Bench Mob unable to repeat its success

Changes to second unit have altered group’s chemistry that made it tough to play against

SAN FRANCISCO— The group that came to be known as the Bench Mob became the darlings of Toronto Raptors fans last season, a group of mainly young and unproven players who took the league and the team’s fan-base by storm.

Energetic, uptempo — able to win games while the more senior starters sat and watched many a fourth quarters — they were stars.

They also spoiled things for anyone expecting the same this year.

There were expectations things would continue unabated, that the Bench Mob 2.0 would be the same as the original, that coach Nick Nurse could run out two groups of five different players and all would be well in the Raptors world.

Not so much, and one of the originals wants to make sure everyone understands that. “You can’t expect different guys to replicate what other guys did,” Fred VanVleet said before the Raptors struck out on a fourgame road trip that lands here Wednesday. “It’s not as easy as just plugging in OG (Anunoby) for Pascal (Siakam) or Jonas (Valanciunas) for Jakob (Poeltl) or whoever the case might be. Even CJ (Miles) for Norm (Powell).

“It’s a different group. That’s not to say we can’t be as effective, but the notion that we have to do exactly what the bench did last year? I mean I think we should probably let that go and focus on what we can do as a bench unit this year.”

It’s true that one-in, one-out alterations cannot work the same, the personal dynamics are different, the roles are different, the usage is different. To expect the same dominance from differ-

ORACLE ARENA

TIPOFF: 10:30 p.m. TV: TSN RADIO: Sportsnet 590 The Fan

PROBABLE STARTERS

Toronto: Kyle Lowry, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Pascal Siakam, Serge Ibaka. Golden State: Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney.

KEY MATCHUP

Lowry vs. Curry Might be one-sided. Lowry’s been scuffling of late, and Curry sat out an earlier meeting between the teams, so he might be extra juiced up for the rematch. He’s shooting an astonishing 50 per cent from threepoint range on 10.5 attempts per game.

NEED TO KNOW

It’s a back-to-back for Toronto after facing the Clippers on Tuesday, and the availability of Leonard is very much in question. The Raptors won’t have a morning shootaround so it may be a game-time decision … The Warriors are back to almost full health, with Curry and Green in the lineup, and centre DeMarcus Cousins isn’t too far away … Oracle Arena has not been kind to the Raptors — they’ve lost 13 straight games in one of the loudest gyms in the NBA … Warriors are 19-9 and closing in on first place in the Western Conference.

UP NEXT

Friday at Portland, 10 p.m. Doug Smith