Raptors need bench to build off eruption vs. Kings to help right ship

Sportsnet's Eric Smith discusses how the Toronto Raptors were able to mount a comeback against the Sacramento Kings after an abysmal first quarter.

The Toronto Raptors’ big 144-123 victory Friday night against the Sacramento Kings was cathartic in many ways for a team that’s struggled the way they have over their first eight games.

The 144 points the Raptors put up was a franchise record for a regulation game and emphatically snapped the club out of the offensive funk it’s been in and the team’s defence deserves praise for getting stops and allowing it to come back after getting down by as much as 19 early.

And while the strong play of Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Norman Powell deserves praise and captured the most headlines after Friday’s win, this kind of strong offensive and defensive play seen from the team as a whole just wouldn’t have been possible if the club’s second unit didn’t show up like it did.

Much-maligned to start the season, Toronto’s bench was averaging just a measly 15.5 points per game entering Friday’s action, but against the Kings it erupted for 63 points and helped string together the necessary stops the team needed to pull away and eventually blow Sacramento out of the water.

Playing smaller has proven to be something of a revelation for the Raptors as the team has looked far more like itself, able to better switch on defence and play with improved spacing and shooting on the floor, and in the case of some of the team’s second-unit players, this seemed particularly apparent Friday.

Getting more opportunity with Kyle Lowry missing Friday’s affair for “personal reasons,” popular rookie Malachi Flynn had his best outing as a pro, scoring 12 points and collecting five rebounds while shooting 5-of-6 from the field and 2-for-3 from three-point range.

Friday’s game was an extreme example because of how well the entire team played offensively, but it looked like the added space provided from all the shooters allowed Flynn to more comfortably navigate the floor and get going offensively.

“He competes, I think he gives us someone else to handle the ball, get the offence moving and then he’s got a little game to himself too, at the offensive and where he can create sometimes for himself,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse after the win. “I’m hoping he’s going to create for others, too.

“We do love the pick and roll and the guard getting into the paint and sometimes that dries up on us. It’s nice to have a guy with maybe another look, another burst of speed, a young guy that can fly around a little bit.”

In addition to Flynn, the Raptors’ second unit also got major offensive contribution from the likes of Terence Davis (18 points, 4-for-8 from deep) and Chris Boucher, who had 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting and crashed the boards hard, collecting 10 rebounds, four coming on the offensive end.

As strange as it may be to say, Boucher works perfectly as the Raptors’ small-ball big. He provides a certain kind of dynamism that the team’s other bigs lack on offence with his killer combination as both a roll-and-pop threat, and the fact he’s always ultra-aggressive and looking to score whenever the ball’s in his hands. And defensively he’s by far the team’s best shot-blocker, turning aside three Friday and ranking fifth in the NBA, averaging 2.1 blocks per game.

There’s an argument to be made that Boucher should start, but the team’s bench probably needs the jolt of energy he provides more than its starting group does, and he’s proven so far he can mix and match with the starters seamlessly.

And in an odd way, similar things said about Boucher can be applied to Yuta Watanabe, a player who made the team out of camp and likely wasn’t expected to have much of a role on the Raptors, but looks to quickly be playing himself as one of Nurse’s favourites.

“I think he’s kind of a good utility guy because he does run hard, he rebounds pretty well, he’s not a high-volume shot-taker, he’s a cutter and a mover and the ball swings pretty good and it’s nice to have a guy like that out there that’s just kind of keeping things clicking over,” said Nurse.

“One thing he does is he competes. He’s not the strongest guy in the world but he does give everything he has and that also, I think, rubs off energy-wise.”

Watanabe isn’t going to produce the way Boucher can, but he’s similar to the Canadian in that, as Nurse said, he’s a high-energy guy who has shown well defensively as player who knows how to play with his feet, can close out hard without fouling and, thanks to his six-foot-eight frame, his length can really bother shooters out on the perimeter.

He only scored three points Friday, but Watanabe grabbed seven rebounds and finished as a plus-16 because he’s a player who understands his role and what he needs to do to help the Raptors win as a defensive stopper.

In other words, he’s looking like an ideal bench piece for the Raptors.

It was just one game, but given how badly Toronto’s bench was getting outplayed before, seeing it finally come alive thanks to the contributions of players like Flynn, Boucher and Watanabe was a welcome sight.

It’s going to take many small steps if the Raptors are going to turn their poor start to the season into a successful one, and the emergence of real bench play is important progress forward.

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