‘Next man up’: ailing Raptors look to bottom of roster to prove worth – Sportsnet.ca

TORONTO — Here’s a Toronto Raptors lineup you’ve never seen before: point guard Patrick McCaw running the floor with Matt Thomas and Stanley Johnson on his wings, behind Oshae Brissett and Chris Boucher in an all-Canadian frontcourt.

Desperate times. About half of Toronto’s roster wore a neutral-toned blazer for Tuesday’s game, forcing Raptors head coach Nick Nurse to utilize some unorthodox maneuvers with the limited chess pieces remaining on his board. And with Terence Davis wallowing in a rookie slump, plus 33-year-old Kyle Lowry unsustainably playing nearly 40 minutes per game, those five represent Toronto’s defacto second unit for the time being.

So Nurse threw them out there at the end of the first quarter and watched his mad experiment play out. And all they did over the final three minutes of that quarter was beat the visiting and similarly stricken Portland Trail Blazers, 8-0. It went so well that Nurse ran the unit back out for the beginning of the second, before returning Lowry to the game after 90 seconds to restore order.

“It’s next man up, next man up” Lowry said after the Raptors fell to the Trail Blazers in the dying moments, 101-99. “We’ve got great guys. Young kids trying to go out there and prove their worth, go out there and execute and play.

“I love when these guys play like that. They played well, they got us the lead. They’re growing. And when you see the growth, it makes you excited as a veteran guy.”

To recap: the mercurial McCaw has, when healthy, fluctuated between promising play and maddening moments throughout a scattershot season, such as the blunder late in Tuesday’s game when he rifled an in-between pass at Lowry’s legs, leading to a crippling turnover.

Thomas was playing his first NBA game in six weeks, and only the 13th of his life after he spent the last two years shooting out the lights in Spain.

Johnson has been on the outside of Nurse’s rotations looking in all season and requested to play with Toronto’s G-League affiliate, Raptors 905, on Monday night just to get some extended run in a high-level game.

Brissett also played with the 905 on Monday, which he is contracted to do as an end-of-roster, two-way player.

Boucher — last year’s G-League MVP — actually had the most NBA minutes this season of the lot, averaging 13.2 per night over 33 games as a soon-to-be-27-year-old in what is essentially his rookie year. And he came into the night 10th on the Raptors in minutes played.

“Those guys were great — they were unbelievable in the first half,” Nurse said. “I think they scored 34 points off the bench. Jeez, we’ll take that every night of the week and we’d be in really good shape.”

It’s probably not wise counting on those 34 points every time out, particularly against stiffer defensive opposition than the Trail Blazers, who spent stretches of Tuesday’s game spectating. But some energy and production from that group is going to be necessary for a team trying to survive significant absences at the top end of its roster.

The Raptors’ lack of options offensively really caught up with them against the Blazers, as Lowry was forced to make 23 attempts (16 from beyond the arc) and Nurse was left drawing up isolation plays for Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in crunch time. There are shots to be claimed in this offence, and it’s up to one of Toronto’s reserves to prove they deserve to be making them.

Credit Brissett for putting up his hand. He was terrific during that late first-quarter stint, following up a big put-back off a miss on the offensive end with an intercept at the other, before sinking a no-hesitation three after a pinballing series of passes he started in transition:

“He really stays within himself. He’s really just trying to hustle, play defence, rebound and play rhythm offence,” Nurse said. “If it comes to him, he’s going to take the shot if he’s open. And if he’s got the ball, and he doesn’t have something, he gets off it. I think it’s important to have some guys like that.”

Brissett says his focus coming off the bench is playing aggressively, which sounds easy enough but isn’t when you’re an undrafted rookie thrust into the chaos of a live NBA game. Things like crashing the offensive glass, boxing out beneath his team’s rim, making a quick, decisive decision when the ball hits his hands.

“I’m starting to get it a lot more, with all the film that we watch, before, after games, and how much attention coach puts on those things. That’s really my job,” he said. “I’ve got to go in there and focus on (the defensive) end, and then the offence will come. I can’t really mess up on the defensive end or I’ll be right back on the bench.”

But the success of players like Brissett and Boucher — they each had a dozen with three offensive rebounds against Portland — highlights the struggles other Raptors have had in similar moments. Davis, for instance, appears dangerously close to being out of Nurse’s rotations altogether after playing only eight minutes Tuesday.

“He’s not playing very well,” Nurse said. “It was probably five (minutes) too many.”

Sign up for Raptors newsletters

Get the best of our Raptors coverage and exclusives delivered directly to your inbox!

Raptors Newsletter

Meanwhile, even amidst Toronto’s current straits, Malcolm Miller can’t get on the floor. Nurse gave him a few opportunities around Christmas, including a 17-minute stint during a three-point victory over the Dallas Mavericks in which Miller was a plus-29. But he’s since returned to the end of Toronto’s bench.

It’s not like he’s a focal point of Toronto’s offence, but it’s telling that Miller hasn’t scored a point in his last 14 appearances, including that brief stint when he was a rotation piece. The ability is there — he scored 13 points (going 4-of-5 from beyond the arc in the process) late in a blowout of the New York Knicks in November. But lately, Miller’s looked more timid and passive during his limited run, lacking the energy and aggressiveness Nurse generally looks for when awarding opportunities to players on his roster’s fringes.

“I did try to work him in there. He was kind of first off the bench there for about three games in a row,” Nurse said. “I’ve got to evaluate what I’m seeing out there and I didn’t quite see enough, and was hoping I could get a little more from another guy. And that’s it.

“You know me — if you go out there on these wildcard subbing things and produce, you may stay in the rest of the game. If you go out there and you’re impacting the game, you’re going to keep playing. That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

That’s why players like Brissett and Boucher are getting the run they are now. And it’s why you’re seeing funky lineups such as the one Nurse went to Tuesday. Part of its involuntary — the Raptors are running out of players and can only push Lowry so far. The other is which reserves are ready to seize the ample opportunities the Raptors currently have to award. And who’s going to help the Raptors get through this.

If it’s to be Brissett again Tuesday, it’ll happen in his third game in three nights. Same goes for Johnson and Thomas, who joined him in playing half an hour for the 905 on Monday. Brissett was asked if he’s feeling the weight of it all yet.

“I’m not even trying to think about that,” he said. “Just keep going tomorrow, stay focused, and try to play.”

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link