Lowry’s return a big assist to Raptors
Toronto knocks off NBA powerhouses Milwaukee and Indiana in weekend sweep
Kyle Lowry showed no signs of rust, Serge Ibaka showed no signs of tiredness and Norman Powell showed no signs of regression as the Toronto Raptors slowed down the Indiana Pacers on Sunday night at Scotiabank Arena.
Lowry scored 12 points and added eight assists in his long awaited return to action after more than two weeks off. Ibaka had 18 points to finish off an impressive back-toback that had started with a win against East-leading Milwaukee a night earlier. Powell continued to surge since his own return from injury, with a season-best 23 points in the 121-105 win.
Lowry played in his first game in Toronto since Dec. 9 against Milwaukee, which coincidentally was the last time both he and fellow star Kawhi Leonard were in the lineup for the Raptors at the same time. Lowry had missed six straight contests overall and 10 of 11, with Toronto going 6-4 without the NBA’s No. 2 assists man (former league MVP Russell Westbrook passed Lowry in assistsper-game while the Philadelphia native was out due to a back injury).
After playing 38 tough minutes in Milwaukee on Saturday night, Leonard was given the night off for load management.
The Pacers played without centre Myles Turner, the league’s blocked shots leader and one of its best defenders. His absence was felt, with the NBA’s second-best defensive club getting eaten alive by the Raptors, inside and out.
Indiana had won 13 of 15 heading in to vault way up the Eastern Conference standings, but Toronto now has taken care of two of the best teams in the conference on consecutive nights despite missing an all-star in each of those contests.
Eight of the first nine players head coach Nick Nurse put on the floor scored in double figures, as the Raptors connected early and often.
Lowry conducted things masterfully and stretched his wonky back on the baseline when not in action.
The Pacers had been disappointed to blow a big lead last month here, yet surrendered 37 points in the first quarter, with Ibaka going a perfect 4-for-4 from the field on the heels of a tough effort against the Bucks.
The Raptors also saw Danny Green continue to rebound from a brief slump.
Green hit 5 of 8 three-pointers for 15 points, after going 2 for 3 from deep against Milwaukee.
Bogdan Bogdanovic led the Pacers with 21 points, while Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis had 16 each. The visitors shot 4-for-17 from three, Toronto hit 17-of-33.
In the lead-up to the game Nurse had been giving the question of who to start a lot of consideration. Without Leonard he could have stayed big with OG Anunoby in at small forward, knowing that Anunoby, who is struggling with his offence, has traditionally responded well to being out with the first unit. However, Nurse also values the ball-handling and shooting VanVleet provides and eventually opted for the dual point-guard look, with Green shifting to small forward.
“It’s tough. I know we all want certain guys to play better and OG’s probably at the top of that list,” Nurse said in his pre-game availability.
“We all are kind of thinking maybe he would play better if he was a starter. That’s good. It’s like, you have five starting spots. I don’t know. We could play around with that coming up to see if we could kickstart him and maybe kickstart our second unit a little bit but there’s five, six, seven guys already that are pretty good that are going to need to play or start, I think, for the most part,” he said.
“Hey, Norm (Powell)’s better as a starter, too. There’s a lot of guys, 13 guys on our roster that would prefer to start.”
Nurse said we probably won’t see Anunoby spending much time at centre — he said he’d prefer the second-year forward to guard power forwards and small forwards (and sometimes a guard like James Harden, who he has checked well in the past).
Still, if Anunoby can’t get it going and the bench plays more like it did in Milwaukee (very poorly) than it did against the Pacers (very well) more often than not, there is the option of inserting Anunoby at power forward and moving Siakam to the bench to propel that group. It’s unlikely that happens, but it’s an option.
KEEPING THE PACE
Nurse has a lot of respect for the Pacers, the NBA’s second-stingiest defensive group heading into the game.
“Every guy that steps on the floor has a mentality, it’s an identity for the team. I think they go down and bring that defensive identity every single night,” Nurse had said before the Pacers uncharacteristically allowed the Raptors to shoot 57 per cent from the field in the first half.
“That’s the first thing. I think they guard their man or guard the ball individually very well. They’re really locked in on their help in the rotations and they’ve got big hands, man. When you’re driving down the lane, there’s lots of hands trying to strip that ball away. I’ve said before, I think they’ve got a great defensive system, Dan Burke one of the great defensive (coaches).
“They’re as hard to score on as anybody in the league.”