The Oklahoma City have not been fined or been caught up in any confusion on the pre-game injury report about who is not playing because of rest, or who is not playing because they are hurt, who got hurt while they are resting, or needed rest after being hurt.
Once they decided the playoffs weren’t a priority they turned to Al Horford, the 34-year-old five-time all-star who was in the midst of an excellent bounce-back season, and gave him the rest of the season off.
Nevermind that he has two years and $53 million left on his contract, never mind that he was healthy and putting up some of his best offensive numbers in years, or that the Thunder were just a few games out of the 10th place, the final position for the play-in tournament.
The Thunder were going young – like, in-the-womb young given they have 34 draft picks to use over the next seven years – and Horford (who they acquired in an off-season trade with Philadelphia) no longer fit with their plans, even if he was one of their best players.
“I know what it’s like to be a young, aspiring player, and at this point in the season I understand how important playing meaningful minutes is for their careers and their development.” said Horford in a statement at the time, showing he was perfectly willing to step aside, stay healthy, collect his money and hope the Thunder can find a trade partner for the summer.
Which is all important context for the $25,000 the NBA fined the Raptors for “failing to comply with league policies governing player rest and injury reporting.”
The specifics of the penalty aren’t clear — it was more of a clerical mistake than anything, it seems.
“It’s difficult, administratively, which is I think what caused the fine,” said Nurse before the Raptors knocked off the Thunder 112-106 for their third straight win, which has put a dent in what seems like a pretty determined effort to improve their draft position.
It’s that time of year, when playing for next season often takes precedence over the season that’s underway.
It doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of fun things to watch for as the Raptors’ season winds down.
On Sunday night, two teams who were – in the big picture at least – indifferent to winning or losing provided the spectacle of three undrafted players from Montreal all starting in the same NBA game, and all looking brilliant.
Lu Dort – whose offensive repertoire is expanding in his second season to match his defence-first reputation – went off for 21 first-quarter points along on 7-of-7 shooting, while Chris Boucher responded with 17 points of his own in the quarter. Toss in a triple from Toronto centre Khem Birch and it was 41 points from the Montreal trio in the first quarter on 14-of-18 shooting.
For the night, they finished with 67 combined, with Dort finishing with 29 on 9-of-15 shooting, Boucher, 31 points on 16 shots, to go along with 12 rebounds and Birch 7 points to go with six rebounds, three assists and a block.
The game was competitive from start to finish. The Raptors trailed by three at the end of the first quarter and by 59-52 at half. Gary Trent Jr. put up 10 of his 23 in third quarter to give Toronto an 81-80 lead, setting the stage for a fourth quarter shoot out.
It was Boucher who will take bragging rights home with him to Montreal, though. He hit a triple with 1:59 left to break open a 102-102 with 2:27 left in a fourth quarter, the two teams within four points from the start until the final minutes.
Boucher then caught a slick pass from a penetrating Yuta Watanabe for a lay-up to put the Raptors up 107-102 with 1:59 to play. He then hit the game-clinching three with 10 seconds to play after Birch dropped Dort with a crushing screen that freed Trent Jr. and allowed him to attack the paint, draw the defence and find Boucher for his career-best sixth triple on nine attempts. Boucher scored 10 of the Raptors last 12 points.
The win improved Toronto to 24-34 and leaves them in 12th place, a game-and-a-half behind Chicago in 10th. The Thunder dropped their 10th straight and lost their 13th in 14 tries since Horford sat down for the season.
So, the basketball is still fun.
What’s difficult to digest at times is keeping track of who among the Raptors’ key rotation players are hurt or resting or resting and then hurt.
It’s an exercise in subterfuge, as opposed to transparency. The Raptors can’t really state their intentions and the result is a lot of fudging and hedging.
It falls to Nurse to do the explaining given he’s daily point of contact for the team, which is a bit unfair given it’s certain that the lineup decisions from game-to-game are being made above his head.
Consider Toronto’s injury report on Sunday, the day after they were fined.
Kyle Lowry was listed out for rest – even though he’s played only three games since the March 25 trade deadline. Some of those were due a recurring toe infection, but he’s been ‘resting’ for four straight games.
“I guess his toe’s better and he’s able to play but he’s resting,” said Nurse.
Pascal Siakam was out with a shoulder problem, but it’s not clear when or how the problem developed.
“I don’t know, I didn’t ask him,” was all Nurse could say.
And OG Anunoby, who was listed as out for ‘rest’ for Friday’s game against the Orlando Magic, and then listed as having knee swelling, and then listed as out against the Thunder due to a sore calf, apparently incurred while resting.
There’s no other way to put it: The Raptors would much prefer a chance at drafting in the top-five of a deep class than ‘winning’ the race for 10th spot in the Eastern Conference and the final spot in the play-in tournament.
But now they’re on the league’s radar, as the NBA abhors the appearance of teams rendering their regular season meaningless.
Meanwhile the Thunder — because they’ve traded away most of their experienced players for draft picks, have sat down budding star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the season due to plantar fasciitis and simply stopped playing Horford, can lose 12 of their last 13 games and no one blinks.
It’s a weird league, with strange incentives at times. Franchise-changing talents are typically found in the top of the draft and for teams that don’t consider themselves likely to be heading on deep playoff runs – and especially in the case of their Raptors, who can’t even count on playoff gate revenues they would get if playing at home at a packed house at Scotiabank Arena – often get to a point where they would rather lose than win.
But you can only do so much to curb competitive nature, and even as with teams that are already looking for next, there is plenty of cool stuff happening on the floor.
The Montreal basketball community can attest to that.
