AROUND THE RIM
There’s value in Valanciunas when you need a ball by the basket
Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas pulls in a rebound, one of nine, in the Raptors’ 105-102 win over the Denver Nuggets. Guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry combined for 62 points. More,
His approach to playing the guard position lands somewhere between what DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry do, and on Monday night, Jamal Murray got an up-close look on how two of the best in the NBA do it.
DeRozan scored 33 points, becoming the first Raptor to open his season with three consecutive 30-plus outings. Lowry played almost the entire second half with four fouls and had 29 points, seven assists and five rebounds against Murray and the Denver Nuggets in a 105-102 win.
The Raptors improved to 2-1, while the Nuggets dropped to 1-2.
Playing his first game as a pro in Toronto, Murray’s search for his first NBA field goal continued. The Kitchener product and the No. 7 pick in the NBA draft made one free throw in almost 12 minutes of court time and added two assists and two rebounds.
Emmanuel Mudiay, Danilo Gallinari and Will Barton had 16 points each, three of six Nuggets in double figures.
The Nuggets erased a 19-point first- half deficit, scoring 35 points in the third quarter and taking a 91-90 lead in the fourth off a Wilson Chandler elbow three.
“It got away from us on the defensive end,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “What saved us was getting to the paint. We had (58) points in the paint.”
With the Nuggets looking to steal a win at the start of their five-game road trip, Murray’s lesson in guard play began. DeRozan scored 20 in the first half but lost his touch in the third. He stayed determined though, and finished the frame strong, bringing his total to 29, hitting a tough 14-footer to close the quarter, giving his team an 88-84 lead.
Lowry picked up his fourth foul 90 seconds into the fourth and still played 21 minutes in the second half.
“We finally got the matchups on the switches we wanted,” Casey said.
“(Lowry) started putting pressure on the paint and he had it going. We struggled to get those match-ups once we took DeMar out. But he’s smart enough (to play in foul trouble) and we trust him.”
The pair of all-stars pulled their team back into the game, tying it with three minutes left. DeRozan continued his battle with Nurkic, driving at him for a layup to tie the game 101-101. Lowry broke the tie with 1:36 left and his scoop layup with 45 seconds left gave Toronto a three-point lead.
They survived a horrible, dribbleheavy final possession from DeRozan and Lowry — and got lucky when a Gallinari volley from three-point range narrowly missed with 0.3 seconds left — to pull out the win. DeRozan came away with a win and a history-making start. He will smile knowing that the last person to start a season in the same way, also without hitting a three-pointer, is his childhood hero, Kobe Bryant.
“DeMar’s been great. His offensive (game) right now is unreal,” Casey said. “Kyle stepped up tonight and gave him a little boost. We’ve got to maintain that and not wear that out, but he’s been doing a great job.”
The Raptors face the Wizards in Washington on Wednesday.