ORLANDO — Maybe Nick Nurse knew something coming in to this one.
A popular narrative upon arrival in Orlando was how would the Raptors finally take advantage of the opportunity to get two of these new-to-this-season two-game series the league has instituted to cut down on travel and wear and tear.
As the Canadian national soccer teams head to their respective FIFA World Cups, Derek Van Diest is on the scene to cover all the action. Expect expert insights and analysis in your inbox daily throughout the tournaments, and weekly on Thursdays for the rest of the season.
Thanks for signing up!
A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.
The next issue of Corner Kicks with Derek Van Diest will soon be in your inbox.
It was their third attempt at a sweep in one of these and so far they had split the first two, first in Miami and then at home against Philadelphia.
Nurse wanted no part of that narrative.
“I don’t have any comment on that,” Nurse said when asked if this was a good time to be coming to Orlando … the suggestion being they are a struggling team that looks imminently beatable particularly now with some injury woes.
“You know how I feel,” Nurse said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, where we play, we (have to) play really good, really hard, really together. If we do, we play really good basketball. If we don’t, we don’t …”
The Raptors had absolutely no answer for the constantly moving, constantly creating Franz Wagner, the guy who incidentally was taken eighth overall the year the Raptors took Scottie Barnes fourth.
Where Wagner was all over this one from the very beginning, Barnes spent large portions of the night invisible.
The reigning rookie of the year has been better of late but this one was reminiscent of his no-show in the New Orleans game eight days ago.
Barnes had six points, two assists, and six rebounds for the game, while Wagner was sitting on a 32-point night through the first three frames. He finished with 36 in a 113-109 loss
Pascal Siakam, though, was not quite ready to let this one go and almost pulled it out by himself.
He may not have matched Wagner in the points department, but with the game on the line, he did a little bit of everything to give his team a shot.
With the game dangerously close to getting away from the Raptors permanently, Siakam refused to let it go.
He nailed the put-back to get the game down to four points.
Fred VanVleet had a shot to send this one into overtime but his mid-range jumper over a defender hit front rim and bounced out preserving the win for the Magic.
The two teams seemed content to just trade buckets over the first 24 minutes.
Siakam kept the Raptors in it in the early going, but the bucket trading continued into the second quarter as the Raptors offence moved from Siakam to Gary Trent Jr.
Siakam finished the half with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Trent Jr., off the bench was good on 6-of-9 for 15 points.
Defensively this was not exactly a tour de force for the Raptors, who game up 37 in the first quarter to the No. 2-ranked offence and another 30 in the second quarter.
Fortunately for the Raptors, the Magic defence isn’t exactly stellar either, as it got back into this one with 38 in the second after being down as many as 14.
Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, the early favourite for Rookie of the Year (but don’t sleep on Pacers and Montreal native Ben Mathurin) were the real problems for Toronto’s defence finishing the half with 18 and 15 points respectively.
THE KOLOKO PROJECT
It’s not the first time the Raptors have bit the bullet and let a rookie play through his mistakes.
And if Christian Koloko turns out remotely like Siakam did, it will all be worth it.
But in the meantime there are some growing pains to endure and Koloko is going through that process right now.
“Well, he is having some adventures out there to be honest, but what he is, is very intelligent,” Nurse said pre-game of the 7-foot centre who hails from the same home town in Cameroon as the aforementioned Siakam.
“He wants to do the right thing. He does try really hard. So he has made some growth just by being out there and experiencing all this.
“I think he has some capability to be a lob threat,” Nurse said. “It’s come and gone a little bit. He has got some capability to be a shot-blocking threat and that’s come and gone a little bit as well. You know, up and down rookie season. I also think he has the ability to shoot a little bit … which hasn’t come yet. But it will probably join the other two in that category at some point because he does work hard at it, has good mechanics and good touch.”
In short, Nurse sees the pot of gold at the end of that rainbow but it’s not quite within reach at the moment.
The other issue has been Koloko’s inability to stay out of foul trouble and on that score, Nurse believes the big man is not getting a fair shake.
“I think for whatever reason he seems to be one of those guys that they just don’t let him block as many shots as he’s blocking,” Nurse said. “There are some guys they let just swing and swing and swing and block. With him, it seems like every time he goes to block one the whistle is blown, but as he is going up. Again, that is a little more time in the league and them (officials) getting to know that he actually was the No. 1 shot blocker in college basketball last year. And all those kinds of things. He can block shots and he’s getting a piece of a lot of them, a small maybe, if any piece of the shooter. And he’s suffering from some of that.”
-
Chris Boucher's ever-evolving game adds mid-range jumper to give Raptors added weapon
-
Drake and son Adonis watch Raptors trounce LeBron-less Lakers
mganter@postmedia.com
