A quarter to remember, if not repeat
Perfect storm of events set the stage for Raps to make historic comeback
It was as if all of Nick Nurse’s hopes and dreams for the reconstituted Raptors bench came true in one magical 12minute period.
It was astonishing and historic and will be the quarter that fans talk about the rest of this season, and perhaps well into the future: Sunday’s magical fourth quarter, when Kyle Lowry and four unheralded backups completed the greatest comeback in Raptors history.
Nobody did too much. Everybody ceded to the primary scorer and got theirs without forcing any issues, just like the coach wants.
“We still need to go through our primary guys, and if (the others) can cut behind them and get one — or get a putback, or a rhythm three where people are disrespecting them, or they’re heavy-loading to our primary guys — they can go ahead,” the coach said of the backup brigade of Terence Davis II, Malcolm Miller, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Chris Boucher before Sunday’s game.
“We’ve just got to make sure we get that right blend. They’re all capable, but I don’t want seven possessions in a row where they’re shooting seven straight shots. They’ve got to be a little bit more opportunity guys than maybe they have been in some games.”
Fast forward about three hours and that’s precisely what Nurse got in a shocking 45point fourth quarter that sealed a 110-107 win over the Dallas Mavericks.
Lowry, the Eastern Conference player of the week, was the engine on offence — he had 20 of his 32 points in the quarter — but the other four Raptors were threats and made heads-up plays that led to some easy baskets and made the Mavericks pay for loading up on Lowry.
“Malcolm, Terence Davis, Rondae and Chris Boucher, I give them all the credit today,” Lowry said Sunday. “They won that game for us. Malcolm got a few steals, T.D. hit a couple of big threes. Chris with his defections and blocked shots. Rondae with his putbacks and hustle effort. Give those guys the credit, man, seriously.”
The game-winner was a perfect illustration. Hollis-Jefferson set a tremendous screen, Boucher went hard down the lane and Lowry dished off for a Boucher dunk that gave the Raptors their final lead.
That game is likely to be an outlier because the confluence of events that led to the comeback may never happen again. But if the four subs can play like that with regularity, it’ll make the absence of Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol and Norm Powell easier to handle. “You know how I’m always talking about going through your primary guys first and then those guys have to (feed) scorers, and I think that’s really what it turned into,” Nurse said after the game. “Kyle (has to) make the play, take the shot or find the kick-out, or find the cutter or whatever. I think that just organizes you.”
With three of the team’s top seven players on the shelf for an undetermined number of games, the new bench group is going to get an extended stretch to prove itself. But it doesn’t have to be great. It only has to be good and hold its own when the starters need a break.
It would be wonderful if they got on the floor and extended leads every time they played together, but that’s too much to ask. Not costing the Raptors anything is the goal.
“We’d certainly love it if they could make a plus (offensive contribution),” Nurse said. “But for me ... it’s the same. Can they go out there and execute the defensive game plan? Are they in the right coverages? Are they playing the personnel the way we want them played?
“To me, it’s always that you’re going to hold your own if you’re doing that. If (opponents) happen to make tough shots over that, so be it, one of those days.”