Raptors 82, Timberwolves 80 | Box Score
The Toronto Raptors aren’t going to dominate Las Vegas Summer League, after all. But they might be one of the favorites to win the whole thing after a gutty 82-80 victory Sunday to improve to 2-0. If they do, Norman Powell’s earlier joke that he’s coming for the Most Valuable Player award may come to fruition.
Coming off a tournament opener that saw them tie the Summer League record for fewest points allowed in a game, the Raptors looked to keep that defensive momentum going early. Things looked mostly the same, too, except for the absence of Pascal Siakam, who was replaced by E.J. Singler in the starting lineup on account of a knee injury. (Siakam’s injury is minor but he’ll miss Monday’s game and perhaps longer as he travels to get his Visa sorted out.)
The Wolves needed 3:32 before they got on the scoreboard and the Raptors raced out to a 19-6 lead. Locking down Minnesota with timely switches, picture-perfect ICEing, and a great deal of aggression at the point of attack, the Raptors kept No. 5 pick Kris Dunn in check early and forced his Wolves’ other players to convert late-clock looks.
“I saw his game the other night where he had 27. I know he can play. He likes the ball, likes to dance with it, he’s an aggressive driver, looking to score. So I just tried to take up his air space, not let him be free,” Powell, who drew the primary assignment on Dunn, said. “I pride myself on being a two-way player. That was the assignment I drew, so I just tried to play my game.”
The start was more of what the Raptors showed Friday. As it turns out, though, defending at an all-time level for a team of rookies, sophomores, and non-NBA players – however good the group – is a difficult task for long stretches. Minnesota soon found a groove and, led by the aggression of Dunn, pushed the Raptors into foul trouble. Adding to the understandable defensive regression was Toronto going cold on the offensive end, with the ball getting a little sticky (they had just five assists in the half) and their massive edge on the offensive glass from Friday negated. By the end of the half, Minnesota was still shooting just 32.4 percent, but effective ball control and some heady defense of their own had turned a 13-point Toronto lead into a two-point deficit at the half.
By the time the third quarter rolled around, this was actually a game, and the teams started trying to score accordingly. Trying. The game remained mostly sloppy and incredibly chippy – at the end of the third, Dunn, Powell, Jakob Poeltl, and Adreian Payne had combined for 19 fouls (you get 10 each in Summer League) – but thanks to a brisker pace, free throws, and surges from Dunn (eight) and Powell (seven), they combined for 54 points. Relative to the first half, that was a veritable :07 Seconds or Less quarter.
Payne, about 10 years older than anyone in the tournament not named Thon Maker, closed the frame with a shot-clock beating long-two heave, and the Raptors were down eight. Head coach Jama Mahlalela rolled with a Bruno Caboclo-led bench unit, and that group cut the lead to four after a few minutes. As Mahlalela began staggering his starters back in, that earlier defense came back.
The Raptors held Minnesota without a point for the first 3:37 of the fourth, with a three-guard look proving too much pressure for a Dunn-less Wolves unit. Yanick Moreira, who had a really solid showing, used his length well as the lone natural big for a long stretch, while Drew Crawford’s heady play helped ease the tempo, and Fred VanVleet scored six points in short order to help tie the game.
“I told the team at the end that Fred really turned the game around for us,” Mahlalela said. “He was the key for us…I told the team, Fred was a difference maker.”
When Dunn checked back in with 5:36 left, the game was once again tied, and Mahlalela called on Powell to surround Moreira (and then Jakob Poeltl) with four guards in a manic switch-everywhere track lineup. Caboclo, who had another up-and-down game but showed some new wrinkles he’s at least getting comfortable trying out, later returned to close things out, more necessary experience for the third-year forward.
“Our goal is to develop our young players, and anything we can do to put them in different, unique situations to try to test them, it’s better for us,” Mahlalela said of the funkier lineups and tight-game exposure. “As a coach, you don’t want close games. But for their growth and development, it was great for us.”
As the Raptors went back to his core group with Crawford in place of Singler, they found their best groove since the game’s opening minutes. Powell continued his game-long take-over, hitting several huge threes down the stretch. The defense held steady – Minnesota managed just 10 points in the fourth – and Delon Wright managed the game’s closing minutes well (including a terrific game-sealing runner with five seconds left). Powell was the story, though, as he was a year ago, too.
“It’s a confidence. It’s a swagger. He told me going into the third quarter, “Don’t worry coach, I got you,'” Mahlalela revealed. “That’s where playing on the big-league team helped him be able to be a leader now on this team.”
He finished with 29 points on 7-of-15 shooting, hit four threes (“It’s really high,” he said of his confidence in his 3-ball), and if the Raptors keep this up, he’s going to have a damn good claim to it. He’ll be instrumental to the Raptors keeping this level of play up, standing as their best and perhaps most experienced “veteran” at age 23.
Patrick Patterson’s reaction to Norman Powell cooking in summer league. pic.twitter.com/N5wD76VFBL
— Zarar Siddiqi (@CornerSniper) July 11, 2016
“If we win, they’ll have to give it to me,” Powell joked to Raptors Republic about the tournament MVP award on Saturday. He laughed off a follow-up Sunday, but didn’t brush off his role as the team’s key shot-maker here. “That’s just who I am. That’s how I view myself as a player. That’s what I’m working to be: One of those go-to guys, when the team needs you, you come through in the clutch.”
He did so, emphatically. Powell had help, of course, and it came in the form of his draft counterpart. Wright’s 13-4-3 line doesn’t pop, but he provided a very steady hand as a backcourt mate, drawing rave reviews for his poise down the stretch of a comeback and close-out.
“Composure. That’s what you’re trying to teach down the end of the game, is how can they be composed and execute what they needed to,” Mahlalela said. “I thought Norman stepped up big time, but Delon was the key for us. Delon settled the game down and kind of allowed us to do what we wanted to do.”
This game was far less aggressive a statement than the opener, and that’s to be expected. Short Siakam’s energy, with a more muted performance from Poeltl, and with a bit more uneven a game from Caboclo, plus a much tougher opponent, the Raptors faced adversity. On the backs of their ready-for-primetime sophomore backcourt, they pulled through. That’s far more valuable than a blowout, anyway, and they left the impression there’s still another gear they can reach this week.
Because after all, Norman Powell wants that title.
