TORONTO — Typically, when Dwane Casey calls a full timeout, he walks a few feet toward the centre of the court and huddles with his coaching staff. They talk about what’s working, what’s not, what plays they might run, who they should go after—typical stuff.
But over his team’s last two games—both wins, including Sunday’s 112-106 defeat of the Portland Trail Blazers—there has been an extra voice in those huddles. A young yet assertive one belonging to injured point guard Kyle Lowry.
"Most guys go down at the end of the bench and sit down there and eat popcorn," Casey said. "But not him. We’re going to have to put him on the coaching staff payroll."
Lowry has keeping awfully busy while he’s spent two consecutive games sidelined with a right wrist injury, walking out to midcourt to yell out instructions, offering his opinion on coaching decisions, and delivering constant guidance to his teammates when they return to the bench during stoppages in play.
Asked about assistant coach Lowry’s involvement after Sunday’s game, Casey grinned, shook his head, and said that’s just Kyle being Kyle.
"It’s great. He knows the offence probably better than some of our coaches.," Casey said. "His enthusiasm is infectious. It’s one of those things where it just rubs off on everybody, the intensity that he has in those huddles."
Casey would no doubt rather see Lowry offering his thoughts while contributing on the floor, but no coach is ever going to be upset at a member of his team remaining involved while injured. The Raptors next game—Monday night in New York—will come quickly and it’s unclear if Lowry will be ready to test what the team is calling a "sore" right wrist. But if he does miss more time, you can be sure that Lowry will continue to find ways to make himself useful.
"It’s the same way he is on the court," said DeMar DeRozan. "He’s always got something to say—always got a scheme or a plot. He just doesn’t stop talking."
Life without Kyle
We might as well stick with Lowry for a moment here, as the Raptors have faced the challenge over the last two games of finding a way to win without one of their primary sources of offence, energy and facilitation.
The offensive burden has largely fallen on DeRozan, as you might expect, but the Raptors had five players reach double digit points against the Blazers, which is a good way to help lessen some of the double-team blitzes DeRozan will inevitably face going forward if Lowry remains out.
The Raptors were especially unselfish with the basketball in a free flowing first quarter against Portland—a truly quintessential Sunday-evening-in-Toronto affair. The Raptors endeavoured to get Jonas Valanciunas involved early and he looked strong in a favourable matchup against fellow plodding big man Jusuf Nurkic. Cory Joseph was his usual buzzing self and dished out a couple assists. And while DeRozan was the target of constant traps, he still found his way to a game-high 12 points in the quarter.
"He’s accepting the double team, he’s doing a good job of kicking out," Casey said. "He had a couple turnovers against the blitzes, but for the most part he’s doing a good job of getting it out, accepting it, embracing it, and burning them on the other side.
"As much as he can do that, teams will stop [double teaming.] He’s done a good job of finding his niche and finding his rhythm in the offence outside the pick-and-roll."
A void in the reserves
Meanwhile, the second quarter brought another test for the Lowry-less Raptors. When he’s healthy, Lowry often runs with the second unit after some rest late in the first quarter. But without him, the Raptors had to find a way to continue to generate good looks without Lowry’s offensive acumen and vision.
Enter Norman Powell, who made a quick impact upon entering the game to begin the second, driving to the rim on two consecutive possessions and getting tough attempts to fall. He was working on C.J. McCollum, who’s a real handful to contain when the ball’s in his hands but will give up some rather generous driving avenues at the other end, which Powell happily took advantage of.
Delon Wright also tried to shoulder some of the load to varied success, missing badly on three early attempts before hitting his next couple, including his first three-pointer of the season.
But the Raptors were a mess on the defensive end, allowing a long series of easy buckets as Portland pulled ahead. Lucas Nogueira struggled especially, getting burned on an inbounds play under the basket before being called for a moving screen at the other end. Suddenly, the Blazers were up by 12.
Eventually, Casey took a full timeout and literally threw his hands in the air, opting to sit his second unit and return his starters, who immediately began to mount a comeback. DeRozan quickly got to the line for two; Serge Ibaka sunk a three-pointer; Joseph found Valanciunas for a strong alley-oop. Flash forward a few minutes and DeRozan was hitting a beautiful one-handed runner to put his team within one.
And after a spirited defensive stand—featuring especially strong work by DeMarre Carroll on McCollum—resulted in a shot clock violation, Casey drew up an out-of-timeout play that set up Joseph for a one-handed runner of his own, which fell to give the Raptors a halftime lead, their first since the game was minutes old.
"Those guys did a good job," said Casey, who’s about to refer to Lowry as a prolifically reproductive insect. "Not having our queen bee in there, our top guy to be able to handle the ball offensively, defensively, three-point shooting—we miss that part of it. But Cory did a heck of a job of attacking the rim, getting to the basket, running the offence. They were doing a good job of filling in for Kyle."
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The new guys finish it off
The second half of this game was a great showcase for Casey’s newest toy, the tenacious Serge Ibaka. He came out of halftime with bad intentions, bodying Nurkic to the floor at one end and finishing a Joseph miss with a vicious put-back at the other, as the Raptors got out to a seven-point lead. Later, he bricked a runner, snagged his own rebound over two Blazers, and immediately found Joseph in the corner for an uncontested three.
Wright also returned to the game after halftime and logged a much-needed productive shift. The ball moved a bit chaotically as Wright ran a bench group struggling to find its spacing, but he was still able to set up P.J. Tucker and Patrick Patterson with makeable shots. And Wright produced one of the more memorable plays of the half when he manipulated McCollum directly into a Jakob Poeltl screen that sent the Blazers guard crashing to the floor as Wright drove and finished at the basket.
"He came in and did an excellent job," Casey said. "In his first stint he was kind of helter skelter a little bit. But he’s a young kid. He still did a good job. I like the way he played in his second stint."
In the fourth, Casey turned to his new closing lineup—Joseph, DeRozan, Tucker, Carroll and Ibaka—to finish the job, and watched the group not only keep up with an on-fire Damian Lillard (he scored 21 in the second half) but out-produce him.
Ibaka was especially effective late, hitting four of his five attempts in the fourth quarter, including a three. At one point, he hit consecutive turn-around jumpers over Al-Farouq Aminu, who’s no slouch of a defender.
Ibaka’s activity took some heat off of DeRozan, who was freed up to drive and get to the line, where he shot six free throws in a half-dozen fourth-quarter minutes. Joseph continued his strong play as well, blowing by Lillard for a strong and-one late in the game. And Tucker played the entire quarter, providing the kind of stout, in-your-grill defence the Raptors have so sorely lacked at times this season.
As Lowry made his contributions in the coaching huddles, on the floor the Raptors looked like a team that can not only play competently, but thrive, for as long as he’s sidelined.
"I’d much rather have him out there on the floor with number seven on him than on the coaching staff," Casey said. "But he can do both."
