A lost opportunity
Raptors coach Nurse has much to answer for after Game 2 loss to Sixers
TORONTO - As poorly as the Raptors played in Game 2 against the Philadelphia 76ers, they almost won.
That’s why it’s so aggravating. The opportunity lost. Home court given away. A tweak here, a tweak there in Game 2 — a better game coached by Nick Nurse, a better played game by the Raptors bench — and this isn’t a series as much as a foregone conclusion.
But it’s a series now. Now there are questions about who is going to win. Now the Raptors of this year, which look nothing like the Raptors of previous years, wound up doing what the Raptors do and lost a playoff game they should have won.
Imagine this happened a year ago with Dwane Casey coaching and the cloud of uncertainty surrounding the franchise? Imagine the noise, internal and external. Imagine the heated conversations between Masai Ujiri and Casey. Imagine the pressure.
But this isn’t last year. This is Kawhi Leonard’s year. This is Nurse’s first year as coach and we’re still discovering who he is and what he is all about. Leonard did his job, as per usual, in Game 2. He scored 35 points, shots 54% from the field, was a force.
The rest of the Raptors shot 29%.
That didn’t get it done on a night when the Raptors still held their opponent under 100 points. Defence hasn’t been a problem in this series. Offence and adjustments were the problem in Game 2.
The coaching score in the second game of the series: Brett Brown 1, Nurse 0. Nurse is a playoff rookie; Brown is coaching for his employment. The word around is that if the Sixers lose this round, after adding Tobias Harris, after adding Jimmy Butler, Brown will be let go as coach. For Nurse this is the beginning. Game 2 was the first time you could say the Raptors were outworked, outplayed, out-schemed, out-rebounded, outbenched and in the larger picture, out-coached.
And still they barely lost. The Raptors bench is supposed to be the great advantage in this series. Philly got 10 points from Greg Monroe, whom the Raptors gave away on trade deadline day to save a few bucks. The Raptors bench of Serge Ibaka, Fred VanVleet and Norman Powell combined for five points and were outscored 26-5 in Game 2.
If they get an average game from VanVleet, who only took two shots (how does that happen) they win. VanVleet didn’t score. He averaged 7.2 points per game against Orlando in Round 1. He has three points in two games vs. the Sixers and needs to be more involved in Game 3.
An average game by the struggling Serge Ibaka or Norman Powell and Raptors win. Ibaka, who was eaten up defensively, made one of five shots, most of those the kind of shots he normally makes. Combined, the three bench scorers hit two of 10 shots. The two main bench scorers for the Sixers — Monroe and James Ennis III — hit eight of 17 shots.
VanVleet ended the game minus-18, Powell minus-17, Ibaka minus-12.
Nurse didn’t seem to have answers for the physical and active defence and double- and triple-teams the Sixers threw at the Raptors. His rotations were odd, playing small lineups against the oversized Sixers. Philly had 17 more rebounds than the Raps, almost twice as large an advantage as they managed in Game 1. You can’t win games often with that kind of rebounding discrepancy.
Nurse took an ill-advised technical foul in the first half. So did Danny Green, who ended up 1-for-8 shooting, which aren’t Danny Green numbers. Two points given away in the first half may not mean much in the first half but in the final minutes, with the score 92-89 in the final minute, those two points matter.
Now to move on to Game 3. Now to make sure the loss that shouldn’t have been doesn’t linger with the Raptors. In the ongoing chess game that is playoff basketball, it is Nurse’s turn to adjust. On the road. In noisy Philadelphia. Which is never an easy place to win, no matter what the sport.
“They came out more aggressive than us,” said Kyle Lowry, the veteran Raptor guard. “We didn’t come out aggressive enough. They played real desperate and real hard.”
And still it went down to the final minute. A game Nurse watched over and over again Tuesday morning, second guessing his own decisions, second guessing the decisions he considered but didn’t make.
“Some things I wish I would have done,” said the coach. The Raptors pushed hard in Game 1, were pushed around in Game 2. And now it’s a series that anybody can win.
Nurse didn’t seem to have answers for the physical and active defence and double- and triple-teams the Sixers threw at the Raptors. His rotations were odd, playing small lineups against the oversized Sixers.