RAPTORS’ POWELL STAYS LOCKED IN DESPITE INJURIES
Sparkplug guard facing another extended injury absence after setting NBA on fire
Norm Powell is overdue for some good fortune.
The man is playing the best basketball of his career, and in the process, providing the Toronto Raptors with a much needed source of create-yourown offence. He’s been all-world of late, earning his first NBA Eastern Conference player of the week award after averaging more points (31.7) in those games than any other player in the league.
But for the third time in the past 2 ½ months, Powell left a game looking like he might be spending extra time on the trainer’s table in the coming weeks.
This time the injury resulted from an unfortunate collision with teammate OG Anunoby under the basket while trying to prevent Mike Conley from scoring. Both men stayed down following the mishap. Eventually Anunoby got up, but Powell couldn’t do so without help.
Officially, it’s a left ankle sprain, which sounds harmless until one remembers rookie Dewan Hernandez still isn’t back on the court, 2½ months after spraining his own ankle.
The good news is, Powell left the arena under his own power, unaided by a teammate, a walking boot or crutches. That would appear to be a positive sign.
Another good sign is that Powell will have four full days to heal before the next game, thanks to a unique midseason break the Raptors began as soon as they dispatched the Utah Jazz on Monday night.
Powell seems to be running down a checklist of possible injuries.
First, it was a left shoulder subluxation that cost him 11 games. Then it was a broken bone in his left hand that cost him another nine. Now it’s the left ankle.
Through it all, Powell has remained steadfast and positive, no small feat in a season that’s seen so much frustration in between all that success.
“I just think, where I am mentally, I’ve been able to stay focused on certain things and locked in,” Powell said following his most recent return from the injured list.
“My whole demeanour about whatever is being thrown at me is pretty much even-keeled and positive, no matter what it is. Injuries suck, but you can’t look at it as a ‘Why me?’ situation, or be negative or be upset about it. You have to find a positive out of it and run with it.”
That was just seven games ago. Powell doesn’t need another extended absence.
MISUNDERSTOOD MCCAW
Pat McCaw knows what works on a basketball court.
He may not always score as many points as many Raptors fans would like. (That opinion is based exclusively on what fans have been writing on social media).
It’s not really a surprise. Fans like offence and McCaw ... well, McCaw’s specialty is the other side of the ball.
But while fans might not like aspects of McCaw’s game, his teammates and his coach appreciate and value him.
Here’s what Kyle Lowry appreciates about Pat McCaw.
“Everything,” Lowry said after Sunday’s game in which McCaw played over 42 minutes and scored just two points. “He does everything the right way. He plays basketball the right way. He came from the Warriors, and he got two rings there. He comes to us and just plays basketball the right way.”
Pascal Siakam has seen the social media posts, too. The fans who wonder why head coach
Nick Nurse was giving minutes to McCaw when they could be going to a scorer like Matt Thomas or Terence Davis II.
“Pat has always got an assignment on somebody,” Siakam said.
“You see him out there, guarding the best player and picking him up full court, doing the little things. Most of the time it doesn’t show up on the scoreboard.
“But he’s so valuable for us just because, no matter what we’re doing, we can send him on somebody and he’s going to key in on that person and do his job defensively.”
Nurse, who probably hears about McCaw’s minutes as much as anybody, said he’s not getting tired at all trying to explain why the reserved McCaw is so valuable to Nurse and the Raptors fortunes.
“Not really,” Nurse said. “I know he doesn’t show up in the numbers, in the stats.”
As soon as Powell went down, Nurse and his coaching staff had a decision to make: Who fills those minutes? The discussion was almost immediate.
“Almost right away when Norm went down,” Nurse began, “we got to the first timeout and had to decide where to go. We had to decide whether to go with offence and keep that ticking over, or defence, and get Pat in there.
“I think Nate (assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren) said this is a night where McCaw is going to play 38 minutes, so we put him in. Nate was wrong. It was 42 minutes.”
McCaw had a bad turnover late in the game, but all his teammates could talk about after the game were the 42 minutes of dogged and effective defence that he provided.
UP NEXT
The Raptors don’t play again until Saturday when their former head coach Dwane Casey brings his Detroit Pistons to Toronto. They won’t reconvene at the practice facility until Thursday and Friday.