It wasn’t always gorgeous, and it wasn’t a complete blow-out, but the Toronto Raptors finally notched a feel-good win after a five-game stretch of lethargic play. They topped the Brooklyn Nets 110-102 on a night that saw Toronto’s stars outclass Brooklyn. The game was a tale of two halves, as in the first Pascal Siakam returned to his superstar ways established early in the season.
Siakam scored 25 points in the first half, shooting eight-of-14 from the field, dominating in every way imaginable. He posted up, waiting patiently for lunging double-teams to clear out of the lane and an OG Anunoby cut to develop and peter out, before finally attacking to draw the defenders into the paint like an inhaling lung. Marc Gasol was the recipient of that play, hitting a triple from a crisp Siakam kick-out. When Siakam’s defenders sagged away from him, he stroked pull-up triples like Steph Curry. When he was in transition, he found layups or created triples for his teammates. He was decidedly the best player on the floor in the first half.
“It starts with me. I have to be able to put in that energy every single night,” said Siakam. “I think if I do that, it’s gonna affect other people, [they’re] gonna take that and have the same type of energy… It’s just coming in with more urgency. That’s something I feel I have to get better at, every single night, having that focus, and making sure that I go out every single night and just be ready to play hard. I think it’s easy to get relaxed and comfortable, but you can’t be comfortable.”
“If you want to be great, you can’t be comfortable.”
The second half was a strange one for Siakam. His energy faded, as he settled for more twisting, contested layups. He shot two-of-12 from the field in the second half, and even though he had some easy ones roll off the rim, he definitely settled into too comfortable a position as his team took a double-digit lead.
Fortunately for Siakam, his teammates picked him up in the second half. Marc Gasol had one of his best offensive games of the year. He finished with 15 points, and he even offered a smooth post-up basket over Joe Harris when the Nets insulted him with such a mismatch in the post.
“We actually ran a couple of plays for post-ups for him tonight that he scored,” said Nurse of Gasol. “And I still think he’s a threat down there and we’ve got to do a better job getting him some deep touches like that.”
Serge Ibaka was his old energetic self, attacking mismatches and keeping Toronto afloat offensively for a short stretch when Brooklyn used a zone defense.
Norman Powell had one of the best games of his career. He scored 25 points, raining triples, attacking in transition, and offering constant decisiveness. The knock on Powell is inconsistency, and he can even vary from quarter to quarter, possession to possession, but he was one of Toronto’s biggest constants against the Nets. He didn’t commit any bone-headed turnovers, which killed the Raptors against the Los Angeles Clippers the other night. He even scrapped on the defensive end; that he fouled out of the game was a positive, offering evidence that he, like Siakam at least in the first half, didn’t allow himself to be comfortable.
“I thought he was a much better decision-maker in transition tonight and that decision was to go to the rim and he got there a few times,” said Nurse of Powell.
The straw that stirred the drink was, as always, Kyle Lowry. Lowry stroked a triple in the pick-and-roll, dove on the floor to save a loose ball, pushed the ball whenever Toronto needed pace, and finished layups over much larger players. Yes, he shot poorly from the field again, finishing five-of-14 for 17 points. But he offered that intangible superstar quality of always knowing what Toronto needed and always delivering. It may not have been Lowry’s best shooting night since his return from injury, but it was certainly his best game.
So there were negatives against the Nets. Toronto hit nine of their first 10 triples and then proceeded to shoot five-of-30 for the rest of the night. The flood gates opened, until they closed with ferocity. The silver lining was that the Raptors won the remainder of the game against the Nets after their torrid first quarter, playing winning basketball despite not shooting well. Siakam’s second half could be seen as another partial negative, but he knows what is required for him to rise to his peak, and at the least he flashed that same dominance — if only for a half — that’s been missing for a stretch. Toronto’s bench was putrid, scoring only 14 points, and Pat McCaw and Terence Davis especially shot poorly, combining for one-of-13 from the field. They still won their minutes on the floor because they were paired with Lowry, and Lowry plus bench minutes have run the rest of the NBA out of the gym for approximately one thousand years.
The Raptors didn’t play a perfect game, but they played a great game, and that was enough. There are still kinks to work out of the system, of course. They had a mediocre shooting night, yet they won the game handily. After a stretch of five painful games, an easy win was perfect for the Raptors. By forcing themselves to play uncomfortably, the Raptors finally found comfort with an easy win.
