Raptors’ imperfect storm is all about balance
Less imperfect is goal as Nurse tries to make bad times bearable
It’s not a perfect game that Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse seeks, but rather a less imperfect one.
It is too much for any coach to ask of his team, to put together 48 pristine minutes on any night. There will always be lulls and periods of uninspired play, and any coach worth his clipboard and expensive suit knows that.
Getting 36 excellent minutes — or 38 or 34 or 42 — is often good enough. Extended periods of hounding defence and balletic offence can offset those other minutes of missed shots, blown assignments and turnovers.
Making the interim, not-sogood times more bearable has been one of Nurse’s goals through the first quarter of the regular season, and he’s been seeing it realized more often than not.
He would see games when the Raptors were great for long stretches and butt ugly for others.
More frequently now, they might be as good for as long but they aren’t as bad in the other minutes as they were.
“I think that maybe I’m seeing a little less bad play in the off moments,” he said. “We’re getting better shots and turning it over a little less. Some of those guys that are good shooters for us (but) haven’t made any shots, they’re starting to make a few and again that kind of keeps things ticking over, too. So that helps.”
If nothing else, Nurse has a grasp on reality that is in some ways quite refreshing. Knowing what kind of concentration, execution, good shooting luck and, often, poor play from an opponent is necessary for a team to dominate, he doesn’t expect the Raptors to do it every time.
But the ability to do it for longer each game is the seasonlong target.
Last week in Memphis, the Raptors were awful for the entire first half and a lot of third quarter, but turned it around to post an impressive come-frombehind road win against a tough opponent. The bad stretch was too long for any coach to accept, but the ability to correct it made Nurse happy.
“We gave up 71 points to a team that scores 100, in the first half, and then we absolutely locked them up,” he said. “Somebody told me the score was 65-31 from two minutes to go (in the third quarter) to the end of the game. That’s dominating the game against a really good team.
“Do I want us to play that way more often? Yes … but I’m trying to evaluate if that’s realistic or not. Yes is the answer, but maybe our fourth-quarter defence becomes a priority and then we start creeping it back a little bit.”
It will take the entire season to work toward the goal of high efficiency for the longest part of each game, and to make the bad stretches less bad. It’s been a common talking point of Nurse’s since the season began and while it’s impossible to put hard numbers on it — 36 good, 12 bad? 39 good, nine bad? 35-13? 33-15? — he’s just searching for more.
“Let’s put it this way: three quarters, looking to extend that out,” he said. “You want to play consistently, but you want to have some realistic thoughts on it, too.”