Photo credit: KarynStepien.com
Raptors 905 106, Grand Rapids Drive 112 | Box Score
Assignees: None (905), Luke Kennard, Henry Ellenson (Drive)
Two-ways: Lorenzo Brown, Malcolm Miller (inj) (905), Luis Montero, Dwight Buycks (Drive)
Raptors 905 knew coming into the 2017-18 season that repeating as G-League Champions would be difficult. The roster turnover at the G-League level almost punishes that kind of success, and the 905 would only be returning two players from a year ago, one of whom is a large flight risk with an NBA call-up surely looming at some point this year. Still, they’ve sounded more than up to the challenge through training camp, eager to surprise people just as they did last year.
Fate is testing them early, ratcheting up that difficulty early on. For their season opener against the Grand Rapids Drive on Sunday, the 905 did not have the benefit of any NBA assignees. Fine, that happens, even if the Raptors have sent players down at record-setting rates the last two seasons. They’re only carrying 14 players at the NBA level and have their own game back in Toronto on Sunday. One of the 905’s two-way players, ostensibly some of the league’s biggest contributors, was also out, as Malolm Miller continues to work his way back. Again, it happens. The 905 were also missing three other players, though, giving them just eight bodies as they took on a home side with two NBA assignment players and both of their two-way bodies.
The scales tilted against them, the 905 cared little, opening their season on a tidy 8-0 run. Drawing the start, Aaron Best started his G-League career by drawing a foul on a 3-point attempt for the team’s first points of the season, Davion Berry and Lorenzo Brown found a good two-way chemistry across the guard positions, and the defense forced some early Drive turnovers. Tavares hung back at the rim to dissuade Grand Rapids ball-handlers, too, turning away two shots in the first few minutes of play.
The Drive eventually heated up, with Henry Ellenson hitting a pair of triples and Landry Nnoko grabbing four offensive rebounds, an area that’s supposed to be a 905 strength (at least when Kennedy Meeks shares the floor with Tavares). Old friend Dwight Buycks, coming off of a strong season opener Friday, even tricked Tavares with a nifty floater to put Grand Rapids ahead. Getting out of the early eight-point hole seemed to spur them on, and they would end the quarter ahead 31-22. The 905 hit just one of six threes and were matched in rebounds on their own glass, a tough way to sustain momentum, and that 8-0 start felt far in the past quickly.
Richard Amardi and Kaza Keane brought some offense from the bench early in the second but Grand Rapids stayed hot from outside, coaxing head coach Jerry Stackhouse to even go to a press for a bit in an attempt to get the Drive out of their flow. The lead extended as large as 19 on a pair of Derek Willis threes, the end of what amounted to a 47-20 run, if you’re a fan of calling 15-minute stretches runs. Even with the premium Stackhouse places on cardio and hard work in training camp, playing so shorthanded – three guards, two wings, a center-turned-forward, and two traditional centers who can’t really play together – so early in the year against a team with heavy NBA presence is difficult.
Some carelessness from the Drive saw Amardi lead a mini-charge late in the quarter as the 905 tried to cut the lead back to single-digits by halftime. Out of a Drive timeout, Amardi got back to the free throw line and Tavares turned Ellenson away in close before feathering in a sweet hook shot, Best sunk a corner triple, and then Amardi hit a buzzer-beating half-court heave to effectively trim what was once a 19-point deficit to seven entering the break. Big swings in the G-League.
The third quarter was much less about runs and a little more back-and-forth, with the 905 working through their big-man pairing a little more as part of a balanced approach on that end. They got a minor scare midway through the frame when Barry slipped in the lane and appeared to favor his left knee, but he quickly hit a corner three to quiet any worry. On the other side, Luke Kennard got cooking some with a nine-point quarter. The 905 managed to tie things up late in the quarter after Brown and Best combined for a 7-0 run, and the sides mostly held even from there, with the 905 missing a few touches around the rim to enter the fourth down two.
It was an inauspicious start to the fourth when Nnoko found Buycks on a terrific cut with an even better high-low, sandwiched by missed 905 opportunities that nudged the Drive lead to eight. An Ellenson three and a great cutting floater for Luis Montero increased the threat of a pull-away, but the 905 stayed in striking distance as the starters began filtering back in, announcing their intent with a Brown dump-off to Tavares for a dunk. The defense couldn’t lock in, a product of fatigue and the early part of the season, and perhaps mounting pressure as the game slipped away caused some overzealousness, with Brown fouling Ellenson for a four-point play.
That put the Drive up 13, and there was no coming back from a second big lead in the same game. The 905 did some nice things down the stretch, to be sure, but every time they strung a couple possessions together, Grand Rapids answered right back or the 905 got in their own way, including a pair of technicals late (one for defensive three seconds). Even still, the game hung in the balance after a turnover produced a Brown bucket in transition, but a subsequent turnover saw Brown and Meeks both miss at the rim. A miscommunication on offense saw the ball land out of bounds, and after a 905 foul, the Drive procured a rebound off their own free throw, leading to Stackhouse visibly shaking his head on the sidelines. Brown and Berry hit late threes to play the fouling game effectively, but the 905 simply ran out of time.
It’s not the start the 905 were hoping for, and Stackhouse will come away with plenty of defensive film to use as a teaching tool ahead of Wednesday. There were a lot of positives to draw from the opener, too, with a thinned-out team fighting hard to erase a pair of big deficits, a few players having strong nights in larger roles than they may have expected, and the offense in general functioning pretty well. In situations like these, what’s important is to be able to take things away from the loss that will help make the 905 better as the season wears on, and in that sense, this wasn’t a terrible start to the year at all.
Notes
- Malcolm Miller has been cleared for full-court five-on-five following offseason ankle surgery, but with only four days of practice underneath him, he was held out here.
- Negus Webster-Chan (knee), Kethan Savage (groin), and Roger Moute a Bidias (knee) were also out, leaving the 905 with just eight players.
- It’s unclear what the Raptors’ assignment strategy might be, but with so many young guys in the rotation, it seems unlikely anyone but Alfonzo McKinnie sees heavy time early on.
- Happy birthday, Stack!
- It’s great that right out of the gate, the 905 were able to show that their Canadians are on the roster for more than just the passport. Aaron Best finished with 17 points, Richard Amardi had 11 points, six rebounds, a pair of assists, and two steals, and Kaza Keane scored seven points and dished three assists. None looked out of place in a G-League rotation, and Best looked like a potential high-impact piece. Stackhouse called Best the team’s best player in camp, and he carried that over here.
- Lorenzo Brown carried the day for the team, scoring 27 points with five rebounds, five steals, and eight assists. Just a really strong performance on an afternoon where the 905 needed everything he had. He’s going to be a great leader for this group.
- Davion Berry scored 20, too, playing mostly off-ball next to Brown.
- Edy Tavares had a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double with three blocks and a plus-6 mark in 32 minutes. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year would be a favorite to repeat were he not extremely likely to get called up.
- I’m not sure how much he’ll be with the Drive, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the Pistons ask Luke Kennard to just play or to focus on certain elements of his offense. He’s going to be able to get his in-between stuff off at the G-League level, even against better length than in college, but I’m not sure how much that will ever be a part of his NBA game. He got the 905 on a few DeMar DeRozan-like spins and up-and-unders here.
- I’m still out on Henry Ellenson, though he’s been a lot better in Summer League/preseason/early G-League action than he was a year ago.
- I’m all the way in on the Drive’s mascot, “Buckets,” a muscly blue man with a basketball for a head. They ran a bunch of promos involving him at breaks in play. Hopefully the 905 do something similar with Stripes.
- The 905 now return home Wednesday for their home opener. A friendly reminder that promo code “REPUBLIC905” will get you a discount at this link all season long.
