TORONTO — It’s late-march in Toronto and across the city early signs of spring abound. Some days, the thermometer approaches double-digits. In suburban gardens, the first snowdrops are blooming. Only the worst of the city’s ubiquitous, often trash-filled ice banks remain. And at Scotiabank Arena, Norman Powell is checking in cold off the bench and changing a game.
It must be playoff time soon. Since his rookie season, Powell has made a funny habit of producing out-of-nowhere performances off the end of the bench at this time of year, whether it was against the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2016 playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks a year later, or a couple times against the Orlando Magic late last season.
Sunday, it came against the Charlotte Hornets, who ultimately prevailed, 115-114, on an absurd buzzer-beater from inside their own half. Not much you can do about that. About once a decade, a team takes that bad beat. But the fact the Raptors were even in position to win the game was almost entirely thanks to Powell’s nine-minute, seven-point, two-steal, one-block fourth-quarter shift.
It was a different game at the end of three. The Raptors were half-asleep and trailing by a dozen. Head coach Nick Nurse was experimenting with different lineups, which left Powell, who inhabits a lonely position with one foot in and one foot out of Toronto’s rotations, neglected. He sat for the entire first half. He played only three minutes in the third.
But Powell was everywhere in the fourth, draining three of the four shots he took (including his lone three), deflecting three passes, forcing a pair of turnovers, and even getting up at the rim for this devastating block of Kemba Walker:
#UTG #BetOnYourself pic.twitter.com/IUGk3pHjH1
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) March 25, 2019
He played only a dozen minutes and somehow ended up with the fourth-highest usage rate on his team. When he checked out with three minutes remaining in the fourth, the Raptors bench gave him a standing ovation.
“I was interested in seeing Patrick McCaw tonight. Brought him off [the bench] early both halves. That kind of made Norm suffer a little bit. But it seems like it maybe motivated him,” Nurse said after the game, explaining why Powell didn’t touch the floor until the third. “He really came in with a lot of juice. And I give him a lot of credit for that. I give him a lot of credit for sitting there the whole time and then coming in with a big burst of energy and playing really well.”
Powell’s late-game surge is only a marginally important thing in a marginally important loss. But it does give Nurse something to ponder over the coming weeks, as he shrinks his rotations and figures out who he’ll be leaning on come the playoffs. The fact Powell is capable of that zero-to-100 performance, as he’s now proven on numerous occasions, has to be rattling around Nurse’s frontal lobe in late April, when he ultimately encounters a playoff situation in which he needs a spark. When the carefully laid plans go to hell. When he just wants to shake things up.
He’s been doing it most of the season, really. Sunday was an extremely rare occasion in which the Raptors did not list an inactive regular. The team’s full arsenal was at Nurse’s disposal, which is why he mixed and matched with so many different lineups throughout the night, and ended up giving 10 players 11 minutes or more of run.
The return of Kyle Lowry facilitated it. After missing four of Toronto’s last five games with injuries to each of his ankles, Lowry was back on the floor doing his thing, barking out orders, slinging the ball around, absorbing his team-leading 22nd charge of the season. He didn’t look his best, and probably shouldn’t have been expected to, considering he’s feeling far from it.
“It’s not going to be 100 per cent the whole season, I can say that right now,” Lowry said after the game. “I just want to get out there. I could sit out until the playoffs with the type of injury that I have. But I want to play, keep a rhythm, and get out there with the guys and play some basketball. If I can get out there and play, I’m gonna go play. It could take me a while for this one to really heal, but you don’t want that. It’s going to take too long. So, I’ll just get out there and go play. And deal with it as it goes.”
Well, that’s certainly something to monitor. The returns are at least better from fellow point guard Fred VanVleet, who also recently suffered an injury absence, but looks even better now than he did prior.
In the 35 days he was sidelined, VanVleet apparently discovered a way to completely bypass the shaking-off-the-rust stage most athletes experience in returning to their sport’s highest level of competition after a long layoff. He played 31 minutes his first night back and looked markedly more dangerous than he did prior to his injury, with 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting. He followed that up with a plus-33 performance in nearly 30 minutes the night following, and a busy, 40-minute, 23-point effort two nights later.
Sunday, VanVleet took the court for the fifth time in eight days after missing more than a month, and again looked terrific, scoring a dozen on 5-of-9 shooting over 31 minutes.
“Yeah, he’s playing great,” Nurse said prior to Sunday’s game. “I think his health is at its peak right now. He’s in great shape, he’s physically feeling good — and that’s maybe for the first time all year, really.
“He’s just back to the guy we remember from a year ago a little bit more. It really gives us a weapon. He’s tough, he’s smart, he shoots, he’ll get that odd layup here and there when the shot clock’s running down, and he’ll make that shot-clock basket in the fourth quarter. He gets Kyle to the two, he’s a good leader. He’s an important player for us.”
And there is a cascading reaction to VanVleet’s return that can be felt throughout Toronto’s roster. For starters, Lowry can play some shooting guard in the thick of games, after his run with the starters to begin the night, and before he takes a crucial playmaking role with Toronto’s closing lineup.
Playing a full game as point guard is a physical and mental grind. The ball’s always in your hands, you’re constantly thinking, reading, analyzing, and selecting depending on what looks a defence is showing you, and your defensive assignment is rarely an easy one. Letting Lowry ease up on the gas and play the two guard for a spell, while VanVleet takes over primary facilitating duties, can only help Toronto’s most important player stay fresh for a game’s most crucial minutes.
“It’s important. I think it’s a lot of work bringing the ball up the floor, especially when teams are hounding you full court,” Nurse said. “To ease a few of those burdens — bringing it up, maybe running the team — and letting [Lowry] concentrate on getting that three-ball off or screening or whatever the other things he can do for us, for six, eight, 10, 12 minutes a game, is important. I think it gets him to the end of the game a little better, physically and mentally.”
[relatedlinks]
VanVleet’s presence has a similar effect on Jeremy Lin, who can slide over to a shooting guard role in Toronto’s bench lineup. Whether it’s due to familiarity, ingenuity, or both, the Raptors reserves tend to run better with VanVleet playing point. Nurse likes to say he’s looking for “mistake-free basketball” from his bench, which means don’t turn the ball over and definitely don’t mess up your defensive coverages. Too often of late, the Raptors have done the opposite.
Of course, it’s been a big ask for Lin to step into a new team and immediately take over such a crucial position in an unfamiliar system alongside players he’s never played with before. But such is NBA life. It’s clear that when all point guards are available, VanVleet gets the most out of Toronto’s bench.
And VanVleet’s energy, cleverness, and creativity can only help players like Lin, OG Anunoby, and Powell, who will be playing off of him come the playoffs, trying to either extend whatever early-game momentum the starters generate, or potentially kickstart the Raptors out of a funk. (Not to mention either Serge Ibaka or Marc Gasol, who could each fill out that unit depending on matchups)
Will all three of Lin, Anunoby, and Powell see meaningful minutes in mid-to-late April? Probably not. Nurse will likely run a nine-man rotation, with one of Lowry, Kawhi Leonard, or Pascal Siakam taking turns running with the reserves.
Whose minutes suffer? Sunday it was Powell’s, until it wasn’t. In the second half it was Lin, who didn’t touch the floor. Anunoby’s way too versatile and effective defensively to drop out of the rotation entirely. And don’t forget McCaw, who’s still floating around the periphery.
It’s a lot of moving parts. A lot of things to sort out over the next two-and-a-half weeks. Must be spring.
