Oddball Raps cap record first half
Joseph’s career-high 33 with Lowry cheerleading just part of the story
BROOKLYN, N.Y.— The Cory Joseph/ Fred VanVleet/Norman Powell/Terrence Ross/Jonas Valanciunas fourth-quarter lineup was a little odd. The Joseph/VanVleet/Powell/ Ross/Jakob Poeltl second-quarter lineup was even more unusual.
Lucas Nogueira making the second three-pointer of his NBA life before undergong concussion testing and dealing with blurred vision after getting smacked in the head was quite strange.
Kyle Lowry being reduced to cheerleader on a night of team-enforced rest — he was none too pleased about it — was a decision for the end game.
And DeMar DeRozan could barely make a shot in the first three quarters, Jonas Valanciunas didn’t score a point in the first half and the formerly forgotten Pascal Siakam came off the scrap heap to energize the whole roster in the second half.
For an otherwise nondescript game in the middle of a long NBA regular season, the Toronto Raptors sure packed a lot into their 119-109 win over the Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center on Tuesday night.
“Those guys found a way to win,” coach Dwane Casey said. “Whatever lineups we had . . . it comes down to guarding your yard, guarding your defence. We were switching a lot, which made it easier for us in the coverages. Offensively we did some simple things where guys could fit in. It was basketball.”
Cory Joseph scored a career-high 33 points, while DeRozan parlayed10 free throws and a solid fourth quarter into a 36-point night as Toronto reached another milestone in what was in some ways a preposterous win.
“I just kept playing the same way, getting good looks and going out there and doing what I do,” DeRozan said after missing 13 of his first 21 field-goal attempts. “I knew it was going to come, just a matter of being patient and not really worrying about the misses. Just be more aggressive, try to get rebounds, try to get easier stuff for me and my teammates in transition.”
The win puts Toronto at 28-13 at the precise midpoint of its season, the first time they’ve won that many by then in franchise history.
The organizational decision to give Lowry the night off before a Wednesday game in his hometown of Philadelphia is to ensure the wear and tear of the regular season doesn’t eat at him over the final three months.
“Kyle’s mad at me now because I held him out, didn’t play him, but I can’t wait for him to play again because he was a ball of fire over there. He was using all his energy on the sideline, but we had to get him some rest and somewhere down the road we’ll get DeMar some rest,” Casey said.
But the absence of his workhorse point guard made Casey use some odd combinations, especially with Patrick Patterson also sidelined with his knee woes and after losing Lucas Nogueria to a shot to the head seven minutes into the game.