TORONTO – At the start of the first overtime period in the Toronto Raptors’ thrilling double-overtime victory in Game 6 of their second-round series with the Boston Celtics, a curious sight was seen as the two teams came to centre court for the extra period’s tip-off.
On one end of the floor, the Celtics were rolling with their starting five of Kemba Walker, Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Daniel Theis, while the Raptors came out with a look of Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell, Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby at centre.
A bizarre, ultra-small lineup that Nurse had never used before in the regular season and just 10 minutes of total time across three playoff games this post-season before Wednesday’s Game 6.
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Also, as it turned out, a pretty successful lineup for the Raptors, beginning with Anunoby’s tip-off win over Theis and concluding with a pair of Powell free throws and a great contest on Smart’s attempted game-tying triple at the end of the second overtime period.
In total, this smaller Raptors lineup played 18 minutes in Game 6, the most of any five-man unit the Raptors used in the game, scoring 37 total points and finishing a plus-4, with 27 points alone coming in the two overtimes.
In other words, there was a lot to like about this unconventional look the Raptors threw at the Celtics to help keep their season alive.
“I think I really liked what I saw offensively out of the lineup. I mean, we were doing it more for some better chances defensively, I think, and it was good there too,” said Raptors coach Nick Nurse on Thursday afternoon. “There was a lot more I think happening at the offensive end that made us more difficult to guard.”
Based on some of the shot-making shown in the two overtimes alone, Nurse’s assessment of the situation seems pretty spot-on.
In particular, there was a 46-second period with 57 seconds to go in double overtime that perfectly captured what Nurse was getting at.
Following a nice alley-oop play between Walker and Theis on the other end that put the Celtics up 117-115, the Raptors ran a simple 1-5 high pick-and-pop play near the top of the arc that saw Lowry draw Theis all the way to the free-throw line extended and drop a lovely behind-the-back pass to Anunoby who was wide open and made no mistake to put the Raptors back up by one.
Then Powell made a brilliant play on Tatum, poking the ball loose from the Celtics star while on the move, before going down the length of the floor for a huge and-one opportunity, which he converted to give the Raptors a four-point lead.
Lastly, following a Celtics timeout and a Tatum layup out of it that brought the score back within two, it was Lowry’s turn to be the hero as he isolated onto the weaker Walker, backed him down into the paint and then drilled an old-school turnaround jumper right in his eye to restore Toronto’s four-point lead and, essentially, put the dagger in the heart of the Celtics’ chances on Wednesday evening.
But, of course, these great Raptors shots don’t happen without some great defence, and as much as Nurse liked what this small lineup was doing offensively, the idea behind going small spawned with getting stops first and foremost.
“It just gives us a little bit better chance to guard them,” Nurse said of the small lineup shortly after his team walked off the court victorious on Wednesday. “That’s the main thing. It’s tough when Kemba’s so fast and it’s hard for our bigs sometimes to keep up with him when they’re up, because he can shoot the three, you’ve got to be up, and then if you creep up too far he darts by you. It’s hard to play some standard pick-and-roll coverages. That’s kind of where we got to it from.”
Added Powell: “I think the switching eats a lot of their clock in them trying to get the matchups and seeing who they want to go at and our switching is being disruptive and not giving them easy looks. I think that’s what we try to do in just eating the clock up and trying to slow the game down for them late in the clock trying to figure it out. So I thought that was a good defensive strategy that we did.”
The Powell clip you can see above is a good example of what Nurse and the Raptors swingman were talking about defensively with this small unit. Notice how aggressively Lowry steps up to try to stop the three-ball from Tatum, knowing he should have help coming behind him as Powell rushes in to switch onto the Celtics forward and make an outstanding play on the ball in the process.
Powell’s spectacular defensive play was also part of a common trend seen from the Raptors in those two overtimes; deflections, steals, blocks and just the ability to get their hands on the ball when the Celtics were trying to make a move.
“We’re trying to get our hands in and break up handoffs and, if we think we’ve got a chance, to strip the ball,” Nurse said. “Sometimes when you’re smaller, you’re down there, right, and they’ve got these guys there trying to post you up and shoot over top of you and once they turn around it’s kinda your last line of defence, right, because if they get it up they’re going to be over the top of you. Just trying to survive sometimes out there, too.”
More than just some act of desperation, however, the Raptors used their hands to change the tide of the game, most notably on Powell’s strip of Tatum and early in the second overtime when VanVleet picked up Brown in semi-transition and knocked the ball loose from him as he tried to make a move.
This proved to be a massive momentum-shifting play for the Raptors as it stopped a 4-0 Celtics run at the start of double-overtime with Lowry able to convert a layup on the opposite end of the floor off this play from VanVleet.
“Just trying to beat him to the spot,” VanVleet said of the play. “I know he likes to go right, so I think I’ve cut his right off a little bit. He went left and tried to put his body on me. I’m not really going to do nothing in the air with him, I can’t get to the height that he can get to, but if he brings the basketball down, I’m able to get my hands on it. So that’s all that was.”
VanVleet was being modest, but that was pretty much the definition of a winning play. Something that will end up as nothing more than a footnote in the box score that had huge ramifications towards the game’s result.
And the same can be said of Anunoby taking the challenge at centre where he not only burned Theis with that clutch three-pointer, but he also held his own against the larger man on the glass recording 13 rebounds in the contest.
“It was huge,” VanVleet said of his stoic teammates rebounding in Game 6. “We threw him in there at the five, to battle with Theis, be up on ball screens and (be a) little bit out of what his normal position is, but he was able to do what we needed him to do, especially down the stretch, big rebounds, showing a presence and made a big three as well.”
So, from shot-making to clutch defence, to even good work on the boards, it’s pretty safe to say that this small lineup that Nurse utilized worked pretty well for him. The question remains, though: will it work again?
One of the most interesting aspects of this series has been the chess match between Nurse and Celtics coach Brad Stevens as they adjust, counter and re-adjust offensive schemes and defensive coverages with each other in what has appeared to be an endless loop of savvy coaching.
Nurse was asked earlier in the series how durable adjustments he’s made against Stevens have been and responded with, “not that durable,” meaning every time the Raptors have seemed to figure something out against the Celtics, they have managed to find the answer to it and, more than likely, vice versa.
So as good as this small lineup was, Nurse is on high alert already for any contravention Stevens may look to have for it.
“I’m in the process now of processing everything,” Nurse said. “I’m trying to lay out everything that we’ve done, and what they possibly can counter with, what we can possibly change and counter with, and that’s part of a playoff series.”
Yes, adjusting and re-adjusting is part of the ups and downs of a seven-game series, like the one this series has gone to, and in Game 6 Nurse was able to find the proper counter to Boston with his ultra-small lineup.
There’s no guarantee it’ll work again, but it’s something he may as well try again in Game 7 because if it doesn’t work out, Nurse has proven to be a coach who can find other ways to win.
“That chess match is going on 100 miles an hour, and it’s part of the excitement of what we do,” he said.
And it’s sure to be part of the excitement of Friday’s winner-take-all extravaganza, too.
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