Raptors survive barrage of threes to top Kings
Sacramento goes bucket for bucket with hosts during high-scoring affair
The Raptors had to work extremely hard, despite a brilliant all-around offensive game, to hold off the pesky Sacramento Kings in a 124-120 win on Wednesday night.
Outstanding efforts from Kyle Lowry, OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam would have been enough to blow out many opponents, but Sacramento is starting to stabilize after a bad start to the year and bombed in 20 three-pointers to bring the game down to the wire.
The 20 treys tied a Kings record for a game as well as the record set last year by Brooklyn and Oklahoma City for the most by a Toronto opponent.
Lowry hit five three-pointers of his own and had 24 points in all. Siakam added 23, Anunoby scored 18 while playing stellar defence, and Serge Ibaka had 21 off of the bench.
Bogdan Bogdanovic hit six from long range for the Kings, Buddy Hield hit five, and Harrison Barnes had 26 points for the visitors. Former Raptor Cory Joseph had 10 points and four assists off of the bench in a strong effort.
The Raptors hit 13 straight shots after opening the game with four misses and should have been up by a ton of points thanks to 64 per cent shooting in the first half, yet took only a 66-58 advantage into the break.
Anunoby had a spectacular 17 minutes, hitting five of six shots, throwing two nice passes and playing well defensively. He continues to be in the midst of a breakout year. Overall, Anunoby was dominant on both ends of the floor in his latest impressive performance. Anunoby’s only blemish was two late free throw misses, which gave the Kings a tiny bit of life, down four with 10 seconds remaining.
Anunoby got help — in time — from Siakam, who started off quietly, but at least stayed out of foul trouble with a season-low one a day after being called out for his fouling problems by head coach Nick Nurse. Siakam scored at will in the third, but the Raptors still led by only eight, setting up a competitive finish.
The Raptors improved to 5-2 before a trip out west to see LeBron James and Danny Green of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kawhi Leonard and the L.A. Clippers, among others.
The Kings fell to 2-6.
FAMILIAR FACES
The Kings brought a lot of familiar faces to town with them.
There was Pickering, Ont. native and ex-Raptor Joseph, longtime Ryerson and Canadian national team coach Roy Rana, and former Raptors assistant and inaugural Raptors 905 bench boss Jesse Mermuys.
Joseph signed with the team as a free agent, Rana was brought aboard the staff of head coach Luke Walton, and Mermuys, a longtime friend of Walton’s dating to their days at Arizona, came with him from the Lakers to the Kings.
Rana’s homecoming was one of the stories of the day. From Toronto high schools to Ryerson, to international coaching to Canada to the NBA, it’s been a remarkable rise.
Rana also serves as a liaison for various Kings departments and Walton.
“This summer I talked to people. I was trying to build out a staff and I was trying to create a new position,” Walton explained.
“So talking to people at Nike, talking to people in the NBA that I know, my dad has a relationship with him, and they all spoke the world of him. So I flew him out to Sac and we spent hours talking together, and I really liked his mind and his energy in the way he approached coaching. It’s very uplifting and it felt like a good fit,” Walton said.
“When I built out the staff I wanted to get people from different backgrounds, with different experiences as basketball minds as we’re trying to build a group. So (Rana and Mermuys) bring unique experiences to our culture and they’ve been very helpful.”
Joseph has known Rana for ages because his father and Rana had a connection, but Joseph is now the veteran and not a young kid learning the ropes.
“He’s doing well, he’s my rookie,” Joseph told Postmedia with a smile.
“He probably met me before I even remember meeting him. It’s fun.
“(Rana and Mermuys) kind of eased my process of settling in, getting me up to date with everything here. Any time you switch teams you’ve got to get adjusted a little,” Joseph said.
AROUND THE RIM
Joseph on if he had summer discussions with his close friend (they were rookies together in San Antonio) Kawhi Leonard? “I talked to him, but not about the decision. That’s his decision,” Joseph said … Nurse said he’d likely start going to his bench earlier and more often in the first two quarters. “I’m gonna have to try to hold water or tread water a little bit in that first half a little bit, just to make sure the minutes are down for the regulars and up for the second-unit guys a little bit so we can have a little bit more room to play with it in the second half,” Nurse said.