Toronto Raptors couldn’t beat Denver Nuggets in Colorado last night, and the reigning champs recorded their 18th loss of the season, 133-118. Without Serge Ibaka, Marc Gasol and Fred VanVleet, the guests from Canada weren’t able to stop the second-placed team in the Western Conference.
Ibaka’s and particularly Gasol’s absence allowed Nuggets’ All-NBA First-Team center, Nikola Jokic to hurt the Raptors in all sorts of ways. The Serbian fellow scored 23 points, but also added 18 boards and 11 assists, posting his 40th career triple-double, 12th of the season.
Jokic was the central figure on the court, but his coach Michael Malone credited his sidekicks, who were using all the advantages of having one elite player besides them.
“Even though Nikola had a triple-double and other guys played well, I thought Jerami Grant ‘s performance was the most impactful,” he explained.
Grant ended the night with 16 points, and had six assists. Jamal Murray scored 22 hittings 6 threes in 10 shots, while Torey Craig once again brought energy from the bench, delivering 17 points. The Nuggets were 56.6% from the floor, and 50% from the downtown territory, making 18 hits in 36 attempts. One other thing, they had 38 assists.
Pascal Siakam admitted after the match, that it was mostly due to Toronto’s lack of energy. The Most Improved Player of 2019, stated that he and his teammates allowed too many easy points to the hosts.
“We didn’t do a good job of guarding them and putting some pressure on them,” he said. “They had a lot of back-cuts, easy layups. Not a lot of protection under the rim.”
The Raptors came back after -13 in the first period, to stay in the game until the start of the fourth quarter. Shorter rotation, and the fact that there was no Ibaka who might chase Jokic and put pressure on the Serb, provided a chance for the Nuggets to pull away which they did.
Nick Nurse’s team tried to hold on, but that effort wasn’t enough. OG Anunoby played one of the best games in his career. He scored 32 points, his personal-best, was 12-for-16 from the field with 7 boards and 7 steals. Without a doubt, the 22-year old is becoming a decent replacement for Kawhi Leonard, and if he continued to develop like this, Toronto might get a game-changer that will be a leader of this franchise for many years.
Norman Powell dropped 24 points with 6 boards, Kyle Lowry had 17, but shooting threes 2-for-10, while Siakam ended the night with 16 points, 7 boards and 5 steals. Toronto was pretty bad for three, 10-for-38, only 26.3%. Also, the Nuggets limited them to 36 boards, which is a rare thing to see.
The Raptors (42-18) started a five-game road trip with this match. After Denver, they travel to Phoenix, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City. The game against the Suns is set for Tuesday.
On the other side, the Nuggets (41-19) host the Golden State Warriors also on Tuesday, before jumping to North Carolina to meet the Hornets and Ohio, where they face the Cleveland Cavaliers. Those two will be played on back-to-back nights, next Thursday and Friday.
