New-look Raptors delight in comeback victory without Lowry

Serge Ibaka put up 15 points in his Raptors debut and DeMar DeRozan scored a career-high 43 points to rally past the Celtics for a 107-97 win.

After nearly two months wandering in the wilderness, Friday night was quite obviously going to be a reward for the hardships.

That’s how the script was written, and all that was needed was a win over the visiting Boston Celtics to finish it.

They pulled that off – 107-97 – but the final score was one of only about a half-dozen plot twists on a pretty crazy night.

Barely 24 hours had passed since the Raptors had decisively won the NBA trade deadline. Among Eastern Conference contenders no one could boast adding a player the quality of Serge Ibaka or one who so perfectly filled a conspicuous need. And P.J. Tucker? Find a team that doesn’t need a P.J. Tucker, the kind of broad-chested journeyman who can guard anyone, doesn’t care if they don’t like it, and can hit an open three.

As the Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas said: “P.J. Tucker got them going, that’s what he does, that’s why they traded for him. He’s the definition of a tough guy and they didn’t have that other than Kyle Lowry and DeMar. That’s why they traded for that guy.”

Tucker found out he was being traded from the Phoenix Suns while in the shower after practice. Teammate Tyson Chandler came in and gave him a hug, told him he was going home. “Raleigh?” said the North Carolina native, incredulous.

Once he got that straightened out – the Raptors being ‘home’ for Tucker given he was a second-round pick here in 2006 – he caught the red eye from Phoenix, arrived in time to watch Toronto’s morning shootaround, did his physicals, watched some video with the coaching staff and pronounced himself ready to play. He hadn’t slept in 24 hours.

“I was really excited to get here,” said Tucker. “Once I got here, the plan was not to play. But once you see guys, and coach called me in during shootaround and was like, ‘You playing?’ I couldn’t look at everyone and be like, ‘I’m not playing.’ I haven’t missed a game in a long time, so I wasn’t planning on missing today.”

The whole thing was supposed to be energizing. Refreshing. An antidote for the Raptors’ 5-11 doldrums; their 11-16 mark over their past 27 games.

And did we mention Patrick Patterson was back?

 
Solid debut for the newest Raptors
February 25 2017

The only problem is it almost all started with a giant splat, rescued in large part by the player that who’s been here all along. On a wild night with emotions flying all over the map, DeMar DeRozan stayed calm, stayed cool and dropped a career-high 43 points, providing the kind of steadiness a lineup featuring two new players and lacking its point guard – we’ll get to that – badly needed.

DeRozan’s jumper with 47 seconds left and four free throws down the stretch iced a game in which the Raptors trailed by as many as 17 in the first half.

The win gave the Raptors a 3-1 win in the season series and pulled Toronto within three games of the second-place Celtics in the Eastern Conference standings.

It was a remarkable turnaround from the atmosphere about 90 minutes before game time when Raptors head coach Dwane Casey put a pall over everything, announcing that Lowry would miss Friday night’s game and perhaps several more after he had his shooting wrist examined in the afternoon.

Lowry apparently hurt his wrist against Charlotte last Wednesday and while he iced it throughout all-star weekend, he felt confident enough to participate in the three-point contest Saturday night and the game itself on Sunday. He told reporters afterwards it was not something to be concerned about.

But after returning late for his post all-star break vacation in Turks and Caicos, Lowry was ruled out against the Celtics and likely for some games to come.

“It’s not a one-game thing,” said Casey, adding that Lowry will have further tests on his wrist next week.

It’s hard to question Lowry, who is so typically heart-and-soul, but missing practice on Thursday – plane trouble – and playing through the weekend on a suspect wrist aren’t exactly the kind of moments you put on top of your resume come max contract negotiating season.

Lowry’s absence did more than take some air out of the Raptors’ balloon pre-game. It also emphasized some significant technical issues, like the fact one of Toronto’s all-stars was out of the lineup and the other – DeRozan – had yet to practise with either of his two new teammates. Tucker hadn’t practised with anyone.

This was evident in the early going offensively as routinely the Raptors would find themselves in little huddles on one side of the floor, introducing themselves, which was less than ideal.

The Raptors playbook – a bit threadbare at times, even with Lowry in the lineup – for long stretches seemed to consist almost exclusively of DeRozan in isolation, trying to make something out of nothing.

It was like a bad night at rec ball, when one guy feels obligated to try and do all the scoring.

But the Celtics and Raptors have a bit of bad blood brewing. They are rarely able to get through a game without some kind of heated extracurriculars. On Friday, DeMarre Carroll got it started when he knocked Thomas to the ground on a fast break – you can bet it was in direct response to Thomas mouthing off to Cory Joseph a few moments before. Thomas popped up and seemed to make like his hand was a gun and rushed over to point it at Carroll’s head, even as the Celtics’ Jae Crowder was doing the bouncer thing with Carroll.

Carroll was assessed a flagrant foul, and there were three technicals called on the play.

Thomas took a reckless swipe at a driving DeRozan, hit him in the eye, and was himself given a flagrant a moment later.

Any possibility that this rivalry will cool was taken off the table with Thomas’ post-game assessment of the melee:

“That’s not a basketball play by any means,” he said. “Guys who aren’t factors in games do that.”

Jaylen Brown‘s triple gave Boston a 17-point lead with 1:29 left in the first half, though a mini 6-0 run cut that to 11 by the break.

But the Raptors seemed to be emboldened.

The new guys made themselves felt. Tucker (nine points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes off the bench) is proving to be as advertised – a smart help defender and a tenacious on-the-ball one.

Ibaka (15 points, seven rebounds) too, showed glimpses. He got isolated on Thomas on the perimeter early in the first quarter, held his ground and eventually swatted away Thomas’ fall away layup, generating a huge roar from the crowd, topping the standing ovation he got when introduced.

Most tellingly was that with the game in the balance, Casey had Ibaka and Tucker on the floor with DeRozan, Carroll and Joseph, who started in place of Lowry and did his part in helping to hold Thomas to 20 points, or nine below his season average, and 24 less than he got against Toronto three weeks ago.

The Raptors won the fourth 33-20 and held Boston to 37 per cent shooting. Thomas – who leads the NBA in fourth-quarter scoring (averaging 10.7 points per game in the fourth) – was limited to just four points on six shots down the stretch as the Raptors were able to switch at will with Tucker, Carroll and Ibaka able contain the speedy guard. The added help defence meant Joseph and Carroll felt more comfortable pressing up on the ball. It worked.

“Outstanding,” was Celtics head coach Brad Stevens’ assessment of the Raptors defence on Thomas. “I think those guys they added made a huge difference in the ability to play smaller and are still strong and versatile.”

With the newcomers’ defence and DeRozan’s brilliance the Raptors could overcome what looked like the downer of all downers with the Lowry news.

Not as you might have scripted things maybe, but acceptable nonetheless.

But this Raptors season will hinge on the well-being of Lowry. Privately team officials were optimistic that his injury wasn’t significant or season-threatening. They argued that proof of that was that Lowry didn’t seem concerned enough to pull himself out of participating in the all-star weekend.

“Kyle’s a pro,” was the word. “If he was worried about it he would have been in touch with our medical staff.”

The message being sent was that there was nothing to see here; nothing to worry about. With the Raptors, even on the best-news days of this season, that hardly seems to be entirely the case.

But they’re rarely boring.

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