Boucher energizes Raptors, helps them go down fighting vs. Trail Blazers

PORTLAND — The Toronto Raptors were already losing badly to the 17-win Portland Trail Blazers when Chris Boucher checked in with 4:13 left in the first quarter Saturday night. 

It’s been a bit of a pattern lately: not Boucher getting in the game in the first quarter  — that’s been quite rare — but the Raptors starting the game flat and needing an energy jolt has been more common. 

Toronto was down by double figures in the first quarter and went down by as many as 19 in the second against the Phoenix Suns on Thursday before coming back and making a game of it. It wasn’t something Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic was hoping to repeat. 

“We have to respect every minute we’re out there… we have to be mentally ready, physically ready, knowing the game plan from the start of the game and really competing from the highest level,” Rajakovic said before his team found themselves down 17 in the first quarter against the very-much-looking-forward-to-the-draft-lottery Trail Blazers. 

It would be nice to report that Boucher instantly turned things around when he checked in for first quarter minutes for just the second time since Jan. 28 and just the 24th time this season. 

It didn’t really happen. The Raptors were down 14 when he was subbed in for starting centre Kelly Olynyk and 17 when the quarter was over, but Boucher did make his presence felt. He blocked Blazers rookie guard Scoot Henderson, the No. 3 pick in the draft, twice — once on a nice contest of a jumper and another time at the rim. He made a nice pass to set Gary Trent Jr. up for a triple and another very nice pass to a cutting Jordan Nwora that eventually led to a lay-up for Javon Freeman-Liberty. 

He hustled for some rebounds, got a couple, and almost got a couple more, but the Raptors were still well behind in a game that was looking increasingly out of reach. 

Turns out, Boucher was just getting warmed up. 

The six-foot-nine energizer scored 14 of his 16 points in what ended up being a furious fourth-quarter comeback for the Raptors, who trailed by 17 at halftime and 11 after three quarters. His effort culminated with a game-tying tip-in that pushed the game into overtime. But that play only came after he had got fouled and hit both his free throws to cut the Blazers lead to two with 20.7 seconds left. For his next trick, he forced a jump ball that he won to give the Raptors the last possession so he could clean up a missed Gradey Dick jumper in a mad last-second scramble. 

It was all for naught as the short-handed Raptors — along with Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl likely being done for the season after respective hand surgeries and Bruce Brown missing time with a knee problem, leading scorer RJ Barrett was a late scratch when he threw up after his pre-game warm-up — ended up losing 128-118 in overtime, which the Blazers opened with a 13-1 run. 

The loss was Toronto’s third straight and fifth in their past six games, dropping them to 23-41 on the season while Portland improved to 18-45. On the bright side, the Raptors are now only one game ahead of the Memphis Grizzlies as they try to improve their draft lottery odds from seventh-best to sixth-best. The Raptors owe their first-round pick to San Antonio if it falls outside the top six in the draft lottery. 

Immanuel Quickley led the Raptors as he shook off a 1-of-4 start with two live-ball turnovers to finish with 29 points and seven assists, though the amount of defensive attention he got saw him cough up six of the Raptors' 20 turnovers. Trent Jr. had 23 points in 42 minutes while Olynyk had 15 points and eight assists. Dick got his second career start and played a career-high 39 minutes and finished with eight points, five rebounds and two assists. 

Former Raptor and Toronto native Dalano Banton, who is finishing up the season in Portland after being waived by Boston, followed up his career-high 30-point outing on Friday with 25 points, seven rebounds and four assists on 9-of-16 shooting. His fifth three of the night with a minute left in overtime was the dagger. 

After struggling to find rotation minutes on deep teams in Toronto in his first two seasons and even more so in Boston where he played until being waived in February, he’s relishing the chance to get some steady minutes in Portland. 

“I love it,” he said. “I feel like I learned a lot in Toronto and in Boston, and I think those organizations had good things to say about me and I got this chance here in Portland.”

Boucher knows all about how chances in the NBA can come and go, sometimes with no rhyme or reason. He’s made a six-year career out of taking advantage of the ones that come. 

“When you come in the game you want to do something to change the game, that’s what I want to leave, I want to leave a mark as someone who can change the game,” he said. “As a young team we’re learning, but I think we work extremely hard and sticking together. It didn’t show up with the win, but I think with the performance we showed that we can have great moments.”

Boucher — even though he has been DNP-CD (did not play-coaches' decision in the box score) 11 times in a stretch of 15 games beginning in early February — has been part of more of those great moments than a lot of his teammates. He leads Raptors regulars in on-off rating — the team has been 8.5 points better per 100 possessions with him on the floor than when he’s sitting, which has begged the question: Why has he been sitting so much?

It’s circumstantial, mostly. When Poeltl is healthy, he starts at centre. And after Toronto acquired Olynyk at the trade deadline on Feb. 8th, he became the backup five. Then there was the reality that with the Raptors shifting into a rebuild, it was more important to find out, for example, if two-way centre Jontay Porter could contribute meaningfully. 

As one Raptors staffer explained it to me: it’s not that anyone is of the impression that Porter is a more effective NBA contributor at this stage than Boucher, but without giving him a chance they can’t really evaluate if he’s worth keeping in their program in the summer and bringing back to training camp. 

And then there’s Boucher’s nature which can take some getting used to, those who have worked with him over the years would acknowledge. He wears his heart on his sleeve and hasn’t always mastered the art of keeping the entirety of his thoughts to himself. He clashed with former Raptors head coach Nick Nurse at times, and it is a trait that got him in trouble even going back to his days on a two-way contract with the Golden State Warriors as a rookie. 

But that he’s always been willing to turn games upside down with his passion and fearlessness has meant he’s always found his way onto the floor. 

Except now he’s a veteran on a young and rebuilding team, so there’s been less tolerance for the double-edged sword that comes with playing with his full heart. 

It’s a work in progress. Over time his relationship with Rajakovic has developed, going through ups and downs, and with the Raptors now desperately thin upfront, Boucher has been the ingredient Toronto has needed to make sure that even if they're losing games, they go down with a fight. 

“If you get to know me, you know I don’t stay mad too long,” Boucher told me. “If I’m mad at something it’s either my performance or knowing I can do better. It’s the same old thing: (My emotions) drive me but it can kill me, but I always have that passion just to play hard. At the end of the day, it’s the only thing I know.” 

He says that Rajakovic kept the lines of communication open as his playing time dropped, which helped him get through the past month. 

“We talk. He knows me and knows what I can bring and all,” said Boucher. “Sometimes things don’t go the way you want. The team’s had a lot of changes and I got caught in the middle. I know they know what I’m able to do, and everyone knows that I can change the game and all. I don’t think anyone thinks I can't play, it’s about more than me.”

Still, Rajakovic is holding Boucher to a high standard: "I expect more from him. More rebounding, more communication on defence. As a veteran player, he needs to know what coverage we’re in and how we need to execute, so we need even more discipline for him,” he said after Boucher’s big effort against the Suns.

But it was hard to fault Boucher against the Trail Blazers. He seemed to hurt his knee (just a bump it turned out) on his game-tying tip but shook it off and played through overtime also. 

“He was being aggressive, big on the boards, being active with his hands and played with a lot of effort,” said Rajakovic. 

For Boucher, it’s another case of his undeniable gift for causing chaos eventually making him impossible to keep off the floor. It’s his trademark and what he knows has kept him in the NBA for six years and counting as an undrafted 24-year-old coming off a knee injury he suffered after his senior season at the University of Oregon. 

“I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve been doing this for eight, 10 years, and I know myself, so I was just waiting for the opportunity,”  Boucher said. “ It’s not like I wasn’t ready the whole year. It’s just how the team’s been going and how the team’s been shaped. I know I still have it in me, and I know that at any time I can come in a game and change it.”