TORONTO – Ahead of his first playoff game at the helm of the Brooklyn Nets, interim head coach Jacque Vaughn – a Gregg Popovich disciple – shared an important lesson he picked up during his time as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs.
“I kind of expressed it to our staff today,” Vaughn said, roughly 90 minutes before his young and depleted Nets team tipped off its first-round series against the defending champion Toronto Raptors on Monday afternoon. “You get in this position, and I’ve seen it time and time again, [where] a coach wants to put his team through every side out of bounds, every out of bounds [play] from the other team, every play the other team is running. We don’t want to convolute our minds.”
“So I learned an extreme message from coach Pop. We were preparing for the Memphis series [in 2011]. I was in the office late one night and he walked in the office and said, 'Go home.' His message was keep your mind fresh. You get your group ready to play [but] there are some things that are out of your control. You can figure it out during the game. Lean on your instincts.”
Of course, that’s easier said than done, especially for a club that hasn’t been where the Raptors have been, and Toronto would know.
Prior to last year’s title run, the Raptors had a long and agonizing history of playoff failure with which to lament. The shooting woes of their best players, the embarrassing losses in Cleveland and series sweeps to the Cavs, the many Game 1 blunders – those things have a way of manifesting themselves in your head. Sometimes it’s hard not to overanalyze.
However, the very best and most experienced teams can tune out the noise. When you turn up the pressure they barely flinch. They know who they are and there’s almost nothing you can do to shake them. That’s what the Raptors have become.
“I think there was a very serious group going out on the floor today, the locker room was pretty quiet, they were focused and I think their play showed that,” said Toronto head coach Nick Nurse, following his team’s dominant wire-to-wire 134-110 victory over Brooklyn. “This is where it starts, you have to handle your successes and you’ve got to be able to bounce back from your failures. You have to learn a lot even though you won the game because it’s a long series. That’s maybe where our composure comes in.”
After years of coming out flat in playoff openers – they entered Monday’s contest with a confounding 1-10 all-time record in Game 1 of the first round, including last year’s defeat at the hands of the Magic – the Raptors were all business early on.
Fittingly, Kyle Lowry – who was famously held scoreless in that Game 1 loss to Orlando – scored the game’s first bucket; a three-pointer from the elbow. Later, he threw a length-of-the-court touchdown pass to Pascal Siakam, who finished the play with a layup. Then, he drew the first of three charges on the afternoon.
By the second quarter the lead grew to as many as 33 points. By halftime five different Raptors players had already scored in double figures. The ball was buzzing around, everybody was banging threes, and their trademark defence was unrelenting. The Nets were simply overmatched. It was a ruthless 24 minutes of basketball for the defending champs.
“I thought this was the most locked in we’ve been all year,” said Fred VanVleet, who went off in the second quarter and finished the game with a career playoff-high of 30 points and 11 assists, on 11-for-15 from the field and 8-of-10 from three-point range. “It felt like guys were amped up and energized. Having won [a championship] it kinda puts you at peace throughout the year and now it’s time to get into gear. So I thought we were pretty engaged. I loved our energy, our attentiveness and focus.”
There isn’t a player on Toronto’s roster that exemplifies the team’s championship confidence more than VanVleet.
“Whether it’s true or not, I feel like I can get my shot up at any time, especially with how the defences are playing me,” he said after his big performance.
To their credit, the Nets didn’t break, even after what could have been a demoralizing start. They kept fighting and chipping away at Toronto’s lead. That’s been their calling card in the bubble, where they surprised many by winning five of their eight seeding games despite coming to Disney without six rotation players.
Vaughn made some in-game adjustments, Caris LeVert adapted to VanVleet’s smothering defence by making plays for his teammates – he recorded 15 assists to go along with his 15 points – and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot got hot from the field, scoring 26 points off Brooklyn’s bench.
While the Nets were able to pull within eight points late in the third quarter, VanVleet and the Raptors calmly responded and put the game away.
“That was a battle,” said Lowry, who finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists. “They had a hell of a run. We know this is only one game. We understand that. It’s a long series. It’s only one game. Adjustments will be made. We have to continue to play hard and watch film and get better. I don’t think the circumstances matter, whatever they are, everyone is playing extremely hard.”
Those circumstances – playing their postseason opener in a relatively empty gym instead of at Scotiabank Arena, in front of 20,000 Raptors fans – as unusual as they were, didn’t seem to faze them. Despite having the league’s toughest schedule, Toronto went 7-1 in the seeding games. Even without the crowd, they’ve found ways to manufacture their own energy.
On Monday, they fed off the pre-game festivities. First, Canadian singer and songwriter Jessie Reyez performed a moving rendition of the national anthem, while kneeling atop Toronto’s CN Tower. Then, borrowing an idea from the Phoenix Suns, the team played video clips of the players’ kids and family members introducing the starting lineup.
“They got me hyped,” said Lowry, who had a big smile on his face as he watched his two young sons announce his name just before tip-off. “I wanted to cry tears of joy. It got me going. That right there shows who we play for: our fans, our families, our friends.”
Toronto had seven players score in double figures. Lowry set the tone early, while OG Anunoby (12 points) had a strong finish and a big fourth-quarter dunk. Siakam got to the line nine times and recorded a double-double of 18 points and 11 rebounds. VanVleet became the first Raptor to score at least 30 points and register more than 10 assists in a playoff game, Marc Gasol (13 points) punished Brooklyn’s small-ball centres, and Serge Ibaka (22 points) and rookie Terence Davis (11 points) both delivered off the bench.
It wasn’t a flawless showing, to be sure. Siakam continued to struggle with his shot, going 4-for-13, and the team’s half-court offence stalled in the third quarter, as the Nets made their run. Still, it was a good and professional start to the Raptors’ title defence.
“[The Nets] play really hard and in one of those time outs, [Nurse] just reminded the guys, like you know we’re not going to blow everybody out all the time,” VanVleet said. “This is the playoffs, everybody belongs here and we did our job by getting a big cushion – that’s what you’re supposed to do, then you’ve got to play with a lead. So obviously we’d like to win by 40, but that’s not going to happen, those guys are pros, too, and they made a big run. So we’ll look at the film, see what we can clean up, but overall I thought it was a good win.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMia2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRzbi5jYS90b3JvbnRvLXJhcHRvcnMtZmxleC1jaGFtcGlvbnNoaXAtbXVzY2xlcy1pbi1kb21pbmFudC1nYW1lLTEtd2luLW92ZXItYnJvb2tseW4tMS4xNTEwNjU50gEA?oc=5
2020-08-18 02:54:06Z
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