Raptors 905 101, Fort Wayne Mad Ants 84 | Box Score
Lucas Nogueira overheard someone ask if Raptors 905 had any timeouts remaining.
“No timeout,” he said to nobody in particular, making a wrap-it-up hand motion. “Let’s go.”
Nogueira had done his job for the afternoon already, scoring 17 points with 12 rebounds in 32 bench minutes on assignment for the special 12 p.m. March Break tip-off at the Air Canada Centre. He was a key part of a much-improved defensive performance for the 905 opposite a stretch Fort Wayne Mad Ants outfit, one the 905 seemed far better prepared for and much more willing to grind things down against.
“I thought we were a little bit more aggressive in executing the gameplan,” head coach Jesse Mermuys said after the game. “When they did shoot jumpers, I thought they were challenged. Our guys really got a hand up and contested and made them miss.”
The Mad Ants shot a woeful 35.7 percent for the game, and for a third consecutive game, the 905 frustrated an opponent into a cold night from long-range (5-of-23). With so few second chances and 13 turnovers, Fort Wayne struggled to get anything going, and the 905 shut usual menace Terran Petteway out at the free-throw line.
Seconds after Nogueira’s plea to close things out, Bruno Caboclo attacked from the wing, throwing down a dunk that got the 7,485 fans in attendance on their feet one last time. Caboclo finished 5-of-15 from the floor but had 14 points, 12 rebounds, and a pair of emphatic and well-timed blocks, symptomatic of a strong defensive effort. And the shot selection, well, Mermuys can’t do much about Caboclo’s heaves – and Nogueira’s three – if the shots go in often enough.
“I would have been extremely upset,” Mermuys said of Nogueira’s triple. “But he made it. Same thing with Bruno. If he takes questionable shots and makes them, he’s gonna stay in. That’s kind of an unwritten rule in the NBA: If they make ’em, there’s nothing you can say.”
Nogueira and Caboclo – and Delon Wright, in his limited 15 minutes to protect in the event he’s needed in the Toronto Raptors’ game at 7:30 – were the main conduits for applause from a raucous crowd, representing the parent club as the most recognizable faces on the floor. And they played well, particularly when on the floor together – the Mad Ants made their biggest run of the game, and early-third quarter push that threatened to snuff out the 905’s early double-digit lead entirely, when Sim Bhullar was on the court instead of Nogueira – and Nogueira, in particular, took advantage of Fort Wayne’s relative lack of size. He shot 7-of-11, feasting on dump-off dunks, and he and Caboclo combined to help lead to a 55-37 edge on the glass.
That’s the gameplan against a smaller, more mobile frontcourt, and the 905 did better than they have against similar lineups (and this same team) in recent weeks. Having the two Brazilians on-hand makes a difference, to be sure, but there were two other driving factors in the victory, factors who weren’t present even a week ago: E.J. Singler and Davion Berry.
The pair of deadline acquisitions have come in and immediately made an impact on the defensive end. Each brings a good deal of energy and some positional versatility, and with the 905 a little thin on the wing, each has been leaned on heavily right from the jump. That’s encouraging, and maybe a bit ahead of schedule, but the 905 targeted those players exactly because they could come in and hit the ground running.
“A little surprised, but we did watch them, and we watched how they played. I thought Dan Tolzman did a really nice job identifying guys we could plug in right away like that,” Mermuys said. “It is hard, it is a challenge, and they’ve done a great job with it. I think they’re good fits for what we want to do.”
Singler had 12 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists, but it was Berry who really took strides. Once he built the confidence to knock down the open jumper, that is.
“I wanted to punch him in the face. He was turning down great shots,” Mermuys said. “I want you to be aggressive.”
Berry laughed afterward, explaining Mermuys pulling him quickly to urge him to shoot and calling it “my fault.” Mermuys has been trying to remind Berry that he doesn’t have much to prove, considering the team went out and traded for him and needs him to fill a role immediately.
He got aggressive from there, running the point down the stretch and attacking whatever the Mad Ants gave him. He hit jumpers, he drove to the rim with some difficult finishes, and he really looked for teammates off the bounce, dishing eight assists to go along with his 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. The Utah product may have been a little shy in his new surroundings over the weekend, but he’s quickly grown comfortable both on the floor and off of it.
“The first game, I came out, and it was terrible,” Berry said, drastically overstating how poorly he played Friday. “This game I was like, I’m just gonna come out and play my game no matter what, and see what happens…I’m not just a defensive energy guy, I’m a player. Whatever the defense is giving me, I take. If they play me for the kick, I’m gonna score. If they play me for the scorer, I’m gonna kick the ball. I just read the game.”
Adding another ball-handler to the wing has been a dream early on, lessening the load on Scott Suggs (20 points, six rebounds, four assists) in late-clock scenarios and improving the team’s floor balance.
“It’s been lovely,” he added of his first 10 days with the club.
The spark Singler and Berry are providing is well-timed, especially with NBA assignees likely to be hard to come by as the Raptors head out on the road (all three players were recalled immediately after the game). Ronald Roberts is still out, the team is being cautious with DeAndre Daniels (a DNP-CD in his second game available), and there’s a bit of urgency to see what the new pieces can offer over the final three weeks of the season.
If Monday was any indication, Singler and Berry could be key pieces for the program in 2016-17. And the fact that they played well with such an early tip-time may be important, as the 905 want to repeat whatever brings them success next year, even if it means early wake-up calls.
“Whatever we did, we’d like to do every time,” Mermuys joked.
They’ll have to try to build on Monday’s performance with a more regular start time on Saturday when Erie visits the Hershey Centre.
