LOS ANGELES – What promised to be the most exciting match-up the early days of this Toronto Raptors’ season could possibly bring had the air let out of it about 90 minutes before the ball went up at Staples Center where LeBron James was waiting.
It didn’t matter. All the Raptors did was go on and prove they don’t need Kawhi Leonard to live and fly in L.A.
The last time the Raptors saw James he was breaking their hearts in Cleveland, handing them their third straight playoff loss and their 10th straight post-season defeat at his hand. Dark days followed. Good men got fired. A great player got traded.
It was a tumultuous time.
[snippet id=4267701]
But the result was the Raptors ended up with Leonard, one of the only people on planet Earth who can credibly claim that they bested James in a playoff series – as Leonard’s 2014 NBA Finals MVP award would suggest.
How could you not be excited at the prospect of the Raptors facing James with one of the handful of players in the NBA that can match-up with him on either end of the floor?
But an innocuous-looking play with just over two minutes left in the Raptors’ win Friday night in Phoenix sent Leonard straight to the locker-room, and got in the way of some must-see TV as Raptors head coach Nick Nurse delivered the news in his pre-game media availability.
"He is out for the game," said Nurse, an imaginary airless balloon fluttering to the ground behind him. "He has got soreness in his left foot so he is out."
Leonard’s absence might have ruined an early-season storyline but it didn’t affect the Raptors. Not one bit.
Instead they turned in as memorable a performance as imaginable on the NBA’s brightest stage as they jumped on the Lakers early and stayed on top of them late in a 121-107 win that improved the Raptors’ record to 9-1 while dropping the Lakers to 4-6.
It was never in doubt. Not even a little bit.
When Lance Stephenson nailed a pull-up jumper in transition with 2:21 left in the first quarter the Lakers fans cheered, but it was in the way hockey fans cheer the goalie when they finally make a save after letting in three first-period muffins.
It was not sincere.
Stephenson’s basket, after all, was the Lakers’ second field goal in a five-minute stretch in which the Raptors had put together a stunning 24-2 run. The Lakers were being booed. Stephenson’s basket made the score 41-12. By this point Serge Ibaka had already scored 20 points and was a perfect eight-of-eight from the field on his way to a career-high 34 points on 15-of-17 shooting.
Kyle Lowry came into the game leading the NBA in assists, averaging 11.2 per game. He had nine assists before the game was 10 minutes old. He needed 10 assists to break the Raptors record for consecutive games with 10 or more assists set by Damon Stoudamire in the Raptors’ inaugural season.
"We just played with great energy for the first three and a half quarters or whatever," said Nurse. "It was everybody. OG did a great job on James. Pascal was pushing the ball. Everybody it seemed was in there trying to dig out turnovers out of the lane and get out and run with them. We got our hands on a lot of balls. We looked athletic and fast all over the place tonight."
Lowy was in the history books by the second quarter as he finished with 21 points and 15 assists, his eighth straight game with 10 or more assists, a run in which he’s averaging 12.75 assists a game.
It’s his seventh campaign with the Raptors, what took him so long to break a record that has stood for 24 seasons?
"I was passing to Deebo [DeMar DeRozan]," he joked.
"[But] Serge played great, we were making shots, we were in a rhythm," said Lowry. "Danny started well. We played well and we caught them off a back-to-back so our pace was a little better than theirs."
Ibaka played at his own pace, never seeming rushed or hurried, every move in sequence.
"I thought he did a good job of catching, being strong, being fundamental," said Nurse. "Making some good solid moves and being patient. He would pump fake and some guys would jump over him and he’d lay it in or whatever. He did a nice job of getting in position, catching and finishing.
The Lakers won against Portland Saturday night, presumably taking some pressure off beleaguered head coach Luke Walton who was reportedly the subject of a stern talking to by Lakers president Magic Johnson late last week in lieu of the Lakers’ slow start.
The heat may be turned up again now.
To Walton’s credit his team didn’t completely fold when down by 31. After they were down by four converted touchdowns and field goal for the second time in the first half Los Angeles put together a 17-6 run that cut the Raptors’ lead to 20. But the Raptors kept putting on surges that kept the Lakers at bay. Toronto went on a 14-4 run and led 71-49 at half.
The Lakers cut the Raptors’ lead to 17 in the third quarter and then to 14 with just over four minutes left in the fourth quarter after a pair of triples by Lonzo Ball. They got as close as 10 with two minutes left before Lowry drew a charge on one end, set up Pascal Siakam on the other and then sealed things with a triple.
Whether his team not completely folding the tent will work in Walton’s favour when it comes to his job evaluation is an open question, but not one the Raptors have to concern themselves with as they head to Utah Monday night to try and improve their record to 10-1 and 3-0 on their four-game road trip.
Leonard’s availability will likely be in question too although Nurse was trying to sound optimistic.
"I hope so," he said when asked if Leonard would be available to play. Leonard did make the trip to Utah, so that’s a start.
Without Leonard to use as the primary defender on James, Nurse said he was comfortable turning to second-year wing OG Anunoby who missed most of training camp and three regular-season games dealing with a personal issue at home in Missouri.
"I thought he gave a tremendous effort on defence and his offence is just a little rusty," said Nurse of Anunoby, who missed four of five triples. "He took good shots, he made one really good drive for a dunk, that was about it. And other than that, I thought he did a great job on James and we’ll just wait. I thought his offence will come, it’ll be there. Maybe tomorrow night he’ll bang three of those threes instead of missing them all."
Danny Green was good too, converting a pair of early triples on his way to a five-of-eight night from deep, good for 15 points. But it was Ibaka who was a revelation.
He’s been a completely different player this season, triggered — it would seem — by his shift to centre after playing power-forward alongside Jonas Valanciunas for most of the past two seasons. There is more room for him to work as he sets screens on the ball and he has more variety of offensive options rather than simply spreading the floor from above the three-point line. A week ago he had a 30-point explosion against the Milwaukee Bucks – his best as a Raptor and one off his career high, and he came into this game converting 61 per cent of his two-point attempts.
That number went up as Ibaka made all 11 of his field goal attempts in the first half — one triple and 10 twos — as he led all scorers with 26 points and the Raptors led the Lakers 74-49.
The Raptors were able to contain James in the early going and for most of the night as they held him to 18 points. James was on the bench when the Lakers did make their late run. Tactically Toronto felt comfortable leaving most of the other Lakers on the perimeter and crowding the paint on him, allowing them to help liberally. It was not something they could get away with against Cleveland the past four years as the Cavs surrounded James with as many shooters as possible, put the ball in his hands and let him wreak havoc.
James hasn’t changed much, if at all, in his 16th season, it’s just jarring to see him in yellow and purple.
[relatedlinks]
The difference is he doesn’t have a cast of players ready yet to take advantage of what he brings. When James stepped into a three with just under four minutes left in the third quarter it was the Lakers’ first triple in nine attempts – the Raptors had already missed 26 threes at that point. The Lakers finished just 6-of-24 from beyond the arc and Lakers not named LeBron were 4-of-21.
"It’s the still the same dynamic, he spreads the floor with his passing ability by getting you to help off, by pushing it in transition. I think he’s still him," said C.J. Miles. "It’s just those young guys finding their way and them still continuing to grow too. That’s the hard thing."
The Raptors are young too but they seem to be figuring things out. The addition of Leonard is supposed to be the final piece Toronto needs to transform them into a true title contender, the type of line-up that can play a LeBron James-led team and not have to worry.
With Leonard on the sidelines and James trying to figure things out with the Lakers, the Raptors managed just fine.