OKLAHOMA CITY — How much of the MVP would the Oklahoma City Thunder need?
How much of the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander experience would the Toronto Raptors experience first-hand?
Those were the burning questions as the Raptors took the floor Sunday in frigid Oklahoma City, which – like Toronto – was dealing with a record-setting snow accumulation: 11.2 centimetres on Saturday and 20.3 centimetres over the weekend.
Hey, these things are relative.
But Gilgeous-Alexander is the storm that never ends. The defending-champion Thunder came into Sunday’s matchup missing two starters in Jalen Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein as well as key reserves Ajay Mitchell and Alex Caruso. They lost another regular, Cason Wallace, to injury in the first half.
Normally, that would be considered a good thing for an opponent, but the Thunder have compensated by turning Gilgeous-Alexander up to 11. The reigning MVP and presumptive MVP for this season came into Sunday’s matchup averaging 39 points on 66.3-per-cent shooting (46.2 per cent from three) in his previous four starts. Exceptional, even by his lofty standards.
But the Thunder suddenly look ordinary as they try to wade through their swamp of injuries — they lost two of those four games and were 12-8 since Dec. 13 after starting the season 23-1. They need everything the Hamilton native can give at the moment, and he knows it.
“I think just naturally the ball is in my hands more because there are less playmakers out there,” he said when we spoke after he put up 47 points in the Thunder’s loss to Indiana on Friday. “I’m pretty sure my usage rate has probably been higher [recently], but whatever the game calls for, I’m going to do. If I need to be on it in certain situations, but definitely with guys being out, I’m going to be on the ball a little bit more.”
The Raptors came prepared for all eventualities — in particular, second-year wing Ja’Kobe Walter. In his first game back since missing his last seven with a hip pointer, the rangy defender stepped into the fire with both feet. He tried to limit the number of touches Gilgeous-Alexander would get by denying the ball on the entry pass after made baskets, picking him up full court when he did get the inbounds and otherwise hugging him wherever he went after that. And when he got the ball? Do his best.
For Raptors fans of a certain vintage, it was very ‘janky’ defence, reminiscent of the clamps Fred VanVleet put on Steph Curry in the NBA Finals in 2019. There are worse traditions.
You would have to say it was a considerable success. The Raptors earned one of the grittiest wins of the season, 103-101, with a series of clutch plays from Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley down the stretch of a game where the two teams were never separated by more than two possessions in the fourth quarter, or seven points for the evening.
The victory improved Toronto to a season-best 10 games over .500 at 29-19, and gave them a 4-1 record on their western swing. The Raptors are now alone in third place in the Eastern Conference, a half-game behind second-place Boston.
Gilgeous-Alexander was not erased because that’s impossible. He is, literally, too good. The national team star finished with 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting along with six assists, but given he averages 32.3 points per game on the season and arrived on a four-game heater, holding down Gilgeous-Alexander was a win. The triumph came with the Raptors missing two key players: Jakob Poeltl (back) and Collin Murray-Boyles (thumb).
“This is a championship-level team, with so many talented players, so you have to pick your poison, what you will live with,” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, whose first coaching job in North America was with Oklahoma City’s G-League team 15 years ago. “We really wanted to limit the touches that Shai got and make it really hard on him.”
Walter was up for the job, getting the heads-up a couple of days earlier that living in Gilgeous-Alexander’s No. 2 jersey would be his assignment, should he choose to accept it.
He jumped in with both feet.
“We all know Shai’s the MVP, but at the end of the day it’s just embracing the challenge, knowing what his tendencies are,” said Walter, who also contributed nine points and three steals in his 28 minutes. “You can’t stop everything, but you can make it tough on him, so that’s just what I was aiming to do. Just be in him, make every shot tough, make it hard for him to get the ball … like as soon as we made a shot, you know, get on him early, get the ball out of his hands. That was just kind of the mentality.”
He wasn’t alone in the assignment. Jamal Shead and Ochai Agbaji took their turns. But the ultimate expression of the coaching staff’s confidence came when Rajakovic matched Walter’s minutes with Gilgeous-Alexander’s in the fourth quarter, subbing Walter back in the game when the Thunder star checked in with 7:38 left in a three-point game, OKC leading.
The result? Gilgeous-Alexander, who had scored 15 points in the fourth against Indiana on Friday, was limited to one field-goal attempt and three points when the Thunder needed his offence most. It was impressive stuff.
But there was also the matter of the Raptors making enough plays to win the game.
The biggest moments came in the final two minutes. Rajakovic went with his two-point-guard lineup again and was rewarded when Shead punched the paint twice to collapse the Thunder defence and start some crisp late-game ball movement sequences against the NBA’s best defence. In each case, the final pass found a red-hot Quickley. On consecutive trips, he knocked down threes that put Toronto up by one with 1:49 to play and ahead by four with 1:16 to play.
After Chet Holmgren had cut the Raptors’ lead to two and Toronto had come up empty on the subsequent trip when Brandon Ingram missed a good look from the free-throw line in the final minute, Barnes turned in another play that will look good on his reel for first-team all-defence as he squared up the seven-foot Holmgren, jumped with him as the Thunder forward rose to shoot and blocked the seven-footer’s shot cleanly.
The Raptors still weren’t clear of the storm. Shead had a chance to close the game but missed a pair of free throws with nine seconds left. No problem: Barnes fought through the Thunder’s box-out to get one of his giant mitts on the loose ball and tap it back to Quickley, who was fouled and buried both, putting the game on ice.
Barnes finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, three blocked shots and showcased another example of his unique ability to change games in the final moments by any means required.
And Quickley? His eight-point splurge in the final two minutes gave him 23 for the game on 6-of-10 shooting from deep and his 11 rebounds were helpful on a night when the Raptors were playing small by necessity and needed some rebounding from everyone.
“The ball movement was big time,” said Quickley. “Everybody chipped in. That rebound (Barnes) got was huge and [defensively]credit to those guys. Ja’Kobe, Jamal, Ochai (Agbaji), the coaching staff for coming up with that game plan … obviously it’s hard to hold a talented player like Shai to under 30 points. It’s credit to a lot of people.”
The Raptors got the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander experience, but not as much as the Thunder needed him to give.
Doing the right thing
The National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) has spoken up during moments of political conflict and social unrest before — memorably, in relation to the events preceding and during the resumption of the 2019-20 COVID-impacted season in the ‘bubble’ at Disney World in Orlando, as well in the discussions that surrounded the suspension of play during the playoffs when the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to take the floor after the shooting of Jacob Blake by police in Kenosha, Wis.
The action — coming on the heels of the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in the months prior — led to the NBA and its players embarking on a number of social-justice-themed initiatives.
In that context, it’s not surprising but still commendable that the NBPA was the first major sports entity to make a statement in the wake of the fatal shooting of a man by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents on Saturday.
“Now more than ever, we must defend the right to freedom of speech and stand in solidarity with the people in Minnesota protesting and risking their lives to demand justice,” the statement read. “The fraternity of NBA players, like the United States itself, is a community enriched by its global citizens, and we refuse to let the flames of division threaten the civil liberties that are meant to protect us all. The NBPA and its members extend our deepest condolences to the families of (shooting victims) Alex Pretti and Renee Good, just as our thoughts remain focused on the safety and well-being of all members of our community.”
-
-
The Raptors Show
Sportsnet’s Blake Murphy and two-time NBA champion Matt Bonner cover all things Raptors and the NBA. Airing every weekday live on Sportsnet 590 The FAN from 11 a.m.-noon ET.
Raptors veteran Garrett Temple has been a member of the NBPA executive since 2017 and said the players’ statement was simply recognizing right from wrong:
“It’s just understanding that we have a voice and making (sure) that we use our voice,” Temple told me in the Raptors locker room. “There are a lot of things that matter a lot more than basketball that are going on in our community, you know what I’m saying? Rules have to followed, laws are laws, but that can be done while keeping your humanity.”
Staying consistent
Quickley prides himself on the consistency of his work habits, trusting that over time his steady approach will yield positive results. It’s his way of looking past the highs and lows that inevitably are part of a long NBA season.
But he’s on fire lately, playing his best basketball of the season. The Raptors’ four-game winning streak overlaps with him averaging 25.3 points per game, along with 6.8 rebounds, 6.8 assists and two steals while shooting 61.1 per cent from the floor and 61.5 per cent from deep.
“I don’t do that up-and-down stuff. When stuff’s going good everybody’s like ‘ahhh’ and when stuff not going good to other people’s eyes, then everyone going to have a problem. I’m somebody that’s staying even-keeled throughout the whole thing. I’m going to continue to work, watch film, take care of my body and trust in God, that’s probably the biggest thing.”
SGA … still improving?
Gilgeous-Alexander has finished fifth, second and first in MVP balloting in the past three seasons and — given that his closest competition for the award, Denver’s Nikola Jokic, likely won’t play the required 65 games for consideration — is the generous favourite to win it again this year, The Canadian also was the Finals MVP last season.
But according to Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, the 27-year-old is still improving.
“He does an unbelievable job in the summer and an unbelievable job in the season of maintaining a very consistent regiment that allows him to continue to get better,” said Daigneault, citing the Thunder’s 23-game run through the crucible of playoff basketball on the way to their title as another opportunity Gilgeous-Alexander took to improve.
“But his poise, his understanding of how to manipulate the game, his feel for when to be aggressive and when to try to activate his teammates, I think that’s probably been his biggest improvement this season. Not that it was lacking, but he’s taken another step forward.”
Gilgeous Alexander is averaging a career-best 60.8 per cent on two-point field goals, and his 39.6-per-cent success rate on threes is his best in the last five years. His two turnovers per game is Gilgeous-Alexander’s lowest mark since becoming a lead guard in his third season.
