Raps survive ghoulish defensive effort
NBA: Toronto allows young Nuggets squad to keep pace, but pulls it together in time for 105-102 victory
The only thing quicker than the Toronto mascot’s costume changes this Halloween night was the momentum swing that turned a laugher into a nail-biter.
The Raptors prevailed 105-102 over the Denver Nuggets to improve to 2-1, but it was by no means an easy win — certainly not as easy as it appeared in the early stages when the Raptors could do no wrong.
The lead swelled to as much as 19 early on and the Raptors looked for all the world like a team that finally turned a corner where they no longer played down to their competition.
The Nuggets are by no means a pushover, but at this stage in their development they are not at the same level as a Raptors team that was just two games away from the NBA Finals a year ago.
But old habits die hard and by halftime the lead was down to 13. Not great, but still comfortable.
In the second half, things got very nervous indeed.
Late in the third, the lead was all the way down to two before DeMar DeRozan got it back to four with a turnaround jumper to just beating the third-quarter buzzer.
Denver got back to doing what it does best in that third quarter — hitting the boards hard to prevent extra possessions for the opposition and tack on a few extra at the other end. It didn’t hurt that the Raptors’ defence, which had been solid through the first two quarters, suddenly went AWOL.
“It got away from us on the defensive end,” Casey said of his team’s uneven performance. “We gave up 35 points in that third quarter. What saved us was getting to the paint. We had 60 points in the paint or some crazy number (it was 58) and that saved us ... we just lost our defensive mojo in that third quarter.”
Also missing in the third was the rebounding dominance the Raptors had in the first half.
The Nuggets were losing the rebound battle through the first half, but in the third out-rebounded the Raptors 13-6.
“We started to rebound the ball and got them to miss for one thing and that brought the percentages down some,” Casey said. “But that is a very talented team, a big team, a strong team, a powerful team inside. They have a lot of offensive weapons and come at you in a lot of different ways, so if your defensive focus is not there a little bit, like showing and getting back, making sure you understand who is going under and who is going over, all those little things, and they were burning us.”
Denver finally took a lead with 8:49 to play on a Wilson Chandler three and there were some white knuckles around the Air Canada Centre.
But experience counts and it’s one area the Raptors have an advantage over the Nuggets. It proved to be the deciding factor in a thrilling finish.
Yes, the lead evaporated and the Nuggets were full value for forcing their way back into this one. But what they didn’t have down the stretch was the calm and cool of a Kyle Lowry or DeRozan, two guys who don’t get rattled anymore and two guys who calmly brought their team back to win a game they probably should have won much earlier.
DeRozan would finish with 33 points, his third consecutive game of 30 or more to start the season, something that has never been done in team history.
Lowry didn’t have much of an offensive game going until that fourth, when he went off for 12 of his season-high 29 points to bring this one home safely for the Raptors.
The Nuggets had three chances to tie the game and potentially force overtime. First Danilo Gallinari missed from well back of the arc. When the Raptors failed to score, Emmanuel Mudiay had a shot at tying from behind the three-point line and he missed.
The Raptors then gifted the Nuggets another shot at a three, this time by Gallinari with less than half a second on the clock remaining. His shot hit the back of the rim and bounced out to preserve a Toronto win.
Also earning big praise for a second consecutive game was Raptors rookie Jakob Poeltl, who seemed to set the tone for the return to some semblance of defence.
“I thought Poeltl did a heck of a job in his pick-and-roll defence,” Casey gushed. “He was up and moving his feet, cut his man off and went vertical at the rim. It was beautiful and that is where we have to get all of our bigs doing that.”
The Raptors will get another good test against another big front court. They visit Washington Wednesday, where the pick-and-roll game of Marcin Gortat and John Wall awaits.