Powell’s consistency helps Raptors survive uneven stretches against Nets

Eric Smith and Michael Grange spoke post-game after the Raptors beat the Brooklyn Nets. The duo spoke on Toronto’s sluggish start, Kyle Lowry finding his groove after coming back from injury and a quick update on Fred VanVleet.

TORONTO – Slumps happen. Not even your defending NBA champions are immune.

The challenge for the Toronto Raptors lately is how much to attribute their recent 1-4 hiccup to a general malaise that could get wiped away with a good night or two or to what extent is was the symptom of some underlying illness?

Did they need a couple of Tylenol and a good night’s rest or should they head to the shot doctor and think about some antibiotics?

While it’s never wise to get too caught up in a five-game slide that happened to coincide with a run against some of the best teams in the league, the Raptors recent offensive woes weren’t being exaggerated.

Over the previous five games they were last in offensive rating at 98.4 points per 100 possessions and last in three-point shooting percentage at 27.4 per cent.

And yes, the two may be related. Before the Raptors slump they were first in the NBA in three-point percentage (40.1) and fifth in offensive rating at 111.2.

It meant Raptors head coach Nick Nurse and his staff were being vigilant while looking for any deeper issues while trying not to over-react.

“I think first of all, you start a season and you always kind of have 8 or 10 games where, you know [you go cold],” said Nurse before the Raptors hosted the Brooklyn Nets for a rare Saturday night home game. “I remember having these discussions with a lot of people saying you know, we’re gonna have a half a dozen nights where we’re 6-for-36, and we’re probably gonna get beat. But this is the way we’re gonna play, and over the course of 82, we believe in the percentages. You’ve gotta try to not get too wound up in it.”

In other words, the Raptors were due. That would be one way to read Toronto’s welcome and much-needed 110-102 win over the Nets, a contest they took charge of midway through the first quarter and never really lost control, thanks in part to 14 made threes on 40 attempts, even only five of them came in the final three quarters.

“It gave us some good energy to start, to shoot the ball so well,” said Nurse. “We shot it really good at the start, got back to ourselves.”

It wasn’t a Rembrandt. Sometimes, though, not smudging up the finishing coat on top of the primer is good enough.

There are different ways to finish a team off, after all. The key blows down the stretch for the Raptors in this one were an offensive rebound and put-back by Marc Gasol and a breakaway windmill dunk by Norman Powell that stretched a 10-point Raptors lead to 15 with 2:31 to play.

It was a deserved moment in the sun for Powell who has been an island of consistency for the Raptors’ wobbly offence. His 25-point night was his 15th double-figure outing since the Raptors injuries hit 18 games past — a stretch in which he’s averaged 16.5 points a game on 50-per-cent shooting from the floor.

They needed ‘playoff Norm’, as some of the Raptors’ best shot-makers have been struggling to find their groove.

In his first five games since missing 11 with a fractured thumb, Lowry was shooting 29 per cent from the floor and 21 per cent from three, while Serge Ibaka was shooting 31 per cent in the six games since his return from a 10-game absence with a sprained ankle.

Meanwhile Pascal Siakam hasn’t had quite the same pop of late as he adjusts to the relentless demands of being a No.1 scoring option as he shot just 40.1 per cent from the floor and 20.8 per cent over the Raptors five-game slide.

These things don’t last forever.

“You know I’m trying to take it day by day. My ankle is almost hundred percent, but you know there’s no excuse, I’m not the kind of person that gives excuses,” said Ibaka who finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds on 4-of-7 shooting in 21 minutes. “If I have to play I have to play. And yeah, the truth, yeah I have been a little bit different, you know, since I got back, but I’m gonna be there. I’m gonna get there. One thing about me, I’m a hard worker. You know that …it’s not like it’s gonna be like this for all the rest of season. You know, I’m a champion so I know how to bounce back.”

The first seven minutes of the game capture the two sides of the Raptors perfectly. After spotting the Nets a 12-2 lead Toronto quickly showed how different they can look when threes a dropping, and it didn’t take long.

Powell – starting in place of Fred VanVleet who missed his third straight game with a bruised knee – hit a corner triple after the ball whipped around the perimeter with speed; Gasol (17 points and 15 rebounds) stepped into an open one at the top of the circle, Powell hit another one from Gasol and then Pascal Siakam pulled up for an above-the-break three and in the space of less than three minutes Toronto led 17-16.

They were just getting warmed-up. The Raptors hit nine of their first 10 threes or more made triples than the seven and eight threes Toronto had managed in their last two full games respectively as the Raptors led 38-31 after 12 minutes.

It was just what the coach ordered.

“I think that what you’re trying to do more than anything is to get execution at a higher level than it’s been. I don’t think you’re gonna suddenly start running a different system or putting in a lot of new plays or changing too much of what you’re doing,” said Nurse. “… you know, just little things: Screening better, spacing a little bit better, relocating a little better. And just trying to get the rhythm a little bit back to where it is on offence.”

Not that everything was cured in a quarter. The Raptors shot 2-of-12 from deep in the second and the Nets were able to cut what had been a 16-point hole early in the second quarter to five by halftime as the Raptors led 65-60 to start the third quarter.

But as the game wore on the Raptors got more production from more people they needed it from while getting more strong, steady play from Powell — who has enjoyed one of the most consistent stretches of his career as the Raptors have looked for him to score while others have been out or struggling.

“I’m just being aggressive and taking advantage of the opportunity and increased minutes and whenever I’m on the floor looking for opportunities to play my game and continue rolling,” said Powell afterwards. “I don’t look back at the games I’ve played or whatever the streak is. It’s all about game-in, game-out, doing whatever it takes to help the team win and whatever the coaches ask of me with the game plan I try to go out and execute and live with the results. I put the work in, I’m confident in myself and I just continue to play basketball.

Toronto led 90-83 heading into the fourth quarter and had four of their five starters in double figures, led by Siakam — who had 27 of his 30 before the fourth began — while Lowry had 15 points on 10 shots to that point as he finished with 17 points and six assists.

The win halted the Raptors home losing streak at three, improved their overall record to 17-8 and saw one of the most difficult stretches of their schedule come to a close.

They didn’t thrive, but they survived. Sometimes that’s good enough.

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