TORONTO — The theme was partying like it was 1995 — given it was the first of several planned ‘Raptors Rewind’ nights at Scotiabank Arena in recognition of the club’s 25th anniversary. Hence the dinosaur uniforms (“sexy” said Kyle Lowry, approvingly) and the purple-trimmed court. But for a moment it seemed like time had stood still much more recently than that.
Are the 2019 playoffs really over? Did the championship parade really happen?
Why are the Orlando Magic here so soon?
“It feels like a couple of weeks ago,” Raptors forward Serge Ibaka was musing before Monday night’s game between the two first-round playoff opponents. “The summer was so short and here we are playing them again.”
The outcome was similar, if not the same as the Raptors won 104-95 but only after weathering a furious Magic comeback in the fourth quarter that completely reversed the 11-point lead Toronto had built up through three. In the playoffs the Raptors had mostly beaten the Magic by blowout.
But on the theme of throwbacks — how about Lowry back in the closer role he all but vacated with Kawhi Leonard as the Raptors’ go-to late-game option last season?
After former Raptor Terrence Ross put the Magic up 89-87 with 4:16 to play, capping a 13-0 Orlando run, the Raptors put the ball in their point guard’s hands and good things happened.
Running the same high pick-and-roll with Pascal Siakam possession after possession down the stretch, the Raptors were able to stitch together a 13-4 run with Lowry running the show, helping ice the game by drawing a heady shooting foul on the Magic’s Evan Fournier and making all three free throws with 1:28 to play to put the Raptors up 100-93.
It was vintage, but the Raptors will be happy to see more of it as their championship defence unfolds.
“It’s amazing, how smart he is and making decisions with the basketball,” said Siakam, who scored a three-point play and hit a pull-up jumper down the stretch on plays engineered by Lowry. “We’ve always had that chemistry, I’ve felt, from my first game. It’s definitely easy playing with a guy like that. He makes it easy for everyone. It worked out well tonight.”
It was an old-school effort from Lowry on night that was about nostalgia as he finished with 26 points and six assists while dominating the offence in a way he rarely did with Leonard dining first.
There was plenty of help as Siakam finished with 24 points and nine rebounds and OG Anunoby kept up his strong early play with 12 points, eight rebounds and five steals.
The win improved the Raptors to 3-1 with the Detroit Pistons coming to Toronto on Wednesday.
Lowry was a bit of a mystery during the pre-season as he didn’t play 5-on-5 until the Raptors’ final exhibition after missing time due to off-season thumb surgery and (according to sources) delaying his return until his contract extension was finalized.
He claims he’s still a few weeks away from being in peak form but through four games he looks like he’s gunning for sixth straight all-star appearance, with averages of 22.8 points, 6.8 assists and 5.3 rebounds through four games.
He flashed his trademark basketball smarts at the end of the first half when the Magic had cut what had been an 11-point second-quarter lead to two with 31.5 seconds left to play before intermission. Lowry let the ball roll up the floor so the clock wouldn’t start and when he did grab the ball he attacked the paint, drew a foul and converted the three-point play, all while using just 2.7 seconds of running time. The result was the Raptors were guaranteed one more possession before the half and Lowry used the 5.3 seconds left after the Magic scored to rush the length of the floor and score again. The Raptors went into the half up five and feeling like they had some momentum.
“Nothing really surprises me about him, to be honest with you,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “He’s just such an experienced guy and such a gamer, man.”
But Lowry saved the best for last, scoring, assisting or engineering 13 straight points in just over two minutes with the game on the line, working with Siakam in the pick-and-roll to move the Magic defence like a yo-yo on a string.
“You’ve got two good basketball players. And I got great spacing,” was Lowry’s assessment of the set. “You can’t help off of Marc, OG, and Fred. So, you’ve got to pick your poison with that one. And Pascal made a jump shot, made another one, I got a three, couple free throws, couple free throws. And we just kind of pick and chose the spots where we needed to get on the floor. Kept it simple.”
Was it fun having the ball in your hands down the stretch like that?
“It’s always fun to win games,” he said.
Leonard cast such a shadow over the Raptors –- for the good it needs to be stressed –- that it’s easy to forget how good the Lowry-led Raptors were for years before Leonard ever set foot north of the border.
The season is just beginning but Lowry seems determined to remind everyone, just in case they forgot.
It is pretty funny that people really like the throwbacks,” said Siakam. “Whenever you throw something back, it’s exciting, a bit.”
He was referring to the Raptors jerseys and their purple court, but he could have been referring to a late-game offence run through Lowry for a change.
On a night marketed for nostalgia, down the stretch the Raptors did it the easy way, the old-fashioned way. They got the ball in Lowry’s hands and let him go to work. Some things never go out of style.
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