https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9v5_9Ic_fo
10 things from Raptors-Timberwolves | theScore.com
Domination: There are a lot of good players capable of having great nights, but this is what a true superstar looks like. Kawhi Leonard bossed this game from start to finish, delivering 35 points on 15-of-23 shooting and scoring two clutch jumpers to fend off a late charge from the Timberwolves, all while playing lockdown defense. Those MVP chants actually ring true.
Perspective: In previous seasons, Jimmy Butler was the classic big wing scorer who always had his way with the Raptors. Butler once led an otherwise inept Bulls team to an inexplicable 12-game win streak over the Raptors, including an outing when he scored 41 points in a half to break one of Michael Jordan’s records. Butler played well on Wednesday, but he couldn’t do anything while matched up with Leonard, who was just straight-up bigger and stronger.
Superhuman: Butler generally avoided Leonard for the night, preferring instead to attack other matchups. On one of the rare occasions when Butler did go at Leonard, he tried to slip backdoor. That’s when Leonard made a no-look dive to the floor to pick off a high-low bounce pass.
Final Score: Raptors put away the Timberwolves, 112-105 – Raptors HQ
If this was an example of a game with defensive mistakes, let’s ask again: what else can the Raptors do? Sure, the T-Wolves managed some strong three-point shooting (15-for-30 as a team, with some fluky deep buckets from noted marksmen Derrick Rose, Josh Okogie, and Taj Gibson), but the Raps also held them to 42 percent shooting from the field, just 38 points in the paint, and a collective offensive rating of 105.0. This despite the fact the Timberwolves, after the four previous games, were ranked sixth in the league with a 115.5 offensive rating.
“We’ve got some guys who can play defense,” confirmed Nurse.
Meanwhile, on offense (after Kawhi’s awesome output), the Raptors called once again upon a diverse batch of sources. There was Kyle Lowry with a 13 point (on 4-of-9 shooting), 10 assist, six rebound night — which, given his previous gaudy numbers, is something of an off night for him (hah). Pascal Siakam opened the game with a nine-point explosion, during which he ran Taj Gibson ragged for 19 minutes. The tandem of Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas continued their strong play in the pivot, each giving the team something different and necessary.
Ibaka has played almost exclusively in the paint since moving full time to centre and its paying dividends: 15 points (on 7-of-10 shooting) and seven rebounds, along with a couple decent reads out of the post. Now with the bench unit, JV just continues to just bash away. “My mindset is just to do good things, win a game, win the battles,” said Valanciunas. “Every minute I spend on the court I’m trying to find the battles. Nothing disappointing to start from the bench. I can be as productive as starting the game.” The proof is in there in his stat line: 16 points, nine boards, plus a pair of delightful 3s, in just 20 minutes.
There are other things to note here for Toronto, continuing with Norman Powell’s strong 12 minutes off the bench for 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting and two assists. Nurse said he was “proud” of him and it’s easy to see why — filling in for both Delon Wright (still not all the way back despite making his debut tonight) and Fred VanVleet (out with a sprained toe) deserves some respect. Also off the bench, OG Anunoby played bigger minutes tonight (28 in all) and made life difficult for the Wolves’ wings (including Butler), while canning a pair of threes of his own. And Danny Green provided his usual veteran presence (if not quite his lights out shooting) for the night.
Raptors show Wolves who are the real Kings of the North | Toronto Sun
1. Kawhi Leonard looks all the way back. Not even all-world defender Jimmy Butler gave him much trouble, other than Butler forcing Leonard into a tough shot or two. Leonard was a monster at both ends, living up to his billing and then some.
2. Minnesota shot 50%, hitting 15 three-pointers, but Nick Nurse wasn’t too worried about it. He mentioned Minny was the paint-points leader heading into the game, so the plan was to force them into outside looks. They’ll take Derrick Rose launching threes even if he makes a couple.
3. Was odd to see Karl-Anthony Towns looking extremely lethargic and ineffective even with all of the tales out of Wolves-land this year. Towns is a generational offensive talent, yet he appeared to be sleep-walking and, while Rose got 11 first-half shots and rookie Josh Okogie eight (granted four were on one sequence), Towns only got up six. He was aggressive to start the third, and ended up with a team-best 17 shots, but only hit five of them, had four turnovers and only got to the free-throw line three times while getting carved up on defence. Danny Green told us it’s early and Towns will be fine and might just have timing issues to start the year, but it was still odd to see such a great talent play like Andrea Bargnani.
4. The play of the game was Leonard lunging for a diving steal. He said it was all anticipation. Did he see the ball? “No.” He’s a good player.
5. Jonas Valanciunas nailed two three-pointers and attempted three of them, while also collecting nine rebounds, five of them offensive, in 20 minutes. Not too shabby. “I’ve been working a lot of finding the spacing. It’s big guy’s job to roll and open up the lanes, but sometimes we try to squeeze in a couple pops,” Valanciunas said. “I see an opportunity where I can pop, and there you go, you find some.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5_eSBIj_OU
Raptors 112, Timberwolves 105: A Game as Weird as Leonard’s Laugh – A Wolf Among Wolves
Andy Grimsrud predicted that facing the Raptors would showcase any distractions that the Wolves had yet to shake off from their unpredictable offseason. KAT’s play did just that. While many of his teammates have expressed their support for Butler and his return to the team, KAT has yet to do so publicly. Wednesday night’s performance from the Wolves’ All-Star nudged me an inch closer to the “KAT is just soft” narrative, but I still lean heavy on the belief that Tom Thibodeau and Jimmy’s lack of support for Towns has had an impact on the inconsistent play we’ve seen from him so far.
Despite Towns’ inability to positively impact the game, the Wolves cut the Raptors’ lead to 106-101 with 1:16 to go in the game after trailing by as much as 16 in the final quarter. But before Wolves fans could garner any real belief in their team securing its first road win, Leonard shot back with a mid-range jumper in the corner, taking advantage of Butler and Rose’s decision to switch defenders. Leonard’s deciding shot sent Rose disbelievers in a fury as they questioned Thibs’ decision to not sub in Josh Okogie for his former Bull on the defensive end. I’ve typically sided with those who’ve questioned Rose all year, but Okogie would have also struggled to defend that shot, and Rose’s effort throughout the game was undeniable. Rose tallied up 10 points and four assists to lead the Wolves at halftime, and finished the game with 16 points, six assists and three rebounds. Andrew Wiggins’ absence from Wednesday’s game due to a thigh contusion played a part in Rose’s 30 minutes off the bench, and I’m guessing his high energy which set him apart from the majority of his teammates also had something to do with Thibs playing him during crunch time.
Okogie got the start with Wiggins out and got off to an 0-for-8 start from the field (though three of those misses came from one possession), but he refused to fold after a slow start and finished the game with a double-double of 11 rebounds and 10 points. He shot 4-for-14 from the field, but most fans were able to let that go with his back-to-back 3s in the third quarter and this monstrous dunk:
The Wolves shot a season-low 62.5 percent from the free-throw line (10-for-16) and left fans with taunting nightmares of possibly serving the Raptors their first loss of the season had they earned more trips to the charity stripe and came through on their freebies. But by no means should the seven-point loss to a talented Raptors team be chalked up as a moral victory for the Timberpups. When Okogie’s confidence, Rose’s effort, the bench’s over-performance and the team’s 50 percent 3-point shooting are the few positives to come out of a Wolves game, this is an appropriate reaction for Minnesota fans
Raptors 112, Wolves 105: Road Woes Continue – Canis Hoopus
In watching tonight’s game, it’s clear why Toronto made the offseason moves that they did. Kawhi is potentially a once-in-a-generation talent, and not only do they think he can lift them to be a championship-caliber team, they are also convinced they can convince him to stay with the breadth of young and promising talent they have to surround him with. This was never about placing him next to Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka; the Raptors have a legitimate bench with some serious depth that will outlast most any team this season.
And that it did tonight against the Wolves. Despite Minnesota’s incredibly slow start (they shot 32 percent from the field in the first half compared to Toronto’s 55 percent), they managed to stick around just long enough to make the Raptors sweat, but they ultimately couldn’t make a run that mattered. Every time Minnesota caught a spark and went on a run, the Raptors gave the ball back to Leonard where nobody was able to stop him in his isolation game.
The Wolves simply could not get anything to fall within the arc tonight, but oddly enough they finished 15/30 from behind it. Karl-Anthony Towns had a terrible game, and you could see it on his face all night. After getting bullied around in the paint by Ibaka early on, he seemed disengaged for much of the game. He finished 5/17 from the field, which is actually better than it seemed.
He didn’t have much help, though. Josh Okogie has not been shy about pulling the trigger, but he finished 4/14 from the field (although he did hit back-to-back threes midway through the third quarter along with a monstrous putback dunk that helped boost the Wolves within striking distance). And even though Jimmy Butler ended up with a fine stat line (23/4/5 with 6 steals), he also shot 5-10 from the free-throw line.
At the end of the day, this game could have gone in Minnesota’s favor if they got a few more shots to fall, but they had plenty of opportunities, and the Raptors took advantage of theirs. The Wolves managed 16 offensive rebounds as a team, but they failed to capitalize on many of those second chances. As Jim Petersen said during the broadcast, “Offensive rebounds are only valuable if you score.”
Raptors’ Leonard showed no signs of rust against Wolves – StarTribune.com
Leonard scored 35 points on 15 of 23 shooting and added his usual dogged defense in the Raptors 112-105 victory over the Wolves.
“When you have a player like that, it requires your entire team [to defend],” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “It’s impossible to guard those guys one on one. … Kawhi can hurt you in the post, hurt you off the dribble and put you in situations in which there’s going to be switching involved and you have to react accordingly.”
It was Leonard who put any notion of a Wolves comeback to rest late in the fourth quarter. With the Wolves down five, Leonard hit a floater from 11 feet to put the Raptors up 108-101 with 53.7 seconds remaining.
“He does so many things well,” Jimmy Butler said. “They feature him in a lot of things and he plays both sides of the ball. When you have a team like they have and a player of his caliber, the game gets really easy for himself and for everybody else.”
To Butler, Leonard is back to where he was before his injury. Leonard showcased that during one play, where he seemed to steal a pass from the Wolves with his back turned to the ball.
“He’s confident, shooting the ball with confidence. The athleticism is there. He’s going to be just fine.”
Added Leonard: “I feel good. I’m on the right track.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afdB8eyPPXI
‘Confident’ Kawhi continues consistent play – Video – TSN
Rod Black, Jack Armstrong and Leo Rautins have more on Kawhi Leonard’s 35 point game against the Timberwolves, and how he has continued to progress over the early part of the season.
Led by Kawhi Leonard, Raptors’ defensive upside is tantalizing – The Athletic [subscription]
On Wednesday, the Raptors played their first high-usage wing player with comparable size to Leonard, Jimmy Butler. Butler, like almost every member of the Chicago Bulls from earlier in this decade, has had plenty of relatively recent moments in which he tormented the Raptors. With Leonard still getting his rhythm back, would coach Nick Nurse dare to stick Leonard on the unhappy Timberwolves All-Star from the jump?
“Yes. Yes,” Nurse said. “That’s why we got that guy, to put him on that guy.”
Not Butler specifically, but players like him in general. The answer was cathartic. Physical wing scorers have long been the bane of the Raptors’ existence. James comes to mind, but there is no shame in losing to that guy. Butler, Paul George, Giannis Antetokounmpo and even Carmelo Anthony in his prime have had histories of torching the Raptors, and each of the Raptors’ would-be defensive closers failed on some level. Landry Fields could not shoot effectively enough to stay on the floor. DeMarre Carroll could not stay on the floor, period. Terrence Ross was too slender. DeMar DeRozan, bless him, tried and tried and was just not equipped. P.J. Tucker was here for only a hot minute.
Alas, Nurse’s answer, nice as it was, did not come as a relief or anything. The Raptors have so many useful defensive options that they can seem like a Swiss army knife of Swiss army knives.
“There’s a possibility of some defensive depth there. We have to find some right combinations a little bit,” Nurse said after his team’s 112-105 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, smiling in his understatement. “But, again, we’re trying to play (defence) and wanting to get down and play (defence). I think there were some really good stretches, some really dominant stretches of defence. But as any coach tells you after any game, there are mistakes there.
“We’ve got some guys who can play defence.”
Raptors enjoying blissful start to season full of promise – Sportsnet.ca
The Raptors have been enjoying a near blissful start to their season of promise. Nurse ran a training camp that earned him full marks from a veteran team. Grumpy Kyle Lowry turned into ‘best-point-guard-in-East’ Kyle Lowry the minute basketball started to count. Any doubts about Kawhi Leonard’s health quickly dissipated after he was rolled out for 37 minutes on opening night. He’s looked better every time he’s taken the floor.
Oh, and did we mention? The Raptors are now a perfect 5-0 after downing the Minnesota Timberwolves 112-105 at Scotiabank Arena. A win on Friday against Dallas and Toronto will have the best start in franchise history.
Their franchise record-tying fifth straight win to start the season unfolded according to a formula that’s already becoming familiar: Leonard (35 points on 23 shots) as the best player on either team; Lowry (13 points and 10 assists) as the next best player on the floor and support being offered wherever necessary. Once again, the revitalized Serge Ibaka was active on both ends, chipping in with 15 points and seven rebounds and making high-scoring T-Wolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns all but disappear, while his counterpart Jonas Valanciunas came off the bench with 16 points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes.
“I am trying to add up the numbers here,” said Nurse after the game. “Thirty-one points between them at centre and 16 rebounds, that is pretty good productivity out of that spot.”
As a group, the Raptors’ defensive chops are beginning to take root and offensively, they can score when needed, it seems. They held the T-Wolves to 41.7 per cent shooting and converted 51.7 per cent of their own field goals.
“We are trying to play [good defence] and wanting to get down and play it,” said Nurse. “I think there was some really good stretches, some really dominant stretches of defence …”
Not tanking for Wiggins the luckiest move Raptors never made – Sportsnet.ca
Like nature, the NBA ecosystem can be unpredictable. There was time within the Raptors organization that consideration was being given to tanking to have a crack at drafting Wiggins – projected to be the Toronto area’s first homegrown NBA star – in the 2014 draft.
That’s why Raptors president Masai Ujiri had a trade in principle to send Kyle Lowry to the New York Knicks in December of 2013, having already sent then-Raptor Rudy Gay out the door. DeRozan was going to be next.
The view then was that the Raptors didn’t have the foundation of a winning team. Wiggins wasn’t the sole reason to tank — the thinking was the 2014 draft was so deep in prospects anywhere in the top five would get you something resembling a franchise player.
That one of them might be Wiggins – the high flyer from Vaughan – would have only been a bonus.
But the Lowry deal was pulled of the table by the Knicks and the Raptors somehow went from a 7-13 start to the No. 3 seed in the East in a heartbeat. Improbably, their winning ways had begun.
It was the luckiest move the Raptors never made.
That 2014 draft class never come close to matching the hype – by far the most productive player of the group — Nikola Jokic of Denver — was taken 41st; next is Clint Capela of Houston, taken 25th. Even Joel Embiid – a potential superstar taken at No. 3 – has only played in 97 games due to health issues.
Would the Raptors have done any better? The evidence says no. They took a swing on Bruno Caboclo at No. 20 and gave up on him last season after four years of minimal progress. The Raptors were also high on Tyler Ennis at that spot but he went two picks earlier. Neither are in the NBA this season. More remarkably Toronto’s second-round pick – DeAndre Daniels, taken 37th – has never played in the league while five players taken after him are thriving in the NBA, including Jokic, who may be the best player in the entire draft.
The Raptors’ record of finding talent in hard-to-find places is strong since, but they had nowhere to go but up.
Delon Wright’s return will give the Raptors a better idea of rotations – The Athletic [subscription]
The Raptors have played 49 minutes with neither Leonard nor Lowry on the floor, and the results have not been strong. Whereas a year ago groups without Lowry or DeMar DeRozan owned a +6.8 net rating in 946 minutes, per PBPStats, that small sample of 49 minutes has produced a -9.9 net rating so far.
That is bad and is an example of why most smart coaches will choose to stagger their stars rather than tether them, leaving one at a time to lead reserve groups. This is not unfamiliar to the Raptors, who employed this strategy with Lowry and DeRozan plenty before last season. Lowry alongside any four bench players, writers, or The Athletic readers could post a positive net rating. That Nurse hasn’t gone to that option yet speaks to a longer-term view, both in terms of getting Lowry and Leonard comfortable together and getting more groups experience as five-man units — the staggering option is there when they need it, but they don’t need to maximize every minute here in October and can afford some bumps for the greater purpose. Were this to continue for months, it’s likely that Leonard and Lowry would be staggered come April. For now, they can keep trying to roll out new bench groups to see what, if anything, might work.
The return of Delon Wright will help.
Wright has missed the start of the season due to a strained adductor muscle and while he’s listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game against Minnesota, the team was speaking as if he’ll return. That should provide quite the boost to those star-less lineups, even if Wright himself is not a star. He was a major part of the success of last year’s bench unit, the Raptors owned a +7.5 net rating with him on the court, per data from NBA.com, and he very much fills a role that’s been missing from those groups so far.
Wright’s fit is not so much about anything Fred VanVleet hasn’t or can’t do as much as it is about their symbiosis. VanVleet has had perhaps too much of a shot-creation load on his shoulders so far. He’s seen an uptick in usage rate and a stark decline in true-shooting percentage, although his turnover rate has decreased and his assist rate has taken a huge spike. Despite VanVleet finishing better at the rim so far, it’s his scoring that’s been shaky while he’s thrived with increase play-making duty, at least statistically. Those star-less groups are only scoring 92.1 points per-100 possessions, though, and so they could clearly use some help.
Enter Wright, who is a terrific complement for VanVleet and for groups that have often lacked a secondary playmaker with Pascal Siakam starting more often.
Five Toronto Raptors plays that will define the 2018-19 Season – Raptors HQ
I call this one the R.C. Buford Special.
“They got Danny Green, too!?” has been the rallying cry of NBA internet this week. And no matter how many people spit out the same take, it won’t make it any less absurd that Toronto nabbed Green as a throw-in to the Kawhi Leonard deal. Toronto’s wings have historically brought one of three or D to the equation; blending those two skills together? Jason Kapono laughs in your face.
Green’s an inclusive soul — there’s room for all valuable modern wing skills in his game. And when paired next to an equally terrifying defender who also happens to be a slept on dime-slinger, thrilling stuff — like the above exhibit — happens.
Deflections and steals that lead to roof-shaking buckets like the one Green orchestrated here are going to become the new normal in Toronto. Not every slapped down pass is going to ring out so loudly it pierces through the wall of game ops sound the way this Green disruption did, but the Raptors’ jacked up, more aggressive defensive style, if coach Nick Nurse has his way, is going to feed the offense all season long.
“I think we created a lot out of our defense tonight which I was probably more happy with (than the strong offensive play),” said Nick Nurse after the win. “Eight blocked shots, got our hands on a lot of balls and got out and capitalized on a lot of it.”
The Toronto Raptors wrecked the Charlotte Hornets on Monday, improving to 4-0 on the season with a 127-106 victory. Despite the lopsided score, it was entertaining if only because it was a chance to see Kyle Lowry and Kemba Walker do battle. Walker, the East’s player of the week, is averaging a ridiculous 33 points, 5.3 assists and 3.5 rebounds in his first four games, and he has made 21 of his 45 3-point attempts. Lowry has been even more efficient, averaging 21.5 points, 10 assists and three rebounds while shooting 60 percent and making 57.7 percent of his 3s.
Walker never let up regardless of the score in Toronto, but his most impressive performances came in a one-point loss on opening night against Milwaukee (41 points on 15-for-29 shooting) and a one-point win on Saturday in Miami (39 points on 14-for-31 shooting). Forget the 2-2 record; if Walker has yet another career year and the Hornets continue to survive when he sits, there is a realistic path back to the playoffs in Charlotte.
The Raptors have a much higher bar for success, but the way they’re playing, I wouldn’t bet against them clearing it. Lowry spends every moment of every possession looking for an advantage, and, as sad as it was to see him do his and DeMar DeRozan’s handshake routine solo, on the court it looks like he’s having the time of his life. Toronto is trying to make the most of its depth by playing with balls-to-the-wall energy for 48 minutes, and Lowry has set the tone by flying around all over the place and taking charges the same way he did when he was trying to make his name and earn minutes a decade ago.
Did I miss something? Send me any Raptors-related article/video to rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com.
