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Raptors fans got treated to a fun one on Wednesday night. An exciting, down to the wire battle with plenty of offence and a vintage Kyle Lowry game for good measure.
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Scottie Barnes shook out of whatever malaise had been holding him back, Fred VanVleet returned to spark the club he leads, O.G. Anunoby had another superstar-level game, Chris Boucher continued his pursuit of sixth man of the year honours and Thad Young was rock solid as a fill-in starter.
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All in all, a professional win ahead of a rare lull in the schedule that will provide some much-needed rest for a battered group.
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Anunoby might have played his best offensive game ever on Wednesday. He got whatever he wanted against the Heat. He made great reads (including at one point when he noticed the defence had parted like the Red Sea, resulting in an easy layup) and looked like a comfortable, top option scorer. This stretch of Anunoby being the main offensive weapon is going to pay considerable dividends once Pascal Siakam gets back. Add Gary Trent Jr. to the mix too and as long as the shot selection is good, a team that at times has looked limited offensively should get to a decent level on offence.
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Credit, as always, Nick Nurse’s schemes and Toronto’s execution on defence, but was still a bit weird to see Jimmy Butler be such a non-factor. Butler has long been a Raptor killer, one of the most notable in fact in the entire NBA. He used to drop 40-50 points on the Raptors regularly as a Bull and was the second-best player on the court in the Philadelphia playoff series, nearly willing the Sixers past Toronto (Kawhi had other plans). But Butler was so passive on Wednesday. He only really looked for his shot for one small stretch of the game. Four Miami players attempted more shots and he didn’t even seem his usual dominant self defensively.
Butler tied his season low for shot attempts and shot his third-fewest free throws. Oddly Butler had just one rebound, his worst game on the boards in four seasons. Can’t remember him ever looking so invisible against the Raptors. Maybe Bam Adebayo is more valuable than we thought?
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Some more thoughts:
In his first home start, Dalano Banton couldn’t build on his heroics in Detroit. Miami dared him to shoot and he couldn’t get the shots to fall. Banton hurt his ankle and Nurse super-sized instead with Boucher or Juancho Hernangomez out with the other starters.
This franchise has come a long way. Miami has long been one of the NBA’s gold standards as a franchise. They won titles and competed just about every year, drafted well and developed players as good as any other organization. But several years now Toronto has been at worst on par with the Heat and has joined Miami as one of the most well-respected franchises around. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said sometimes he wonders if VanVleet and Siakam would have had similar journeys had they been Heat products, given their strong development record.
Miami’s done it again with players like Max Strus, Gabe Vincent and likely Nikola (don’t call me Jokic) Jovic. Strus is noticeably better than he was a year ago, Vincent is just solid and Jovic looks too young to be served alcohol, but already looks like he’s going to be a player.
A playoff series between these two teams, if both were healthy, would be pretty fun. Whoever won would be beaten up for the next round though, no doubt about that.
THREE STARS:
1 O.G. Anunoby
2 Scottie Barnes
3 Kyle Lowry
Honourable mentions to VanVleet and Boucher, Young and Strus.
