Shorthanded Raptors nearly author another March miracle

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DENVER — Michael Malone was a young assistant coach at Providence College in March of 1995. With his season over and with his father, Brendan Malone, wrapping up his season as head coach of the expansion Toronto Raptors, the younger Malone drove up to Toronto with his then-girlfriend, now wife, and joined the rest of his family as the lowly Raptors took on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who were on their way to a 72-10 record and what would be their fourth of six championships.

But on that Sunday evening, the Raptors were better, somehow, and pulled off one of the great upsets in Raptors franchise history in front of 36,000 people at what was then SkyDome. The elder Malone was fired a few weeks later — it was the only head coaching opportunity the widely respected assistant ever got. He passed away in October of this year, but not before he saw his son win an NBA championship as head coach of the Denver Nuggets.

But seeing his father defeat the Bulls left an impression on the son. “To see him win and how excited he was is one of my favourite memories,” he said.

All of which to say: Upsets do happen.

The Raptors nearly pulled off a memorable one on a Monday night in March as they led the Denver Nuggets by 20 points early in the third quarter and by five to start the fourth, all of this while missing the following players due to injury: Scottie Barnes (hand), Jakob Poeltl (finger), Immanuel Quickley (hip flexor), Gary Trent Jr. (groin) and Chris Boucher (knee). That’s four starters and one of their best bench pieces.

Could it last? Could the shadow Raptors somehow steal a win from the Nuggets, who are warming up for their title defence by going 8-2 out of the all-star break?

Unfortunately not, but not because it seemed like every Raptor who hit the floor didn’t play above their heads. RJ Barrett tied a career-high with nine assists to go along with 26 points in 39 minutes as he took over much of the playmaking duties. “I gave you everything I had,” he told head coach Darko Rajakovic when the latter saw him moving slowly down the hall at Ball Arena.

Rookie Gradey Dick was mostly spotless in his second consecutive start and third of his career, finishing with 17 points and a career-best seven assists and two steals in 36 minutes. Kelly Olynyk had 24 points and six rebounds, trying to make Nuggets star Nikola Jokic work defensively and former Nugget Bruce Brown had one of his best games as a Raptor with 13 points, 10 rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes, his first action after missing four games with a knee problem. The Raptors even got 26 combined points on 10-of-18 shooting from Jontay Porter and Jalen McDaniels off the bench.

It was almost enough. A spinning lay-up by Barrett with 1:23 to play kept the Raptors within two points after the Nuggets had finally come all the way back and taken the lead on a floater by fellow Canadian Jamal Murray. But a triple by Michael Porter Jr. on a rifled pass from Murray put Denver up five and the Raptors didn’t score again.

The Nuggets never panicked, even after being down 22 in the second quarter. Jokic meandered his way to 35 points, 17 rebounds, 12 assists, six steals and two blocked shots, while Murray scored 12 of his 26 points and counted six of his 12 assists in the fourth quarter.

“It was obviously a great first half for us, everybody was into it,” said Barrett. “We knew in the second half they were going to be more aggressive, and I think they just showed their championship pedigree with the way they responded.”

From the Raptors’ perspective, history was not made and there will be no “remember when Toronto was missing half their roster and beat the Nuggets?” replays. The facts are Toronto lost their fourth straight and sixth in their past seven games to fall to 23-42 on the year, but they can at least leave Denver with their heads held high. On this night the better team did what they were supposed to do.

Some notes:

Undersized

The Raptors were never a big team and with Jakob Poeltl and now Boucher out — the Montrealer could well be done for the season with a partially torn MCL — they are extremely undersized. In that context you have to feel for Olynyk who has become the Raptors’ starting centre by default and — just on this trip — has had to wrestle with Jusuf Nurkic in Phoenix, DeAndre Ayton in Portland and Jokic at altitude in Denver.

It was interesting watching Jokic against Olynyk from the point of view that the Canadian is one of the most skilled and sharpest passing big men in the league — he had eight assists against Portland, though just one against Denver as he was the trigger man often as the Raptors tried to make Jokic defend more outside of the paint — and yet Jokic is figuratively in another league.

Olynyk gets it: “Sometimes you’re just like, ‘Yeah, I mean, he’s just really, really good’. He sees things ahead of the play but then he also has the size and the body and the touch to do things other people can’t. Yeah. He amazes me definitely.”

Olynyk said what impresses him most is the way Jokic runs the game like the way the great point guards do. When Michael Porter Jr. hit a pair of threes in the first quarter, Jokic made a point of drawing the defence so he could set up his teammate for another open look, which spilled out. Then down the stretch, Jokic took a back seat in terms of scoring but was directing traffic, manipulating screens, and generally providing the grease the Nuggets offence needed.

“His feel for what the game needs is underrated, whether it’s passing, scoring, slowing the game down,” said Olynyk. “People don’t really talk about how much of a game manager he actually is. Everyone talks about point guards as the ones who dictate the pace and manage the game, but the way he elevates the ball and moves the ball and finds guys in positions where they need the ball or guys who need a touch… I think his game management is not talked about as much as I think it should be.”

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Porter brothers share NBA floor for first time

When Jontay Porter joined the Raptors on a two-way contract and began playing regularly in early January, he looked at the coming schedule and circled March 11. The Raptors were going to be in Denver, and it looked like he would be with them and appearing on an NBA floor with his older brother Michael Porter Jr. for the first time.

Their respective teams had met when Jontay Porter was in Memphis, but the Nuggets blew the Grizzlies out and Michael Porter Jr. wasn’t on the floor when his brother got on the court in garbage time. The Raptors’ Porter played with his older brother through high school and club basketball in Missouri, and credits Michael Porter Jr. for helping him get over his knee injuries and keeping his NBA dream alive.

“It’s a really cool night, really special,” said Jontay before the game. “We had it circled for sure, especially early in the season when I was playing a lot with the Raptors before I went back to the G league… my family had their flights booked ahead of time to save on money. Hopefully we can go out there, go to war and then have dinner afterwards and have a good time.”

They’ll have plenty to talk about. They were on the floor together in the first quarter, overlapping for about two minutes. Each of them played well. The Nuggets’ Porter scored nine of his 19 in the opening frame while Jontay Porter hit a three. Porter’s best moment for the Raptors came late in the third quarter with the Nuggets making a run as he stepped into a corner three that briefly paused their momentum. He finished with 14 points and five assists and was able to exchange jerseys with his brother after the game.

During the game, Jontay said that his brother caught him hanging on his shorts and said: “That altitude is tough, huh?” He later talked a little smack as he was scoring a floater over him. But later big brother was beaming: “To actually be on the court and play significant minutes with him and be on the court when he’s hitting big-time threes to keep his team in the game, that was cool, because part of me genuinely wanted him to hit every shot he took, but part of me wanted him, obviously, to miss. It was weird.”

Boucher avoids surgery

Boucher told me his right knee wasn’t right when he woke up Sunday morning and felt loose to him. Boucher has some experience, having torn the ACL in his left knee seven years ago this month in the NCAA tournament with Oregon.

Initially, it was thought he was just bruised after he got tangled up with the Trail Blazers’ Matisse Thybulle as Boucher made a game-tying tip-in with less than a second left in regulation against Portland. But further examination showed a tear, although the good news is surgery will not be required.

Still, it’s hard to imagine Boucher returning this season with just 17 games left. He’ll join Poeltl and Barnes as the Raptors’ third (potentially) season-ending injury suffered this month.

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