Much more than holding down the fort
The Raptors not only weathered the storm when Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka went down with injuries last month, they charted a path that should help them get through the rest of the regular season. Ibaka was back in the lineup Sunday night and Lowry, who is considered day to day, will follow suit soon. The Raptors’ point guard might return Tuesday vs. Miami, or Thursday against the Rockets, and they spent part of Monday’s practice preparing for his imminent return.
The two veterans are walking into a much different situation than they could have expected after getting hurt in the same game. The Raptors went 8-2 without Ibaka, blew out the Jazz by 20 points in his return and currently sit second in the Eastern Conference.
Hardly anyone saw this coming.
Toronto was pegged as a likely playoff team, but not one expected to be a legitimate threat in the East. Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Boston represented the upper class and the defending champs figured to be somewhere in the middle, treading water until the inevitable roster churn. So far, they’ve done a lot more than that, and they did a lot of it without two key pieces.
“Very impressive,” Ibaka said one day after making his return. “I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t see this coming. They really surprised me and it’s a good thing to have them. Now we know we have a great team with those guys. We know we have a chance to go back and compete at a high level.”
Toronto got off to a strong start at 6-2, but the expectations fell even lower than before when Lowry
fractured his left thumb and Ibaka sprained his right ankle on Nov. 8. The only real positive was, at worst, Toronto would return home from a long West Coast trip with a .500 record and a chance to remain around the fringes of the playoff race while waiting for the pair to return.
At the time, that line of thinking made sense. This was a team operating with essentially eight players before losing two of its bigger stars. There was no real bench to speak of, Lowry was averaging an unsustainable 39 minutes per game and head coach Nick Nurse was openly questioning the defence and desire of his backend roster pieces. The thought of holding down the fort sounded daunting enough. Making gains seemed impossible.
A lot has changed since then. Terence Davis emerged as a mature playmaking point guard who can competently run the offence and spread the floor with his range when playing off the ball. Chris Boucher, while still needing to mature and add strength, provided energy on both ends of the floor. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson showcased his abilities as a lockdown defender.
The Raptors rank second in the NBA with a defensive rating of 102.1 and they sit fourth in limiting their opponents to 104.2 points per game. On the other side, Toronto leads the league with 19.5 fastbreak points per game and a shooting percentage of 40.2. The bench, which was supposed to be a weakness, sits third with a net rating of 3.7, trailing only the Mavericks and Clippers.
All of this has been accomplished, in large part, without Lowry and Ibaka. Adding them back into the mix provides even more optimism that this run might be sustainable, and the Raptors will become a legitimate threat in the East.
“I’m going to integrate myself no matter what,” said Lowry, who has averaged 21.8 points and 6.5 assists in eight games. “I’m still going to go out there and I’m going to be myself at the end of the day. But those guys are playing. So, I don’t think anything changes. I think I come out there and I do what I do: score, assist, defence, all the small things. I’m just going to be me.”
The return of Lowry and Ibaka means the players who stepped up over the last few weeks will have to make some sacrifices. Boucher didn’t get off the bench until the tail end of Sunday’s runaway victory over the Jazz. Davis will see his playing time dip — albeit not to that level — when Lowry is up to speed. Hollis-Jefferson will have to pick his spots.
These are good problems to have, because after seeing all three in expanded roles over the last few weeks, Nurse now knows what to expect. He will have improved flexibility to mix and match his lineups and adjust based on the opponent. There’s also renewed faith that when someone else inevitably goes down, Toronto will be able to survive that too.
If there’s one knock on this Raptors team, it’s that their schedule has been a little light. Toronto is 3-4 against teams with records above .500. The Raptors lost on the road to Boston and Milwaukee and have yet to play them at home.
Well, there’s a big test right around the corner. Four of their next five games with come against teams with records above .500. Ibaka and Lowry appear to be returning at just the right time for a team that has been living up to its role as defending champion. The next test will be treated the same as the last.
“We’ve kind of just gone into each game knowing that it’s a challenge each and every time,” Nurse said. “They have locked in really well to the defensive schemes. I think that’s carried them … We’ve developed some guys that we know we can use, that we aren’t afraid to use now, especially me. We’ve saved a few miles on some veterans’ legs, I keep saying. Hopefully it should benefit us as we go here.”
The Raptors are 15-4 and defying the odds at every turn. Ibaka and Lowry have their teammates to thank for that, but there will be plenty of opportunities to repay the favour in the weeks ahead.