TORONTO—Nick Nurse was standing. Hands on hips. Then gesturing. Pointing, directing.
In the space of a couple of possessions on Wednesday night, the heretofore cool and calm first-year Toronto Raptors head coach was obviously doing something he’d mostly been able to do in the quiet of the huddle or behind doors on the practice floor.
He was coaching. He was desperately trying to communicate his knowledge to the five athletes he had in uniform on the floor and it wasn’t working all that well.
With two seconds left in the first quarter, Delon Wright, his point guard of the moment, looked confused. So did Norm Powell. The result was the universal signal that an offensive possession had gone badly wrong — the horn signalling a 24-second shot clock violation; the ball being held too long; a final heave too late to count.
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The Raptors have been enjoying a near blissful start to their season of promise. Nurse ran a training camp that earned him full marks from a veteran team. Grumpy Kyle Lowry turned into ‘best-point-guard-in-East’ Kyle Lowry the minute basketball started to count. Any doubts about Kawhi Leonard’s health quickly dissipated after he was rolled out for 37 minutes on opening night. He’s looked better every time he’s taken the floor.
Oh, and did we mention? The Raptors are now a perfect 5-0 after downing the Minnesota Timberwolves 112-105 at Scotiabank Arena. A win on Friday against Dallas and Toronto will have the best start in franchise history.
Their franchise record-tying fifth straight win to start the season unfolded according to a formula that’s already becoming familiar: Leonard (35 points on 23 shots) as the best player on either team; Lowry (13 points and 10 assists) as the next best player on the floor and support being offered wherever necessary. Once again, the revitalized Serge Ibaka was active on both ends, chipping in with 15 points and seven rebounds and making high-scoring T-Wolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns all but disappear, while his counterpart Jonas Valanciunas came off the bench with 16 points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes.
“I am trying to add up the numbers here,” said Nurse after the game. “Thirty-one points between them at centre and 16 rebounds, that is pretty good productivity out of that spot.”
As a group, the Raptors’ defensive chops are beginning to take root and offensively, they can score when needed, it seems. They held the T-Wolves to 41.7 per cent shooting and converted 51.7 per cent of their own field goals.
“We are trying to play [good defence] and wanting to get down and play it,” said Nurse. “I think there was some really good stretches, some really dominant stretches of defence …”
So there hasn’t been much for Nurse — who tries to play against form when it comes to the banana peel around every corner coaching stereotype — to worry about.
But one area that could use some attention is the Raptors’ second unit. A year ago Nurse was in large part the architect of a bench mob that came out of nowhere to terrorize the NBA.
The Raptors’ all-bench unit averaged nearly 42 points per game last season — tied for fourth in the NBA — and led the league with a net rating (point differential per 100 possessions) of plus-8.3.
So far this year the Raptors are still looking for a group that can turn games. Elevating Pascal Siakam to the starting lineup has meant one less playmaker to work alongside second-unit point guard Fred VanVleet and the departure of Jakob Poeltl to San Antonio has meant gaining a new chemistry in the pick-and-roll with Valanciunas. Not helping was the absence of Wright due to a groin injury suffered at the end of the exhibition season.
With Wright returning to the lineup on Wednesday there was optimism that the second unit could find a spark, even with VanVleet out with a sore toe.
“He should give us a little bit more penetration and passing on the offensive end,” said Nurse before the game. “And hopefully he’ll have his long arms in some passing lanes and knock some passes away … I’m hoping there’s some other guys in that group that will benefit from him drawing defence and getting the ball out to them. C.J. Miles would come to mind, right?”
It was Miles — who was just 2-of-12 from three heading into the game and getting just 14 minutes a game after averaging 2.3 made threes and 19 minutes per game a year ago — who Wright found after the shot clock in the first quarter. The sharpshooter’s struggles continued as he didn’t have a field goal of any kind in 13 minutes.
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Early on, the bench struggled too. After the starters staked the Raptors to a 22-10 lead and Nurse subbed out Leonard to go to his bench, the Timberwolves began to roll, building a 17-4 run that saw them briefly take a one-point lead with 10 minutes to play in the half. The starters filtered back and in a short time order was restored, helped by a Leonard three, as well as a headlong dive from him to make a spectacular steal as his man cut backdoor and then a dunk at the other end.
Have you ever done that before, he was asked.
Turns out he has indeed dove across the floor to make a blind steal on a backdoor cut before.
“[I] just dove for the ball, had an awareness that he was going to bounce-pass it to him, and I was able to get the steal,” he said. “I can’t really recall [when he did it before], but it’s not my first time.”
He followed up with a dunk at the other end. He had 18 of his game-high 35 in the first half and the Raptors led 57-48 at the break.
But Nurse can’t play Leonard or his starters forever and so the question became what was going to happen when he went to his bench in the second half.
The answer was more good news in a season overflowing with it at this point. Wright’s minutes were given to Lorenzo Brown, the MVP of the G-League last year with the 905 and all it took was some stifling defense by OG Anunoby and a pair of crowd-pleasing Valanciunas triples and this time the Raptors had pushed their lead from four to 16 after an Anunoby triple.
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Valanciunas has been almost exclusively a starter during his Raptors career – prior to this season he’d only come off the bench six times in six seasons, all while coming back from injury. Now he’s been part of the second unit for four straight games and hasn’t let his production slip at all, as his per 36 minute averages of 22.7 points, 16.6 rebounds on 60 per cent shooting would indicate.
“My mindset is just to do good things, win a game, win the battles,” he said. “Every minute I spend on the court I’m trying to find the battles. Nothing disappointing to start from the bench. I can be as productive as starting the game.”
It was the starters who let things get a little slippery as Minnesota cut Toronto’s lead to five with 1:16 left.
But there was no need to worry, no need to panic. Nurse was comfortably seated when Leonard knocked down a tough fadeaway on the baseline to clinch things away.
It was time to close up shop. The Raptors’ season will surely give Nurse plenty to worry about as it unfolds, but for now, not so much.
