Raptors fall short against Nuggets but remain confident momentum is building

DENVER — Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher. 

It’s a baseball truism, credited to Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver. But it’s spring. Baseball season is around the corner, and it’s broadly applicable. The Toronto Raptors couldn’t have arrived in Denver in a better state: fully healthy other than the troublesome left thumb that has kept rookie Colin Murray-Boyles out for his 10^th consecutive game. 

They were also coming off three straight wins, each impressive in its own way.

You could feel the Raptors’ energy uptick. Even in Denver. 

“There’s so much opportunity out there for them. I think they see that,” said Nuggets head coach David Adelman. “You don’t know what’s gonna happen … I think they’ve been playing on a high all year because they’ve been in the mix all year … they’re a legit team in the conference. When you feel like that late in the season, it’s kind of a new feeling. They’re taking advantage of that. The momentum is high right now.”

But the Nuggets had three-time MVP Nikola Jokic taking the mound Friday night. Canadian all-star Jamal Murray waiting in relief. The team that was missing four starters when they beat the Raptors in Toronto on New Year’s Eve was missing only Peyton Watson.

Would the Raptors’ momentum, built on wins over Phoenix, Detroit and Chicago, continue to build? Or would the Nuggets mow them down like prime Roy Halladay?

The final score — 121-115 in favour of Denver — suggests no, the momentum did not carry over. At least not completely.

But a more charitable interpretation is that the Raptors were in the mix down the stretch against a veteran team with championship aspirations and only failed to beat Denver at what they do best: manipulating the final possessions of close games, something that has been a Raptors weakness for much of the season.

But the Raptors (39-30) remain fifth in the Eastern Conference as they head to Phoenix for the third game on their five-game road trip. And they remain confident that they have something building.

The Raptors starters, for example, were all in the double figures, led by another impressive outing by Jakob Poeltl, who finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds and two steals and helped hold Jokic to a relatively modest (for him) 22 points, eight rebounds and nine assists — all below his season averages. As a group, the Raptors starters were plus-17 in 17 minutes against one of the best starting units in the NBA.

And they got a nice spark off the bench from Ja’Kobe Walter, who scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half and was 4-of-5 on threes.

“The more we get healthy, the more we play together, the better it’s going to be for us,” said RJ Barrett (18 points on 6-of-14 shooting, four turnovers), who spent long stretches of the game matched up with Canadian Olympic teammate Murray. “I think we’re showing that on a nightly basis. But there are times and moments that we can play better as a team.”

For long stretches against the Nuggets, it was happening. The energy was there. The snap. The defensive effort against the NBA’s top-ranked offence.

The Raptors had a great start to the game, jumping out to an 11-2 lead and leading after the first quarter. If the Nuggets pushed back and were able to take a four-point lead at halftime, the Raptors were poised to snatch that advantage with emphasis.

The Raptors came out after halftime and dominated. At one point, they hit nine straight shots in the third.

In all, they converted 11 of their first 14 field goal attempts, fuelled by five Nuggets turnovers and shot 17-of-22 for the quarter and had 10 of their 32 assists as they opened up a nine-point lead to take into the fourth quarter.

But the Nuggets were playing at home and coming off one of their most disappointing losses of the season, on the road against the tanking Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. They have big goals and, as the sixth seed in the West, are feeling some urgency about building some momentum of their own to keep them in sight.

With Jokic on the bench, it was Murray who helped lead a Nuggets surge as he scored 12 of his game-high 31 points in the final frame. In the space of 90 seconds to start the fourth, he assisted former Raptor Bruce Brown (12 points on 4-of-6 shooting) on a three, hit a tough fadeaway jumper and then a three of his own to cut the Raptors’ lead to one.

It was his way of saying that everything was going to be fine.

“You know, even when they made shots, guys were still in the ball,” said Murray. “Guys were still playing hard and calling out coverage and stuff. But I mean, they’re still a good team, so they’re up on us, and we just made a good push, like we normally do.”

But the Raptors made their own push. Brandon Ingram (19 points on 7-of-12 shooting) hit a long jumper and a triple. Scottie Barnes (15 points, eight rebounds, eight assists, two steals and two blocks) attacked the paint for three crucial buckets and even blocked Jokic on a post-up.

It was a one or two-possession game for most of the fourth quarter, and after Poeltl scored on a reverse lay-up, he was fouled by Jokic and made the free throw to finish the three-point play. The game was tied with 59 seconds left.

But the Raptors’ momentum stalled from there. The Nuggets were able to go to variations of the Jokic-Murray two-man game that has been the NBA’s best for nearly a decade now, and were rewarded. In the final four minutes of the game, one of Jokic or Murray scored or assisted on every Nuggets bucket.

Prior to that, veteran Tim Hardaway Jr. had hit a pair of threes off offensive rebounds the Raptors weren’t able to track down. He scored 23 points on 7-of-10 three-point shooting.  

The Raptors could only lament that they couldn’t make their push last. Did their momentum carry over? Not completely, but they didn’t squander it.

“When we have a third quarter like that, we have to try and keep the momentum rolling into the fourth,” said Barrett. “They play very physical, one of the most physical teams, so all these games coming up now against these good teams, everyone is trying to fight for seeding everything. It’s playoff intensity.”

And for the most part, the Raptors brought just that into a difficult environment against a seasoned team with expectations of playing in June.

The Nuggets are looking for momentum too:

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” said Murray.  “But we just gotta go at our own pace and then focus on each game. And I thought tonight was like a great bounce-back energy game in front of our home fans. That’s just the energy we need to play with. Those were, those are the games where, if we had lost that game, our effort would have been something that I could have slept well with, you know. So it’s just good to come up with a win and start building some great.”

Yes, Murray and Jokic have seen that defence before: I asked Murray about his connection with Jokic, who the Kitchener native has played with his entire nine-year career, and this is what he said: “There’s a lot of communication with no words, just with the basketball and with our eyes,” he said. “And we’ve created a really good chemistry and also feel for each other. You know, we might have coverages, but he also reads me, and I read him and like, him as a being, he reads me and my emotion and stuff like that. So, yeah, we’ve seen a lot of coverages. We’ve seen teams being in a drop, teams being up with me. Teams try to switch it. They try to weaken it. Sometimes there’s teams that bring three defenders over. Teams that front him. So we just figure it out.”

Champagne problems: Nuggets head coach Adelman made an interesting observation about how Denver’s status as one of the NBA’s marquee teams offers a unique challenge that the Raptors, for example, don’t face in their current iteration: “With the streaming stations, obviously there are more national games,” said Adelman. “The league, they’re partners with these people. It’s cool to be important and that they want to see us play on national TV (but) going into back-to-backs is tough when you play a late game and lose an hour. We’ve done that three straight weeks, and we’re gonna do it again next week … I know (Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr) has talked about a (lower) number of games to make sure the basketball is quality … I agree with that. Or if you want a traditional 82, for the history of the game, statistically is important, I think they have to find a way to expand the calendar a little bit, in my opinion.”

The common man: It’s never a bad day when you run into Jonas Valanciunas. A few familiar faces got a chance to catch up with the much-loved former Raptor the morning of the game. He’s had a decent season playing back-up minutes for the Nuggets. He’s playing a career-low 13 minutes a game in his 14th season but still contributes 8.3 points and 4.9 rebounds a game — that’s 22 points and 13 rebounds on per 36-minute basis. He’s not lost his sense of humour, however. “What are you doing here so early?” (The Nuggets didn’t have a shootaround.) Without missing a beat: “I’m still a young guy. Here early to get my shots up to impress the coaches.” He said he’s enjoyed Denver: quiet, good for families, decent restaurants. Downside? The dry air: “I never had to use body lotion until I came here,” he said. Very relatable.