep the Rockets off the foul line on the play, it saved Boucher from getting his third personal foul with about four minutes left in the first half.
Boucher would have likely been subbed out of the game at that point but he was able to stay on the court.
› Coaching callups? If Nurse and his staff members are sidelined for any length of time, help may be a short drive away. The Raptors could conceivably call up any or all members of the Raptors 905 staff currently working in the G League’s Orlando bubble.
Patrick Mutombo, the 905 head coach, and assistants Brittni Donaldson and John Bennett could join the NBA team and not have to go through any quarantine process because they’ve been under the same COVID-19 testing program as the NBA team.
“Obviously we have a group there that has coached in the NBA,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said. “That is one of the benefits of having the bubble, no different than the players, is you can exchange them back and forth pretty easily.”
› Minor changes: The Raptors did make a couple of minor organizational changes Friday.
They signed six-foot-nine forward Donta Hall to a 10-day contact and assigned him to their G League affiliate and also dealt Dewan Hernandez from the Raptors 905 to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers for sixfoot-five guard Jarron Cumberland.