The Toronto Raptors play host to Vince Carter and the Atlanta Hawks and so, as you can imagine with a game without much consequence or intrigue, the storyline shifts to the ageless wonder who’s still finding a way to throw down some pretty impressive dunks at age 41 and mentor a young Hawks squad led by Trae Young.
For the Raptors, this will be the first time Kawhi Leonard and Kyle Lowry both suit up for game action since a Dec. 9 home loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. After a stretch of games in which the team struggle for an identity in the absence of their floor general for the past six-and-a-half seasons, there were at least some encouraging signs to emerge from it with those Siakam at the 5 stretches and improved chemistry in the pick-and-roll between Fred VanVleet and Serge Ibaka.
“Yeah, it’s good,” Nurse said at this morning’s shootaround when asked about having his two best players back. “We need ’em back out there and it’ll be good to have ’em out there. The more games, the better, with those guys. I think it’s been too few, if you want my honest opinion. I don’t know the number but it’s gotta be 20, 21, you guys are good at that stuff.”
Over the second half of the season, it will be about stitching together the flow of Lowry, Leonard’s isolations, and all the other elements of the Raptors offense to form the full identity of what should be a pretty complete team on both ends of the floor come playoff time.
“I mean, listen, I think for me now here in the second half, I’m still concerned with developing some things defensively, that we’ve got a consistent approach even when we’re trying a little bit out of the box things, but we’ve gotta know how to execute those, and that’ll happen,” Nurse said.
“We haven’t executed some of them very well lately but that’s ’cause they’re new and there’s still some time with that. Probably the biggest thing is that we’ve gotta be able to execute in crunch time, down the stretch, with those two guys out there. We’ve gotta know where we’re going, where the ball’s going, where the shot’s going, what plays we’re running, what special situations late in games we’re running, things like that. Those are the things I’m gonna be focusing in on.”
Despite the Hawks’ underwhelming 12-27 record, they have won six of their last 10 with Young showing signs of life from beyond the arc. He’s made 18-of-33 from three-point range of the last 10 while his assist-to-turnover ratio has also seen a bit of an uptick.
“First of all, I think Lloyd Pierce is a really good coach, right?” Nurse said. “He was running Philadelphia’s defense before he took this job and he obviously has a great defensive pedigree and background. He gets ’em to come out and play defensively. They’ve got a pretty good connection. When they have a good game, they’re into it defensively, they are guarding you and competing, and that’ll take you a long way. Playing hard will take you a long ways in this league, and he gets ’em to do that.”
GAME INFO
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET / 4:30 p.m. PT.
TV: TSN, Ontario. Radio: TSN Radio 1050.
RAPTORS UPDATES
Jonas Valanciunas is the only player who remains out.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Delon Wright
SG: Danny Green, Norman Powell
SF: Kawhi Leonard, C.J. Miles
PF: Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby
C: Serge Ibaka, Greg Monroe, Chris Boucher
OUT: Jonas Valanciunas
HAWKS UPDATES
Kent Bazemore was ruled out for at least two weeks on Dec. 30 due to a sprained right ankle.
PG: Trae Young, Jeremy Lin
SG: Kevin Huerter, Vince Carter
SF: DeAndre Bembry, Justin Anderson
PF: John Collins, Tyler Dorsey, Omari Spellman
C: Dewayne Dedmon, Alex Len
OUT: Kent Bazemore
THE LINE
The Raptors are 14-point favorites and the over/under is set at 227.5.
