Raptors coach Nurse shuffling deck again
It appears that Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse’s New Year’s resolution for 2020 is to get back to his old tinkering ways.
“You guys know, I like to mix it up a little bit, haven’t been doing it all that much this year,” Nurse said after the Raptors closed out 2019 with a 117-97 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nurse had opted to remove OG Anunoby from the starting lineup for the first time this season, replacing him with Rondae Hollis-jefferson, who made his first start since February while with the Brooklyn Nets.
The alteration worked, with both forwards faring quite well, particularly in the first half when Toronto took control of the game.
“I thought maybe get both of them going, both Rondae and
OG. (Kevin) Love with the big matchup, maybe a little bit more of a banging type guy for Rondae to start on,” Nurse said. “Seemed like it worked out OK, they both played really well ... I liked the energy from both of them.”
Nurse said the purpose of the move wasn’t to send Anunoby any kind of message, even though he’d been slumping.
He also hoped that getting Anunoby back to small forward, where he has been most successful over his first few seasons, factored into the reasoning.
Anunoby definitely looked more aggressive, picking up the ball and driving to the hoop, and more decisive on offence, while once again performing well defensively.
The Raptors take on a very good Miami team in South Beach on Thursday, are at Brooklyn on Saturday, then return home for the start of a back-to-back.
With Pascal Siakam and Marc Gasol still “a ways away” and Norman Powell believed to be only moderately closer than them to a return, Nurse said it’s likely he keeps mixing and matching for a while.
“Mixing up the starting line here for a little bit is something you’re probably going to see. I’m just going to see what it looks like and feels like depending on who we’re playing a little bit and go from there,” he said. That was a staple of the Raptors last season, both before and after Gasol was acquired, and that even continued into the playoffs.
BOUNCING BACK
Nurse and Fred Vanvleet weren’t expecting anything different from young Terence Davis, but were still pleased to see him bounce back from a tough moment in the previous game. Davis had failed to commit a foul late in the loss to Oklahoma City, which allowed the Thunder to later run out the clock, and he was pretty down about it afterward.
“Yeah, it was good that he came out and put that one in the past,” Nurse said.
“It’s history and we move on.” Davis said he watched the sequence on video a few times.
“I went home and watched the film and learned from those mistakes. I know deep down, down the stretch, I looked at the clock and it didn’t sink in, the time and score. But it’s definitely something for me to take with me down the road,” Davis said.
Davis (and Chris Boucher) have been so good at times that it will be interesting to see how Nurse makes it all work if he ever gets a full roster.