Injury-riddled Raptors win fourth in row
Right opponent, right night. Losing three key rotation players including two starters just two nights ago, the Raptors are figuring things out on the go right now and for a night they did a decent enough job of that to get by.
It wasn’t pretty, but it was never going to be and with the defence- less Washington Wizards in town it didn’t need to be.
Playing without Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol and Norm Powell, the Raptors came out and built themselves the kind of cushion most good teams couldn’t crawl back from and certainly, one would imagine, not the challenged Wizards on their way to an 122-118 win.
It didn’t turn out to be quite so tidy.
With a 40-point first quarter, the most the Raptors have scored in a first quarter all year, the Raptors established that they were not about to roll over and die just because the injury bug decided to pay yet another visit and take a rather massive bite out of their lineup.
Mainstays Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, a returning Fred Vanvleet and OG Anunoby have been around long enough to know what it means to step up when bodies start falling like they have been and they didn’t disappoint.
It certainly helped that the night’s opposition was a Wizards team that has made defence a mere rumour for most of the year, but there was always the chance that the Wizards might just outscore whatever offence the Raptors were able to generate.
On that front the Raptors were just strong enough holding the NBA’S third highest scoring team behind only Milwaukee and Houston to 116 points although it got a little tense there when Bradley Beal got it going in the third quarter and pumped in 15 points to cut the deficit down to single digits.
Beal wasn’t satisfied with that scare and kept it going in the fourth getting the Wizards to within five with just under seven minutes to go. Twice within the final four minutes Beal and the Wizards actually tied the game. Beal, though, was a marked man at that point leaving to Ish Smith who had a gamehigh 24 bench points. Beal meanwhile ended up with a game-high 37.
A Raptors timeout though got Nurse’s new starting five — Lowry, Ibaka, Vanvleet, Patrick Mccaw and OG Anunoby — back on the floor to finish the game and they eventually got things back in hand but not before the Wizards put a real scare into Toronto.
The game marked the return of Vanvleet after a fivegame absence with a bruised right knee and his return was timely with all the injuries hitting at once.
Vanvleet played 33 minutes in his return to action and had 18 points, eight assists and nine rebounds to help keep the Wizards at bay.
But it was the tandem of Lowry and Ibaka that kept the Raptors on the right side of the win/loss column in this one.
Both had almost a full month on the sidelines themselves to come to appreciate what their teammates did in their own absences and now with a handful of games to find their own rhythm it was their turn to repay the favour.
Lowry wound up with 26 points and nine assists while Ibaka chipped in with 23 and 10 rebounds.
Patrick Mccaw with a three with just under three minutes to go broke a late game tie. The Raptors would ride that lead to the end and claim their fourth win in a row.
Mccaw, who has not exactly been filling the scoresheet but has earned his coach’s trust with his active defence and ability to impact the game in other ways, finished the night with 11 points on 4- of- 8 shooting. The goahead three was his only make on four tries from distance all night.
Mccaw joined Lowry, Ibaka, Anunoby, Vanvleet and Rondae Hollis-jefferson among the six Raptors to make it into double digits in scoring.
The Raptors stay home for at least another game with Dallas in town for a Sunday matinee ( 3 p. m. start). Even without the injured Luka Doncic in the lineup, the Mavericks will present a much stiffer test than the Wizards did.