https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4DK1ZIeQok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceofC1S5M7o
OG Anunoby fuels Raptors over Bucks in return from injury – The Athletic
That smaller lineup is not a fix-all, with a thinner sample than you’d think. They’d played 68 minutes together over the last two years coming into Tuesday, though an expanded sample with just Anunoby and Pascal Siakam together without a centre is far more robust and convincing. Those are very versatile groups at both ends, able to switch and play beyond their size, run in transition and make up for the lack of natural screen-setting or rim-running with better spacing and inverted screening actions.
Even when Lowry left, the approach stayed the same, with Anunoby drawing the Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton assignments as actions and switching dictated, daring the Bucks to funnel post-ups to lesser players and try to beat Toronto’s aggressive help. The gang rebounding approach led to the Raptors posting a better offensive and defensive rebounding rate than the Bucks without losing their turnover-forcing identity or their elite transition game. It’s difficult to check all of those boxes at once, but that’s usually what it takes to beat a team like Milwaukee.
The fact that Anunoby was on a soft minutes limit nearly highlighted his impact further. With 7:37 to play, the Raptors led by six. Anunoby went to the bench, having played 22 minutes and with 25 minutes in mind as a target. When he returned three minutes later, the lead was down to three thanks to a 6-0 Bucks run where Middleton and Antetokounmpo had both gotten good looks. That three-point swing was enough for a Nurse timeout and Anunoby to stretch his minutes to 27.
What followed was a good example of why he should be firmly in the mix for All-Defensive Team consideration if he plays enough games. Anunoby had multiple stops on Antetkounmpo and Middleton down the stretch, including a play where he helped neutralize a dangerous action between those two. That led to a Boucher block on a hurried Brook Lopez, which Anunoby finished at the other end for a dunk and a 10-point lead.
Anunoby’s final line for the night was not particularly flashy, with 13 points on 10 used possessions, seven rebounds and a plus-18 mark for the team when he was on the floor. Even as Anunoby’s stat line has grown this year, it still usually understates his importance. At the other end, it was Fred VanVleet carrying the scoring load with 33 points, most of them on pull-up jumpers against the Bucks’ trademark drop defence. Late in the game, it was Siakam attacking the rim aggressively despite a somewhat inefficient night to that point. Powell was solid, Boucher good enough to comfortably close with.
Even with a rough night from the rest of the bench and Lowry limited to 22 minutes, they made it work. It’s clear how something simple like adding one of the team’s four best players back settled a lot of other issues down, and as obvious as something like that is, it’s very easy to forget over a 5-5 stretch with two very well-defined nadirs. In a season where there’s almost no separation in the Eastern Conference or, well, much of anything around the league, every optimization could be the one that makes a major difference.
“It’s not rocket science,” VanVleet said.
It’s not.
10 things: Fred VanVleet steps up in victory over Bucks – Yahoo!
Five — Downsize: The Raptors finally went small in the starting five, replacing Aron Baynes with Anunoby while Norman Powell kept his spot, and it held up against one of the most physical teams in the league. Antetokounmpo is the league’s most unforgiving battering ram, and while the Raptors did struggle to avoid fouling him to start, they mostly kept him in check by matching his physicality and running double teams his way. There were no obvious mismatches for the Bucks to attack, and the Raptors also had the luxury of switching assignments against Middleton. The biggest concern was boxing out and nixing the Bucks’ post-ups, but Milwaukee played into their plans by prioritizing transition defense and mostly ignored Brook Lopez’s size advantage. And of course, grouping together the Raptors’ five best scorers was always going to work. All five starters scored in the first three minutes of the game.
Raptors find success with small-ball lineup, but Lowry injury muddles plans – Sportsnet
VanVleet was the difference-maker in the win as the fifth-year point guard put up 33 points and seven assists while playing 38 minutes for Toronto, who were without Kyle Lowry for much of the second half due to injury.
One of the benefits of playing ‘small’ is that you should have playmakers throughout the lineup and that showed up down the stretch for Nurse. Toronto took control of the game late in the fourth quarter thanks to a VanVleet three — his fifth of the game — some strong plays at the rim by Siakam (23 points, 13 rebounds) and a blocked shot by Chris Boucher — his fifth of the game — that led to a fastbreak dunk by Anunoby that put Toronto up 10 with 2:32 to play, which was all the Raptors needed.
The win improved the Raptors’ record to 13-15, evened their record against the Bucks to 1-1 and was a nice way to start a difficult six-game stretch of games where they will play five against three of the top teams in the East — the Bucks twice, the Philadelphia 76ers twice and the Miami Heat.
Outcome aside the Raptors’ immediate future will likely hinge on how badly Lowry tweaked his left ankle just before halftime. The Raptors leader was his best early — he had 18 points and six assists in 22 minutes before checking out for good after trying to play in the third quarter but not being able to get up and down the floor without a noticeable limp. He’ll be evaluated Wednesday.
If Lowry is gone for any length of the time it will add to Nurse’s burden since regardless of who he put on, the challenges remained the same: How to compete against teams that can roll out quality size the Raptors can’t match?
Recap: Toronto Raptors go small and come up big, downing Milwaukee Bucks 124-113 – Raptors HQ
Right out of the gates, the Raptors had a different energy. On the first Milwaukee possession, Norman Powell ripped the ball out of Brook Lopez’s hands and took it the other way for two. A couple possessions later, OG Anunoby reminded us what All-Defense wing play looks like by pouncing on a sloppy Bucks pass for another early steal. Kyle Lowry finally got a continuation call, something like a shooting star for Toronto, and followed that up with a three to put the Raptors up 16-7 early.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, however, would not go away. The Greek Freak attacked the rim relentlessly early, getting to his spot with ease. Toronto was only bailed out by some abysmal free throw shooting by Antetokounmpo. By the end of the first, the game was knotted up at 33.
Pat Connaughton, the latest opposing role player to have an outsized impact, led an early second quarter run which saw Milwaukee threatening to run away. Connaughton finished the half with 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting. The Bucks were up 50-38 when an prompt time-out by Nick Nurse reinvigorated the sense of purpose that the Raptors began the game with. The defense tightened back up and allowed the team to get some momentum in their transition offense.
Pascal Siakam battled through a slow start to help lead the Raptors run to get back in it, racking up 10 points in the quarter, including two three-pointers, for a balanced line of 12 points, eight boards, and three assists in the half.
The engine of the team early, as it has been so often, was the backcourt. Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet combined for 32 points on 13-22 shooting. Lowry, in particular, was a flurry of energy, getting his fingerprints all over the game on both sides of the ball. He had six rebounds and six assists to go with his 15 points in the first half.
Toronto Raptors’ inconsistency is fitting in unpredictable NBA season – TSN.ca
How can a club that played poorly enough to drop an extremely winnable game against the NBA-worst Minnesota Timberwolves over the weekend turn around and defeat the two-time reigning MVP and his second-seeded Milwaukee Bucks just a couple days later?
It makes little sense, but then again what about this season makes sense?
“It’s the world we’re living in, man, just the time that we’re in,” said , following Toronto’s 124-113 bounce-back win on Tuesday. “You gotta look around and try to make the most out of each day and just be positive but it’s tough, it’s tough. There are good days and bad days, I keep saying that. Today was a good day for us, not that it makes our situation any better, but we’re not the only team that’s going through some of the things we’re going through.”
More than a third of the way into the shortened 72-game season, the Raptors have been a mixed bag, but even fleeting moments of joy – VanVleet’s 54-point game against Orlando, ’s various franchise milestones, an upset win in Brooklyn, among others – seem difficult to fully appreciate under the circumstances.
The league is attempting to power through the campaign while navigating the complicated realities of a global pandemic. Strict COVID-19 protocols have altered what day-to-day life looks like for players and staff, and teams have had to adjust to regular status changes and game postponements. Toronto isn’t the only team that is dealing with it – although it is the lone organization that’s had to move its operations across the continent – but some have dealt with it better than others.
Now standing at 13-15 on the season, the Raptors have underwhelmed, but a quick look around the association – particularly in their own conference – reinforces that they’re not alone.
The Miami Heat, who came out of the East last year, are looking up at Toronto with a disappointing record of 11-16. At 14-13, the Boston Celtics are hovering around .500 and recently lost games to the lowly Pistons and Wizards. The Brooklyn Nets still haven’t begun to sniff their potential after adding to a talented lineup that already included and , while the East-leading Philadelphia 76ers are just 5-6 against winning teams.
Then there are the Bucks, who after dropping Tuesday’s contest, have now lost four straight games. The list of teams that are thriving in this very strange situation is brief and pretty much limited to the Western Conference.
“You can find some joy, not joy, relief in the fact that as good as we know we are we’re not the only team that’s been up and down, so a lot of it has to do with just the environment,” VanVleet said. “I don’t wanna sit here and cry about it all night but with the testing, the inconsistency, not being able to team bond, not being able to really do anything in the outside world, travel, no fans, it’s a lot that’s going into this season and I just think it’s a drain mentally, physically, and otherwise. There’s teams that are getting through it, for sure. There’s teams that are exceeding in that, that are consistent in that, so credit to them, but I’m not blaming anybody that’s struggling with this because it’s definitely not easy.”
Raptors go small and have a ball in beating Bucks | The Star
Deciding to pile his five best players into the starting lineup, Raptors coach Nick Nurse went with a small group of Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry, Powell, Anunoby and Pascal Siakam in what turned out to be a delightful 124-113 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
The group played with all kinds of aggression and energy on defence to make up for a size disadvantage and got a brilliant night from VanVleet for one of Toronto’s most impressive wins of the season.
VanVleet finished with 33 points in nearly 40 minutes while Pascal Siakam had 23 points and 13 rebounds.
But for as much good as there was, there was some bad, too. Kyle Lowry tweaked his left ankle just before halftime, tried to start the third quarter but limped to the locker room after less than four minutes, his night done with what the team said was a sore left ankle.
With the Raptors facing a stretch of three games in four nights starting Thursday night against the Bucks, a Lowry absence would be costly.
Raptors shoot down Bucks with help from Steady Freddie | Toronto Sun
The lifelessness from Sunday night was replaced with an energy that saw the Raptors’ defenders working on a string. The Bucks had the ball moving for much of the night and the Raptors were up to the challenge recovering to open shooters and forcing the ball to keep moving. Multiple recoveries by multiple Raptors were on display all night forcing the Bucks, the second best offensive team in the NBA, to rush or settle for shots they didn’t want.
A big part of that was the return of OG Anunoby, a pivotal part of the Raptors’ defence who had been absent for the past 10 games with a calf injury.
Anunoby was a pre-game call to even play, but watching him in action once the game started, no one would ever guess he had been sitting as long as he was.
Anunoby stepped right back into his lead defensive role, a role made tougher by Nick Nurse’s decision to start small without a true centre, ostensibly choosing the offence of Norm Powell over the size of Aron Baynes, who went to the bench.
Anunoby and Siakam became the only bigs on the floor for the Raptors and against a big Bucks team, that was no easy task.
Offensively Anunoby stepped right back in where he left off, hitting his first three of the night and finishing the night with 13 points and seven rebounds.
It was the Bucks’ fourth consecutive loss.
The Raptors’ Kyle Lowry plays all the angles to climb rebounding list | The Star
Lowry’s willingness to study the game has taught him a few tricks, too. He knew he couldn’t dominate the glass like some seven-footer so he watched players more his size or at his intelligence level.
“If you look at Dennis Rodman (a six-foot-seven forward who led the NBA in rebounding four times), he wasn’t the most athletic guy, but he knew angles, he knew situations and he knew how to rebound the ball,” Lowry said. “Look at Jason Kidd (a six-foot-four guard). Before the triple doubles that Russell (Westbrook) does, he was getting triple doubles. He knew where the ball was going to bounce and figuring out the trajectory.
“I watched a lot of J-Kidd growing up. He’s had crazy rebounding games.”
Before Tuesday, Lowry had averaged 4.9 rebounds per game in 579 games with the Raptors, with a career high of 14 boards in a game last season.
But the stats don’t take into consideration the number of times he has created rebounding opportunities for teammates by holding off opponents under the glass. His ability to get “under” bigger opponents and drive them away from the ball is an understated part of his game. “He does a good job of using his body and getting down low and blocking out guys that are much, much bigger than him,” Nurse said.
“You’re supposed to box out, one,” Lowry said. “Two, you watch and see if a guy shoots it short. And then sometimes it’s just about getting to the right spot.
“If there’s a guy underneath the block, you want to push him down under the rim so once it bounces, he can’t get to it, I have the angle to go that way, to go get it.”
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