The Raptors love to hunt mismatches with their egalitarian offense — because they have a handful of big, strong wings who can exploit them — and they were operating at near top efficiency for a large part of their outing Wednesday night in Oklahoma City.
If Pascal Siakam wasn’t bullying the slender Aleksej Pokuševski, OG Anunoby was toying with teenage Josh Giddey, and Scottie Barnes bullied his way through Tre Mann a time or two as Toronto stretched its win streak to a season-high seven games with a 117 -98 victory over the Thunder.
“I think they continue to move it around and exploit what’s there,” Nick Nurse said after the game. “(I’m) pretty happy with the drawing of multiple defenders and then just taking what’s there. Those five (starters) just continue to find each other and … (there) seems to be a pretty even (shot) distribution going on now, which is good.”
The reads against the Thunder varied, as they usually do.
Siakam was the most effective — he led the Raptors with 26 points and scorched Pokuševski repeatedly — but all five starters scored at least 16 points in another share-the-responsibility performance across the board.
Fred VanVleet — bound for the NBA all-star game and three-point contest — made another six threes as part of a 21-point night, while Barnes had 17 points, Gary Trent Jr. had 16 and Anunoby finished with 15.
It’s that they can find mismatches to exploit that makes the offense most effective in halfcourt sets. Causing defenses to double-team and rotate creates space for drive-and-kick action with open shooters camped on the perimeter.
The Raptors needed a highly efficient offensive game because they certainly weren’t sharp defensivel against a Thunder team missing its leader in injured guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
“It wasn’t a defensive work of art tonight by any stretch of the imagination, but I mean, I’m realistic enough to know that that happens during the course of a season,” Nurse said.
Oklahoma City repeatedly got open looks outside the three-point line but couldn’t knock them down, saving Toronto from its own so-so performance.
The Raptors are now 17-6 since New Year’s Eve and are among the five hottest teams in the league with the trade deadline coming Thursday afternoon, and the all-star break at the end of next week.
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