RAPTORS VS GRIZZLIES
By Freddie Rivas
????Nifty Nick: Welcome to the Nurse clinic! Game of the year from the coach. Played the starters heavy minutes because he needed too, prepped Kawhi for double teams, showed flashes of zone to slow up the Grizz in the 3rd and for the most part, made the right subs at the right time. Yes, Nurse has a stacked roster, but he’s done a fantastic job so far and games like this should have people talking about him as a COY candidate.
????What a second half and what a win! The raps dropped 34 in the 3rd and 29 in the 4th on the road, against the best defensive team in the NBA????
????FVV making that system work! FVV has been a career 3 point shooter and it was only a matter of time until the treys started dropping. Nurse’s system needs the ancillary guys to take and make 3’s at a high volume, and it’s starting to happen; which should terrify the rest of the league. So far this season; Danny is on fire, Delon/Norm have shot very well on a small sample size, Kyle/Fred are just above league average and Kawhi/JV/????️/OG are all shooting at a respectable level. That’s ????power!
????The raps biggest weaknesses may be superstar bigs + guards that can drop floaters. AD & Jrue put this team through the ringer. It was looking like forgotten stars Mark and Mike might do the same, but Ibaka hit some key jumpers while JV was on the floor for the takeover. Memphis gritty < Toronto committee
????This team is really gelling. Kyle went down hard near half court in the second quarter; and was Kyle angry about it, but then Kawhi hard fouled on the next play and I don’t think it was a coincidence. Kawhi was also pissed off, and Nurse seeing this, sprung into action and got a tech. This might all be meaningless, but I don’t think it is. Kyle/Kawhi/Nurse are all a bit angry and it’s kind of great when they channel it. In Kyle’s post game, he laughed about Nurse and him agreeing not to swear at the refs anymore in the second half, and also had the classic Kyle analysis when he’s in a great mood post game- “We were just out there playing basketball”. Yes they were, and yes we are.