Raptors lose it late
Appeared in control until final three minutes
Almost two months ago Nick Nurse and his short-handed roster went into Portland and took one from the Trail Blazers.
Tuesday night an entirely different starting five for the Raptors, again because of injuries and again short-handed, appeared to be on their way to winning again, only this time the wheels fell off with about three minutes to go as the Raptors lost an ugly one, 101-99.
This is the kind of beating that leaves a real mark on a team. The Raptors had chance after chance to put this one away but for whatever reason were incapable of doing that. Normally you would look to the opposition’s gritty defence but on this night that was hard to find.
The Blazers were treating their very once adept defence like it were a chore, something they had to do rather than wanted to do.
Still Toronto couldn’t put them away.
Damian Lillard brought them back with his threepoint shooting, scoring 11 of his 20 points in the final quarter.
His extra long three-pointer with just under a minute tied the game at 99.
Still Toronto seemed in control. Turned out that was an illusion too.
The Raptors had three shots at a go- ahead score, but nothing fell in.
The Trail Blazers came back the other way with 20 seconds left on the clock.
CJ Mccollum couldn’t shake Rondae Hollis- Jefferson but he did find Carmelo Anthony in the lane and unguarded. Melo, as he has done so many times in his long career calmly stroked the game-winner.
Toronto had 3.3 seconds left to force overtime or win with a three but Lowry’s last-second off-balance three missed the mark.
For whatever reason finishing at the rim seemed to be a real puzzle for the Raptors. Whether it was Hollis- Jefferson, Stanley Johnson, OG Anunoby or Oshae Brissett, the Raptors seemed to be doing a fine job of getting to the rim, but once there couldn’t score.
Late into the game their shot chart showed a bleak 14- of- 38 conversions on those shots.
Lowry led the Raptors with 24 points, doing most of his damage from the threepoint line or the free throw line.
But a pair of reserves in Chris Boucher and Brissett were huge as well with 12 each to keep the Raptors in front until Lilliard and Anthony did their damage stealing a game they had no reason even being in contention for.
GRADUATION DAY
It was only the previous night Nurse saw a number of his lesser- used Raptors in Johnson, the recovering Matt Thomas, Brissett, and Malcolm Miller get some game action with the Raptors’ G-league team.
Nurse clearly liked what he saw because the first time he dug into his bench Tuesday night he sent out a second unit that consisted of the aforementioned Johnson, Thomas and Brissett joining Pat Mccaw and Boucher.
That group finished the first quarter on an 8- 0 run as Nurse is wont to do since he stuck with a group that was giving him plenty to start the second quarter.
The run didn’t last long but it spoke both to the confidence Nurse has in his young reserves and the options at his disposal in this time of a very lengthy injured list.
VANVLEET INJURY MAY NOT BE SHORT ONE
The bad news pre- game is the injury to Fred VanVleet may not be just a game or two. Vanvleet strained a hamstring in Brooklyn on Saturday but pulled himself from the game before it got too bad.
That night Vanvleet wasn’t even sure he would miss any time.
Now the Raptors have a well- earned reputation for releasing as little definitive information when it comes to injuries as any team in professional sports. If they could get away with upper and lower body injuries like they do in hockey, this team would certainly take advantage.
Maybe it’s that the team has endured so many injuries already this season that Nurse is immune to it, but to hear him offer that any of his players may be out an extended period of time is out of character.
The Raptors have already lost 128 man-games to injury going into Tuesday night’s game.
So far they have weathered that storm, but if they keep losing key players like Vanvleet eventually those lost man-games are going to take a toll.