The Toronto Raptors have posted their 15th win in a row, by defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves last night at the Scotiabank Arena, 137-126.
It was a nice game for watching, with lots of attractive moves and with an emphasis on offense. The new-look T-Wolves accepted Toronto’s style of play, adapting to it very well, but one poor stretch cost them the entire match.
In the last 7:25 of the third period, they’ve scored only 6 points, allowing the hosts to get that part of the game with 32-19, and to create what turned out the be the decisive gap in this event. Against teams like Toronto, you simply can’t have any blackouts.
“I think we’re getting everybody’s A-plus game. They were really good, I thought, for a lot of stretches. We just had to try to figure some things out,” said Nick Nurse, who praised the way Minnesota played.
Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell led the way among the guests, and they also had massive help from other players. Ryan Saunders uses many more players since the trade deadline ended, and he tries to figure out what would be the best way to use his new additions.
Russell dropped 22 points in his debut, and five assists and six turnovers, whooting 7-for-12 from the field and four threes. But his performance in the last period was below the level of play required to beat the champions. In that sequence, D-Lo posted two turnovers and an assist, not being able to score a single point.
We did try to trap him out of the timeouts a lot when we got the right matchups on him, and we turned him over twice out of timeouts for layups, which was huge,” Nurse said.
Meanwhile, KAT had 23 buckets with 10 bards and 7 assists. Juancho Hernangomez, Malik Beasley, and Jarrett Culvert all added 15 points each.
But, on the other side, they had superb Raptors, who had four players with 20 or more points. Pascal Siakam led the way with 34 buckets, Kyle Lowry added 27 with 11 assists and 7 boards, while OG Anunoby posted a strong double-double with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
Also, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had 21 points, and 6 boards. The starter with the least points Fred VanVleed ended the night with 16 buckets and 7 assists.
In general, Nurse didn’t change too much, mostly because once again, the Raps had problems with injuries. Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka were both out for this one, and we can say that the hosts turned to the small-ball style of play, which triggered such a high result.
With 40 wins and 14 losses, the champions are 6.5 games behind the Bucks, and two games ahead of the Celtics in the East. Up next, they visit Brooklyn to meet the Nets on Wednesday, and after that, play four straight matches at home.
During that stretch, Toronto will host the Suns, Pacers, Bucks, and the Hornets.
On the other side, Minnesota (16-36) has two straight contests at home, against the Charlotte Hornets this Wednesday and the Boston Celtics on Friday, Feb. 21.
