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Boucher briefly lifts Raptors' rain cloud with dominant outing vs. Warriors

TORONTO — These Golden State Warriors aren’t those Golden State Warriors. 

And no, these aren’t those Toronto Raptors. The 2019 NBA Finals feels like a decade ago, maybe more. 

But for one night it was fun to turn back time. 

And for Chris Boucher, it was fun to make time stand still as a 32-year-old pending free-agent who — with the trade deadline coming up — may find himself on the wish list of a team or two thinking they might be able to use his brand of professional fire starting on their bench in a playoff push.

Instead of fans streaming for the exits early the fourth quarter of another blowout at Scotiabank Arena, they were chanting ‘Let’s Go Raptors.’ The fans were on their feet but staying in their seats. They didn’t need to be told to get loud, they already were.

The reward was a win, 104-101 for the Raptors over the Warriors. It snapped Toronto’s losing streak at five games and was just the second win in their past 18 for the Raptors, who improved to 9-31 on the season. The slumping Warriors fell to 19-20, dropping under .500 for the first time after starting the season 12-3. 

The win came thanks in very large part to Boucher continuing one of the all-time heaters of his or anyone’s career. The lanky Montreal native came off the bench in the fourth quarter to deliver 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting, including three threes, three offensive rebounds, a highlight worthy dunk, a block on a Warriors three-pointer and an assist on the final bucket of the game, a fastbreak lay-up by Ochai Agbaji. That score held up as first Andrew Wiggins — playing in his first game in his hometown since the 2018-19 season — and then Buddy Hield missed three-point looks that could have tied the game in the final 30 seconds. 

In his last four games, Boucher is 25-of-33 (75 per cent) from the floor and 14-of-20 (70 per cent) from three. 

"Right now, it feels really amazing. When I get the ball, it feels like I'm at the right place, it's the right shot,” he said. “It's also making the reads. I think I'm doing a lot better making the reads, not just shooting the ball, having the drive, making a pass, knowing when to take a shot or not. And I think that's really helping me right now. And it's keeping me in a good groove where I know where my shots are coming from.”

For one day the Raptors cloud lifted, even as Boucher was making it rain. After the game the questions weren’t about the struggles of the starting lineup or defensive miscues that seem semi-permanent at this point. 

Instead it was about the Raptors holding the Warriors to 39.8 per cent shooting and forcing 15 turnovers and using a tenacious box-and-1 approach to guarding Steph Curry. Even if Curry ended up with 26 points, that he only got 17 shots up (making nine, including 4-of-10 from deep) was a win itself for a team has struggled to contain anyone and has been statistically the worst defence in the NBA for more than a month. It didn’t hurt that defensive specialist Davion Mitchell got the start when Immanuel Quickley was a late scratch with hip soreness. Mitchell set the tone by gluing himself to Curry all over the floor. 

“Doing my best, doing my best,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said when asked about the challenge of creating a defensive game plan for the NBA’s most prolific three-point shooter and an all-time great who can still bend a defence to his will in his 16th season. “I mean, Steph Curry is a player that's it's a privilege for all of us to live in an era and to work in this era in the NBA when he's playing. I just told my coaching staff, you know, I've been [coaching] against him for a long, long time. I can't wait for him to retire. I'm going to get drunk that night I promise. I’m going to celebrate.”

The Warriors might be looking for some liquid comfort right about now. 

“Down the stretch, we're not executing and that's happening throughout the game,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, whose team is in 11th place, a half-game out of the final play-in spot in the West. The Warriors led by as many as nine with nine minutes left, which is when Boucher went on his tear, and couldn’t close against a team that hasn’t been able to close games all season. “Missed rotations, missed coverages on defence and then poor possessions offensively,” said Kerr. “This is as frustrating a night as we've had all season. This game was right there for us to win, and we let them get right back in it.”

It made for a disappointing homecoming for Wiggins (20 points, three rebounds on 6-of-14 shooting) who hasn’t played in Toronto for so long due to injuries, the pandemic and personal reasons that kept him out of the lineup at various points the last couple of seasons. 

It’s also more frustration for Curry, who has fond memories of watching his father, Dell, play his final seasons as a Raptor in Toronto, but at two months shy of his 37th birthday and in his 16th season has no choice but to hope his team can recapture some of the glory of their championship years, even if it seems more and more unlikely. 

It didn’t help that the Warriors were without Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski and Gary Payton II due to injury. 

“We have such optimism when it comes to trying to figure this out,” said Curry, who passed Allen Iverson on the all-time NBA scoring list on Monday. "You are technically one game away from righting the ship and figuring some stuff out, so that’s what we choose to focus on … but this [loss] does sting for sure.”

For the Raptors it’s a welcome diversion from the monotony of losing and a rare reward for efforts that have more often than not ended up in the wrong column of the standings. 

I think it's good. It helps for the spirit,” said Boucher, who is the longest serving Raptor and the only player on the roster remaining from the 2019 championship team. “I think we've been working extremely hard to get (a win) and find ways to get better. We got a couple good games where we played three (good) quarters and not get the win. So to get the win feels really good.”

It's a full circle moment for Boucher, whose circuitous and unlikely path to an NBA career began with Golden State when he went undrafted out of the University of Oregon and signed a two-way contract that saw him spend most of his time in the G-League, making a one-minute cameo in the final game of the regular season before being waived. 

It wasn’t a revenge game for Boucher — coming to Toronto was the best thing that ever happened to him. But it was a moment where he could pause and reflect on how far he’s come. 

“When I went there [in 2017-18], I was with KD. I was with Steph, Klay Thompson, [Andre Iguodala]. So I got the chance to see what the pros are doing,” he said. "The one thing that I think that's changed a lot is just the determination of doing something. I think I wanted to be a player. I wanted to do something special. And when I went there, I was a little too young and kind of naive in a lot of things. A lot of maturation came in — especially this year. I think this year was one of the biggest years where I was able to just figure it out, what I need to do better and just to be consistent and not have too many ups and too many downs. So I think that's what's changing right now.”

And for one night it all came together to change the mood around the Raptors when they badly needed just that.

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