TORONTO — With 4:54 left in the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s Game 2 of the first-round playoff series between the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets, Pascal Siakam checked in for the Raptors, replacing Serge Ibaka.
It looked to be a curious move, especially with the Raptors clinging to a five-point lead and Ibaka one of the key figures in the Raptors finally coming back and taking the lead, scoring six points, grabbing two rebounds and dropping one dime in the frame.
And even more curious still was the group of Raptors Siakam checked onto the floor with: Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell and OG Anunoby.
All familiar faces whom Siakam has obviously shared a lot of floor time with this season, but for all five of these players to be on the floor together at the same time? That isn’t something that’s been seen very much.
In total, this five-man lineup saw only two minutes of total floor time together during the regular season, amassing seven points on 1-of-3 shooting and getting to the foul line five times.
Not exactly the usual amount of runtime for a five-man unit you see a coach turn to when a playoff game’s on the line. But then again, Nick Nurse isn’t your typical coach.
As such, Nurse decided to roll with this relatively unseen smaller lineup that saw Siakam playing the five with three guards, and it performed pretty well.
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In about five minutes of action it put up nine points on 3-of-6 shooting and came up with a couple steals and a block while, most importantly, not allowing that five-point lead — that this same group with Ibaka on the floor built up — to slip away, allowing Toronto to hold onto the Game 2 victory.
This was a decision Nurse strained over but he felt, despite how well Ibaka was playing, he had to get his other all-star onto the floor to finish the game.
“It was a tough one for me down because that group, which included Serge and Norm, was rolling, right? They took a deficit to a nice lead and you know Pascal’s one of your all-stars sitting over there and you don’t really usually let those guys sit much longer than you do there,” said Nurse after Game 2.
“You let him get in and finish. But it was a consideration today because that group was rolling, [but] then we decided that the best thing to do would be to go small so we could switch everything, and it worked out okay.”
That ability to switch on Brooklyn players defensively, in particular, looked to be the reason why Nurse wanted to go with the smaller lineup down the stretch. It gave the Raptors greater flexibility to lock the game down and close out their victory.
“It was good, it was good,” Nurse said Thursday of the small-ball lineup he went to upon second review over tape. “Obviously, they made some really good plays at the end. Pascal made a great deflection about 1:50 to go in play.”
The clip above is the play Nurse was talking about and as you can see, Anunoby at first picks up Caris LeVert and goes over on the screen, knowing that Siakam will be there to switch onto him when LeVert gets into the paint. This causes LeVert to try to make a pass under duress to Jarrett Allen — who was rolling to the rim — blanketed by both Anunoby and Siakam behind and in front of him, leading to the Siakam deflection and inevitable Nets turnover.
“He’s been really good at times and I think he’s been really good in these games,” Nurse said of the deflection Siakam made. “You know, usually you can tell if he’s going defensively if he’s really flying out to shooters. He gets in the paint, they kick it out, and he’s so quick and long that he’ll be out there really contesting the three-ball. And when you see him doing that, you know he’s engaged and he’s making other plays.
“That was an amazing play yesterday. It was such an effort play. He got up to impact the ball-handler and then got back to Allen on the roll. And it was a pretty good pass, and he really had to jump and reach with everything. He had to use maximum effort to get his hands on that.”
During Game 2, Siakam had looked more engaged and locked in on defence than he had in Game 1 and most of the seeding games, and knowing he had to lock the lead down, perhaps that was the rationale Nurse came to in going with that small lineup?
We’ll never truly know, mainly because, like any good coach, Nurse makes decisions based on his gut as much as he does on raw data.
“I think that there is a lot of feel to it,” said Nurse. “And as I said after the game, and today earlier, that I’m trying to get my best guys on the floor and sometimes maybe a guy’s having a good individual night and a good team night, but there’s a unit of guys that make the big run and you’re not trying to upset that and that’s kinda what happened with Pascal yesterday, why he sat deeper than normal.
“Serge was playing active, he wasn’t scoring a ton but he was playing active he was doing a lot of really good things. That unit as a group was extending the lead. So that was the feel part of it.”
Analytics can help a lot, because having more data is never a bad thing. Sometimes though, as Nurse proved in Game 2, trusting your instincts can be just as impactful as trusting a spreadsheet.
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Quick Dribbles
• It was announced on Wednesday that Nets sharpshooter Joe Harris had left the bubble to attend to a personal matter. Harris has been one of Brooklyn’s better players in the series thus far, averaging 16.5 points per game and shooting 7-of-12 from three-point range over the two games.
Due to quarantine protocol, the earliest Harris would be able to play again wouldn’t be until Game 6, most likely. His absence could make an already tough series for Brooklyn that much more difficult.
“It’s too bad and he’s really played great and has had a great series,” Nurse said of Harris. “He was a handful yesterday and doing everything — like [14] rebounds or something — and obviously he’s one of the premier knockdown guys in the league and that means a lot of things. You’ve gotta hug him, you’ve gotta chase him, you’ve gotta really work and it frees up a lot of driving and rolling and all that kind of stuff when you’ve got a guy like that out there. So it’s unfortunate for him and his family and his personal situation.”
• One of the lone bright spots for the Nets has been the play of Jarrett Allen. In the series so far, he’s averaging 14.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and two blocks per game while shooting 57.9 per cent from the field.
He’s been a load for Toronto bigs Ibaka and Marc Gasol to handle on both ends of the floor and, as the series moves forward, the Raptors will likely have to look for better ways to neutralize his impact on the game, because right now he’s been the biggest thorn in their sides.
“That’s a team, they’re doing a better game plan. It’s very good, the way they’re using him,” Ibaka said of Allen. “No matter who he’s guarding they send him to protect the basket, because they understand without him, we’re gonna have a lot of easy baskets out there.
“I think that’s just playoffs. Every night teams come and try to change the way they do things. I think all you have to do is read the way they’re playing us and use that as a weapon.”
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• Raptors president Masai Ujiri issued a statement Thursday to address the recently released video that showed Ujiri being shoved by an Alameda County sheriff’s deputy during last June’s championship celebration.
Earlier on Thursday, Raptors Lowry and Ibaka were asked about their thoughts on the footage. Here’s what they said:
Lowry: “It shows why we’re supportive of the social injustices that are going on right now. It shows why we’re supporting of the Black Lives Matter. It shows why we need to get out there and vote. It shows why we need to get those guys to arrest the murderers of Breonna Taylor because there’s police officers like that officer out there who are scumbags, basically.”
Ibaka: “It’s kind of sad because, honestly, I don’t think anybody believed in Masai when he said he was innocent. As a Black person in the NBA, as a Black man, it’s hard.
“As a Black person, [when] you against a white cop, in this country, it’s hard. Nobody’s really gonna believe you. Thank God Masai he got … the possibility to fight against what happened back then. If Masai didn’t have money to fight, [get] good lawyers, like other Black people, people would still not believe him. Things should never be like this. No matter where you come from, no matter your colour, things should never be like that. If Masai didn’t have that money, or if Masai wasn’t in the position he’s in now, he’d be guilty.
“Thank God now everyone can see what happened that day. This connected us to understand this fight is far from being over. We have to stick together and we have to fight this fight together.”