For the sake of awards, accolades, and garnering the attention of the NBA landscape, it’s extremely good that Pascal Siakam put up his second triple-double of the season. That quiet excellence is, of course, a massive part of his game and any superstar’s. No MVP chants followed him off the floor, he quietly grabbed his points in isolation where no one could stop him, and grabbed his assists, largely as a guy who makes reads in transition. Hell, his 10th rebound was added while he wasn’t on the court and after he had already checked out, everything was quiet. The loud, fantastical part of last night’s game was the emergence of everyone and everything for the second game in a row.
“Our guys took the scouting report and the preparation very seriously, which is what they needed to do.” Said Nurse after the win. “They went out there and executed — really played hard defensively. I thought it made it tough, created a lot of turnovers. (We) Turned a lot of those into easy baskets.”
For those who watched last night’s game, or plan on watching it today — you will be tuning into/have seen the NBA’s most dominant transition game of the season. The Raptors managed to skirt halfcourt offense on 30-percent of their plays, and that is the largest share any team has had so far this season. Whether it was off live rebounds or steals, the Raptors pushed pace early and often. It fueled everything for them, as they nearly reached the franchise record in points (144) and were still a meaningful amount from the largest win differential (53).
The length at the point of attack and in rotation meant the Raptors could throw themselves into any and all passing lanes, particularly those that were rim-seeking. The man behind most of the disruption? Who else, but O.G. Anunoby. A record setting performance as he nabbed his second back-to-back 5 steals or more game (a mouthful, yes) which has never been done by a Raptor before. Whether it was tracking back to swipe a skip pass in transition, lurking in an unseen gap ready to pounce, or more on ball intimidation – he sprung himself into transition repeatedly where the Raptors scored 10 points from his thefts alone. Is it prescience that allows him to read defenders this way? Who knows, but it’s at the very least preternatural.
“I think that, for me, he looks like he’s got his rhythm back. I don’t know if that’s partly just getting a number of games under his belt, maybe a touch of getting in a little bit better shape – you know game shape? Because to me it’s noticeable how quick he is to the ball, out of gaps, in gaps, you know swiping the ball. It’s noticeable here in these last few games. And that’s kind of his thing. It’s been his thing since he got in the league. But, it just looks like he’s moving better and it’s showing up at the other end too, he’s getting to the rim better, finishing better, a lot more on balance and composed at the rim, I think as well. But yeah, I think that’s just rhythm and conditioning.”
Nick Nurse on O.G. Anunoby
Another wing, only this one wears the point guard hat at times: Scottie Barnes factored into this win in a huge way. Dubbed as the point guard while Fred VanVleet has been out, Barnes has maintained a healthy amount of pace & flow in the Raptors offense which helps shore up a little bit of their creation lumps. He’s also making reads that we don’t normally get to see, like a lob to Christian Koloko after a step up screen – which is a staple of Trae Young’s game. Most of his best passes still come in transition yes, but it’s really nice to see how willing he is to let the ball travel via pass, rather than his dribble. For players who are so long and strong in transition, there’s another layer of selflessness to giving the ball up early like that. Louis will have more on his passing at 1pm.
Chris Boucher and Precious Achiuwa (the bash bros., smash bros., something with bros?) dominated different aspects of the game as well. Boucher, ever the lightning rod and one of the best bench bigs in the NBA, lifted lineups without much shooting by converting on 3/5 from downtown while providing some of the best defense on the floor. His previously overzealous nature is now just the coolest zeal a person can find. He’s been incredible since December of last year, and it’s rare to find a game that he doesn’t factor into in a major way. Achiuwa’s stat-line is really loud, but mostly as the driver of the Raptors point differential. The game broke down in a major way towards the end, and Achiuwa’s grab-and-go ability and strength powered the Raptors to a bigger win. It doesn’t really matter, but NBA stats doesn’t filter out garbage time like CTG does, and the Raptors are now the 3rd ranked offense and 8th ranked defense in the NBA. Before the last two games? They were 23rd and 15th. Small-sample-size-theatre strikes again. Hopefully though, with some markers for future success.
“What I like about Chris is that sometimes he doesn’t always do the right thing, but he makes up for it with just continuing to play really hard. He can cover his own mistakes really quickly with just his effort and length.”
Nick Nurse on Chris Boucher
With the Spurs missing their (arguably) two best players in Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell, they were very short of 3-point shooting. This gave Christian Koloko an opportunity to thrive in his best matchup yet. Those long arms in the middle loomed large, and also created more controlled closeouts where he really got to show off his foot speed getting sideways to stick with smaller players. The numbers wouldn’t say so, but I think this was Koloko’s most positive game as a pro so far.
Last but not least, Gary Trent Jr. had his first big creation game of the season. Trent Jr. has obviously been quite good adjusting to Siakam’s ascension this season as he thrives off-ball, but he has enough punch as a pull-up guy to pop off every once in awhile. He found it in this one. Four of his nine makes in this one came off his own dribble, in the halfcourt, without an assist. Heading into this game only a quarter of his makes were unassisted and he made his first appearance as this type of shot-maker so far this season. Which, by the way, speaks volumes about the type of shots the Raptors have been able to create and how a simplified role with less touches was still resulting in a career high in points for Trent Jr. prior to this. With all that said though, teams have to operate as if this version of Trent Jr. can torch them at any point in time.
We understand the group that we have. We can’t relax, we gotta play to our strengths, and our strength is going out there and getting stops, steals, just being that athletic team that we know we are. Just focus on that. It’s gonna be okay, there’s gonna be ups and downs, as long as we focus on that I think we’ll be okay.
Pascal Siakam after the win
Not every team is going to be as limited as these Spurs were, but it seems clear that the Raptors are taking these opportunities to find out things about themselves, and with all of those lessons underpinned by the ethos that they have to outwork their opponents. The last couple of games they have outworked, out-hustled, out-talented, out-whatever-verb-you-would-liked their opponents. It’s a long season, but for a shining moment — that may shine on longer — everything coalesced.
Have a blessed day.
