TD throws down post rising stars snub | Bulls suck | Nurse n staff heading to All-Star weekend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSyTig6o_Gc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjHBbMh6vio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axUNqwpVDxM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_i7XkDYi80
Now THAT'S how you answer a snub pic.twitter.com/pVAcEBTAx9
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) February 2, 2020
ANKLES SNATCHED pic.twitter.com/y0oCM7tQW7
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) February 2, 2020
10 Things: Terence Davis shows why he’s a rising star with 31 vs. Bulls – Yahoo!
Two — Rising: Terence Davis’ response to being snubbed for the Rising Stars Game was to set a career-high in scoring with 31 points on six threes on 12-of-15 shooting. Davis started hot by hitting back-to-back threes, and only continued to build confidence from there. He eagerly trailed VanVleet’s drive for a cutting layup. Davis took the ball the length of the floor for a layup through traffic. He used his strength to jar one of the Bulls’ bigs to create an angle on a layup. By the fourth quarter, he was hitting pull-up threes and coming around screens for catch-and-shoots like a shooting guard. The whole package was on display for Davis, who is one of the best stories on a team full of them.
It’s a mindset that probably traces back to his football background. Certainly in the past, if not still, getting minor aches treated could be interpreted as a sign of weakness, of a lack of toughness. Except in the most extreme cases, that is not true in the NBA. People like McKechnie are employed by NBA teams not only to treat injuries and facilitate rehabilitation and recovery but also to help keep those injuries from arising in the first place.
There have been a few close calls. Earlier in the season, something in the cold/flu range greeted Davis along with the first frigid winter of his lifetime. He battled the illness for a week and said he was close to sitting out a few times. And then, a few home games ago, he ended up on the bottom of a pile of humanity after an opposing drive.
“I fell on my hip. I had already taken a hit to my hip,” Davis said. “And then I fell right on there and someone fell on top of me. That made the impact a little worse. But it’s good. I’m the type of guy that will play through any (bumps) and bruises and things of that sort. I’ve always been like that. It’s nothing new.”
This is not to say Davis does not take care of himself when he has nagging pains. Even as Nurse cited him as one of the top frequenters of the practice gym, Davis extolled the virtues of rest and letting his body heal itself. Fred VanVleet, Davis’ locker room neighbour and a fellow undrafted player, said Davis has asked about tips for recovery, with VanVleet emphasizing the importance of the cold tub and stretching. After his career-high 31 points against the Bulls, Davis spent an extra-long time in the tub.
Still, VanVleet is skeptical that Davis’ attitude toward the training room will persist too long.
“It’s great now. That shit sounds good right now,” VanVleet said. “When you’re playing 15 minutes a game, it sounds good. I hope we never see him in the training room. I was like that as a rookie. Most young guys are like that. You don’t really want to be in there. You’re not really playing enough, doing enough to be in there.
“He’s a tough kid, too. Don’t get me wrong. But I’ll ask him about that in a couple years when he’s playing 35 or 38 a night.”
That Davis projects as a player who might become that has been great for the Raptors. Even if he has had some iffy stretches, he has ultimately knocked down the rookie wall a few times. With Powell out, Davis will have a prolonged opportunity to serve as instant offence off the bench. As Chicago played a beautiful first half, raining in 3-pointers, Davis provided the necessary bench offence to keep the Raptors close in the first half. The Bulls eventually got cold, but Davis did not. After his sixth and final deep ball, Davis’ teammates mobbed him on the bench.
The Raptors used a big third quarter, sparked by a stellar defensive effort, to turn the game around after a sluggish first half. Serge Ibaka had two huge blocks in the frame, and the energy on the defensive end turned into offense — as it usually does — as the Raptors forced six turnovers that led to eight points. They outscored the Bulls 35-22 in the quarter, with Ibaka and Siakam combining for 17.
The game wasn’t yet out of reach, though, until Davis and the bench took over at the start of the fourth to put it away. Davis had six points, and Patrick McCaw and Chris Boucher added three and two respectively, as part of a 13-4 run to open the quarter that put the game away.
The first half of the game played out like a typical NBA afternoon game. The Raptors started out on fire, and looked for all the world like they just wanted to go home and watch the Super Bowl. Kyle Lowry popped in two threes to open the scoring and the Raptors started the game 7-of-9 from the field as they built a 17-8 lead. Alas, it couldn’t last, as dreams of pizza and wings apparently overtook them, and the shooting turned ice cold.
The Bulls, in turn, caught fire, and went on a 15-2 run to take over the game — a stretch during which the Raptors missed six straight shots and turned the ball over four times.
Fortunately a late bench surge, led by Davis and Boucher — who combined for nine points in the final 1:44 of the frame — helped the Raptors claim a three-point lead heading into the second.
The bench energy carried the Raptors on offense as the second quarter opened, but the turnovers remained an issue: The Raptors had nine of them in the first half, which led to 11 Bulls points. The Raptors didn’t have their usual pop on defense, but you have to give the Bulls credit — they played a pretty half of basketball, with some gorgeous ball movement that I don’t think I’ve seen from them before. They finished the half with 16 assists on 21 made field goals, and it led to multiple open looks, both behind the line (11-for-24) and at the rim (20 points in the paint).
But any fears of the Raptors letting a subpar opponent hang around again were quickly extinguished in the second half. The Bulls’ hot shooting predictably cooled off as the Raptors ratcheted up the defensive intensity, and they scored only 39 points in the second half (after scoring 63 in the first) on 14-of-45 shooting, including just 4-for-24 from downtown.
Bulls vs. Raptors final score: Chicago bowled over in second half in 129-102 loss – Blog a Bull
The Bulls were competitive for one half of their Super Bowl Sunday matinee against the red-hot Raptors, even taking a 63-60 lead into the break. However, the Raptors turned the tables in the second half, outscoring the Bulls 69-39 in the second half to cruise to a 129-102 victory, their 11th straight overall and 12th straight against Chicago.
The shorthanded Bulls played about as well as they could have hoped in the first half, shooting 46.7% overall and 11-of-24 from 3-point range to rack up those 63 points. The Raptors didn’t have much trouble scoring themselves when they weren’t turning the ball over (nine first-half turnovers, even without Kris Dunn out there), shooting 52.4% overall and 9-of-20 from 3.
Predictably, the Raptors just kept on scoring in the second half as the Bulls totally fell apart. The home team shot nearly 60% from the field to just 31.1% for the Bulls, who went ice cold from distance by going 4-of-24 on 3-pointers in the second half. Terence Davis went crazy off the bench, scoring 18 of his career-high 31 points in the final two quarters. Davis shot 12-of-15 overall and 6-of-7 from 3-land for the game.
Bulls’ frustration is visible after bad second half in Toronto – Daily Herald
At the end of the game, with the camera focused on a visibly frustrated Zach LaVine on the bench, coach Jim Boylen called a timeout with 1:04 remaining and LaVine could be seem mouthing, “Why?”
Raptors keep adapting, winning despite consistent churn of adversity – Sportsnet.ca
Through it all, the only constants have been adaptability and victories. Whether it’s Siakam as the primary scorer, or Lowry, or VanVleet. Whether they’re defending man-to-man or zoning up. Whether the ball’s zipping from station to station on offence, whether they’re jacking endless three’s, whether everything’s coming off of pick-and-rolls. Toronto’s looks have constantly fluctuated. Its results seldom have.
“This team has an interesting intellect, I think,” Nurse said. “When the ball goes up, they start really trying to figure out how they’re going to hurt [the opponent] at the offensive end. They start figuring out where we can go, where the mismatches are, what actions are working, even what pace to play at.”
Sunday, it was a quick one, as the Raptors pushed possessions right out of the gate, getting into offensive actions early in shot clocks. That led to a pair of swift Lowry threes, a couple early buckets for Ibaka, and a handful of turnovers as the Raptors at times moved a little too fast and gifted the Bulls opportunities.
The turnovers sapped the breakneck energy the Raptors were playing with as one fumbled possession begot another. But that’s when Nurse started pushing the buttons and pulling the levers before him, throwing zone coverages at the Bulls and reaching down his roster for seldom seen lineups, like the combination of Patrick McCaw, Davis, Matt Thomas, OG Anunoby and Boucher that finished the first quarter.
And it worked. Boucher practically swung the game all on his own with a series of energy plays while Davis chipped in a couple threes. The Bulls kept hitting shots — Chicago was 11-of-24 from distance in the first half — but the Raptors kept finding ways to keep pace, as Davis stuck around on the floor in place of Anunoby when Toronto’s starters returned late in the second quarter. And the rookie earned every minute. He finished the first half with a team-high 13 on 5-of-7 shooting.
The second half began with an inspired run of play from Ibaka, who’s taken full advantage of his opportunity to vacuum up the minutes left in the wake of a left hamstring injury to Gasol. And then Siakam got going. And Lowry and VanVleet, too. And all the while, Davis kept hitting and hitting. He checked out in the fourth quarter with 31 points on 12-of-15 shooting, including six-of-seven from deep.
“He’s kind of all or nothing sometimes,” VanVleet said of Davis, whose career game followed a five-point performance on Friday, and a scoreless one the night before that. “That’s normal. He’s a young player. He’s going to bump his head. The good thing is he’s got a great spirit and he competes. If he messes up or makes mistakes, he just keeps competing and keeps playing.”
They just keep finding a way. Different personnel, different schemes, different challenges, same results. The latest challenge for this ever-adapting team will be the extended absence of Powell, who fractured a finger on his left hand during Toronto’s victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday. It’s Powell’s second injury absence of the season, both of which have occurred at junctures when he was playing about as well as he has in his career.
Raptors ride T.D. to victory on their own Super Sunday | The Star
Raptors rookie Terence Davis II has many special skills and much promise, and when he figures out what he is and exactly what he can be in the NBA he’s got nearly unlimited potential.
It hasn’t always been that way this season, but when it clicks, it clicks tremendously, as it did Sunday at Scotiabank Arena.
Davis, three days after being left out of the Rising Stars event for NBA all-star weekend, exploded for 31 points as the Raptors routed the Chicago Bulls 129-102 for their 11th straight win. The undrafted rookie made six of seven three-pointers as well, showing a smooth shooting stroke and confidence that belies his experience.
“I think he’s got a shooting component that’s pretty high level, right?” said coach Nick Nurse. “You see it a little bit (in a game like this), and that’s usually the toughest component to get in this league.”
Davis admitted being left out of the all-star weekend contest weighed on him a little bit.
“It definitely was in the back of my mind, for sure,” he said. “Throughout the course of the season, it will be in the back of my mind. I’d rather be in the playoffs than … not saying I wouldn’t want to play in the game,
Davis celebrates Super Sunday as Raptors extend winning streak | Toronto Sun
Davis is just the sixth rookie in team history and first since Norman Powell did so back in 2016 to have a game of 30 or more points.
Somehow the assistant coaches around the league didn’t deem him worthy of a spot in the Rookie/Sophomore Shining Stars game as part of all-star weekend and it doesn’t sound like Davis will forget that slight any time soon.
“It definitely was in the back of my mind for sure,” he said of being left out of the game. “Throughout the course of the season, it will be in the back of my mind, I’d rather be in the playoffs than . . . not saying I wouldn’t want to play in the game because it’s a pretty special event. But I’d rather play in the playoffs.”
Fred VanVleet, a guy who knows a thing or two about succeeding in the NBA as an undrafted player, said this kind of night from Davis is no big surprise.
“It’s not surprising,” he said. “For most of us, we kind of saw what kind of player he was going to be early on. He just kept getting better and better throughout the year. He puts the work in. It’s really cool for all of us as teammates to see him have a big night like tonight. We’re all happy for him.”
As Davis left the game and head coach Nick Nurse emptied his bench, the veterans lined up to congratulate the young man. It was evident how popular he is with his teammates.
Davis was one of seven Raptors in double-digits in scoring. The Raptors stay home for one more against an Indiana team that has won seven of its last 10 and is slowly working the elite talent of Victor Oladipo back into their lineup after an extended rehab.
The secret to the Raptors’ record-tying win streak might not be sexy, but it works | The Star
The best part about the winning streak, which matches the longest in franchise history, is that nothing about it has really stood out. It’s been total excellence and total play at both ends of the court, and innate ability to figure out what’s needed and when.
“I think each game is something else,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said before Sunday’s game. “It’s not like you sit there and say we went and totally dominated with our man-to-man defence five nights in a row. Some nights, the (man-to-man) is clicking, some nights the zone jump-starts the man, some nights the zone bails us out.
“Some nights we hit a bunch of threes, some nights we get a bunch at the rim. But I think that’s what’s happening here as you start to dissect (the winning streak).
“This team has an interesting intellect, in that when the ball goes up they start really trying to figure out how they’re gonna hurt them at the offensive end — where we can go, where the mismatches are, where actions are working and what pace to play at. Then they’re doing the same at the other end, trying to figure out how to tweak the coverages and make things difficult for them at the other end. It’s all done with the end goal in mind of winning, because they have such a competitive spirit. That’s the only commonality I can see. We try to get into the game and make adjustments and play from there.”
The most noticeable adjustments come on the defensive end, where the super-smart Raptors are able to flit between man-to-man and zone seamlessly. It’s the trademark of a smart, veteran team.
“We changed the coverages and stuff and it was great activity, and that kind of works hand-in-hand a lot,” Nurse said after the win. “Change the coverage and you have some early success, then all of a sudden the blood’s in the water a little bit and they’re starting to really go after it because the coverage helped them, and they start feeding off that a little bit.”
Sometimes the change is to shake some doldrums out of a good team, which is understandable because the Raptors have played many far inferior opponents in this 11-game win streak. But sometimes, like Sunday, it’s out of necessity.
Raptors notes: Nurse thrilled to get all-star gig, Powell to miss weeks again | Toronto Sun
As VanVleet noted, two years ago Nurse went to Los Angeles as part of Dwane Casey’s staff. Then assistant Rex Kalamian got to coach the Rising Stars game and one of Nurse’s assistants will do the same in a couple of weeks.
Casey, now Detroit’s head coach, credited Nurse and his crew for their work and said they’ll love the experience.
“It’s gonna be great for their staff … There’s no feeling like that, to go out and spend time with other players. It means you’ve done something right,” said Casey, who also went twice as an assistant.
“They’re competing for the top. It’s great for their staff to get that. It’s a feather in their cap. It’s on their resumes that they were an all-star coach. It’s an honour for them to be able to do that. Even more so, it’s an honour for them to get two kids, Pascal (Siakam) and Kyle (Lowry), Kyle this stage of his career, back to the all-star game.”
Casey got to coach against his players Lowry and DeMar DeRozan as the coach of Team LeBron. Nurse hopes he doesn’t have to do the same.
“Uh, I would definitely want (Siakam and Lowry) on my team,” said a smiling Nurse.
“I don’t want to coach against them.”
In addition to having its staff at two of the last three all-star weekends, Toronto is also the only team to have a starting player six straight years.
Lowry, one of those players, said he thinks VanVleet will make the game too before long.
“He will be an all-star, simple as that. I’m serious. He will be an all-star at some point,” Lowry said.
Photo by Anatoliy Cherkasov/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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