Equal to the task
Bench, Lowry lead the way as Raps contain Doncic, lay smackdown on Mavericks
It was fitting that on Martin Luther King Day, the Raptors went the equality route.
In the first half it was all the bench and it had to be because outside of Kyle Lowry, the Raptors' starters were AWOL.
But in the third quarter the rest of the Raptors' starters, or at least most of them, found the range and the desire and the Raptors enjoyed their first win in ages that didn't become a nailbiter, coasting to a 116-93 win.
With the victory the Raptors improve to 5-8. It was their season-best third in a row, while the Mavericks, who are missing four players and dealing with a serious run of positive tests for the coronavirus, fell to 6-7.
The Raptors though, quite frankly, have issues of their own and have no time for empathy for an opponent's issues. Not after the rough start to their own season.
The Raptors did a monster job on Luka Doncic last night, the only real threat.
The job was a team effort with OG Anunoby and Fred VanVleet taking turns when the starters were on the floor and then once Stanley Johnson got into the game off the bench and showed he could do the job on Doncic, he got extended minutes on him.
Johnson was so good at frustrating Doncic that the future MVP lost his cool all together at one point and swung a rather dangerous looking elbow at Johnson's head.
The nasty move went undetected by the officials who responded when Fred VanVleet complained about it by giving VanVleet a technical.
The Raptors got the last laugh though as the next time down the floor they engineered a wide open three for Johnson who calmed drained it.
For the game Doncic was limited to just 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, a complete game by any other standards but an off night for Doncic.
Lowry meanwhile, as he so often is, was the man who set the pace and eventually dragged everyone along with him.
The Raptors' point guard finished with a team-best 23 points, seven assists and nine rebounds. Pascal Siakam, who started slowly picked things up in the second half and finished with 19 points and five assists.
The Raps were only in the game because of its bench through a half.
Other than Kyle Lowry who had 11 in the first half, no other Raptors starter had more than four and the four not named Lowry combined for 10.
The three-ball, which was so much the Raptors friend a game earlier in the win over Charlotte was very much not on good terms with the Raps in the first half.
Boucher hit one, Lowry hit a second and that was it for the Raptors on 17 attempts.
Fortunately the bench production from the past few games was once again with the Raptors last night as Terence Davis, after two consecutive coaches did not play, got in the game and made a statement with his assertive play going to the rim.
Davis came off the bench and gave the Raptors six quick points in that second quarter.
It complemented the 11 from Boucher who continues to earn his minutes and seven from Powell who was coming off that strong 24 in the previous game vs. Charlotte.
Even with all that the best the Raptors could do against this undermanned Mavs squad was get to the locker room at the half even with the visitors.
For however long Luka Doncic remains both a Dallas Maverick and healthy, any defensive game plan against the Mavs will start and focus heavily on this one player.
Monday night that focus had to be more disproportionate than ever.
Doncic is healthy and doing his thing but he's doing it right now on a team that is operating at something around half its potential.
A few positive tests for the coronavirus and the contact tracing that inevitably takes out a few more bodies have left the Mavs depleted as they arrived in Tampa to take on the Raptors.
Out for the night were 24-minute a night forward Maxi Kleiber, starting guard Jason Richardson, 20-minutea-night centre Dwight Powell as well as starting power forward Dorian Finney-Smith.
That's actually an improvement from the Mavs' loss a night earlier against the Bulls when they were without 19-minute-a-night guard Jalen Brunson as well as 31-minute a night shooting guard Tim Hardaway.
Those two returned to the lineup Monday against the Raptors but the absences are still crushing, particularly so on the back end of a back-toback like the Mavs were.
All of it meant more focus than ever on Doncic, who has been the one predictable source of offence all season for the Mavs.
Nick Nurse has any number of ways he can go to attempt to corral the uber-talented Doncic. Fred VanVleet, despite giving up some size has an elite ability to stay in front of the most elusive scorers. He showed that off last week holding Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors to a season-worst 11 points.