PHOENIX – It wasn’t exactly the film session from hell, but Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse didn’t like what he’s been seeing from big man Chris Boucher lately and told him about it, in plain language, in front of his teammates as they were preparing for Wednesday night’s game against the Phoenix Suns.
Message received.
“He told me, you know, that I didn’t look too involved and that somehow I just had to snap out of it and just focus in on the game,” said Boucher after having a career night off the bench in Toronto’s much-needed 123-114 win over the Suns that snapped a three-game losing streak.
“I’ve been having a great year, so it would suck for me to just mess it up, and that kind of helped me out, I think. You always want to hear what your coach thinks, and that helped me out.”
And then Boucher helped the Raptors out. With fellow bigs Marc Gasol (hamstring) and Serge Ibaka (knee) out and starting guard Fred VanVleet (shoulder) missing, too, Toronto needed some kind of spark from outside their remaining core. Boucher lit a fire. He finished with 19 points and a career-high 15 rebounds in a career-high 29 minutes off the bench, including six offensive rebounds, which helped him get to the line eight times. He rounded out his boxscore with two steals, two threes and a blocked shot.
His coach was pleased.
“Whatever the reason, he wasn’t quite engaged here lately or was trying to ease into games or whatever it was — wasn’t working,” said Nurse.
“You could see from the second he hit the floor tonight, he was done with that. I think the first possession he blocked a shot, got a rebound — or two or three offensive rebounds on the same play, he was just all over the place, right?
“Obviously, he had his mind right, going in there with the intensity he needed to play at and, well, I think everybody needs to play with intensity when they hit the floor, but probably especially young guys and guys off the bench. They really have to bring a level of jacked-up energy when they come in, and you could see that with him tonight. And it just carried over all over the place.”
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Boucher was a live wire all night and, fittingly, broke up a tie game with two minutes left and hit a pair of free throws with just over a minute remaining that put the Raptors up for good. With the victory, Toronto improved to 43-18 and 1-1 on its five-game road trip.
Not only did the win halt the Raptors’ losing streak before their first game against the Golden State Warriors since the Finals — coming up Thursday — but a loss by the Boston Celtics helped the Raptors stay 1 1/2 games ahead for second place in the Eastern Conference.
Certainly, the healthy Raptors stars did their part in Tuesday’s win.
Pascal Siakam bounced back in a big way from a frustrating outing against the Denver Nuggets to start the road trip. He played one of his most complete games of the season, finishing with 33 points on 20 shots. Lowry was brilliant with 28 points and six assists, while Norman Powell continued his instant-offence routine en route to 26 points on 15 shots.
But they needed help. Boucher provided his share and OG Anunoby mixed in a hard-nosed performance, wrestling with Suns centre Deandre Ayton most of night and limiting him to 13 points (well below his 19 points per game average) while still having the legs to chip in 11 points and nine rebounds of his own before fouling out late.
Nurse was practically begging for someone outside of the core players to come up with a big game, to spark the team.
Over the course of two unimpressive losses to the Charlotte Hornets and Nuggets, that was missing.
“Listen, let’s not sugar coat it, those guys haven’t played worth a darn, that whole crew on this last three or four games,” Nurse said before the game. “If we’re going to sing their praises for game after game after game, (we need to say) when they’re not playing well and they haven’t.”
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Nurse was merely echoing what he’s said to Boucher privately earlier, a tactic Lowry thought was necessary.
“We needed him to do that,” said Lowry, who had to leave the game in the first quarter after taking a stray Terence Davis elbow to his left eye. “I think coach did a good job of talking to him and Chris is a guy who can give us a lot of different looks and give us energy, and tonight he gave us everything we needed. Hit a big three there down the stretch, got a big block and just played hard. Sometimes you forget that you have to play hard every single possession, every single night and coach reminded him of that tonight.”
For his part Lowry said the blurry vision was the key to his second-half burst when he scored 15 points, helping the Raptors back from what had been a 17-point hole early in the second quarter
“I couldn’t see for s— all I could see was the rim, that’s why I shot more than I usually do.”
In the two previous games without either Gasol or Ibaka ahead of him in rotation, Boucher failed to have an impact. In 16 minutes against Charlotte, Boucher could muster just two rebounds, and with the Raptors desperate for bodies against the Nuggets, he picked up four quick fouls – double the number of rebounds he gathered – and perhaps an explanation for why he only played 8:42.
He wasn’t alone in his struggles. Davis is now 2-of-13 from deep in his past four games and Pat McCaw has been his typically erratic self in three games since missing three after the All-Star break with the flu.
With Siakam admittedly going through his own rough patch, someone needed to step up.
Siakam did, putting together one of his most complete games of the season.
“Just continue to get better, continue to learn from my mistakes,” he said. “I know what matters at the end of the day, I just got to continue to enjoy the process, just knowing that there are going to be games where you’re not going to play and well and finding different ways to affect the game.”
The Raptors were teetering early against the Suns. They trailed 39-30 after the first quarter and were down by 17 early in the second.
But that’s roughly when Boucher began to assert himself. In the space of 10 minutes, he grabbed seven rebounds – five on the offensive boards. He scored 10 points on put-backs and fly-by dunks. He drew three shooting fouls with his aggressiveness and made 5-of-6 free throws.
It gave the Raptors the lift they needed and meant another heater by Powell, who scored 12 of his 14 first-half points in the second, wasn’t wasted. That burst, along with Siakam’s 16 in the first half, should have been enough — but it wasn’t, as the Suns were able to shoot 55.6 per cent from the floor and knock down 10-of-22 threes. Still, Toronto remained in the conversation despite trailing 68-61 to start the third quarter.
Boucher’s surge earned him a spot in the starting lineup to begin the second half.
He kept it up. His signature play in the third quarter was fronting Ayton in the post, leaping high to steal the post entry and then flipping it ahead to Anunoby, who lobbed an alley-oop to a streaking Siakam. That capped an 8-0 run featuring consecutive Lowry threes that gave Toronto its first lead since the opening minutes of the first quarter. Toronto took an 87-86 lead into the fourth. Boucher started the fourth quarter, too.
The NBA’s a league of opportunities. Those that make the best of them prosper, those that don’t, don’t. That’s why the league’s unofficial motto is “stay ready.”
Boucher got his chance on Tuesday night. He made the most of it. He was ready.
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