NBA: Series holds!

The Toronto Raptors (33-15) have once again proved their home side strength, beating the Minnesota Timberwolves (32-21) in a tight game of 109:104, with the Canadians trailing by more than three quarters, but gaining more energy towards the end of the game.

The Raptors had scored 13 consecutive victories at home against the Wolves, but this time it wasn’t going to be that easy, because the two heavyweights were physically close to each other. The stars were initially logged off. DeMar DeRozan (1/8 FG in the first quarter) didn’t get a chance at all, the same was true for Andrew Wiggins on the other side. At Toronto, C. J.’s failure made itself felt. Miles (knee) was noticeable, the Spacing of the Second Unit was at first terrible, so that the guests were able to achieve a double-digit cushion.

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Minnesota didn’t take the best throws, but from the middle distance the attempts fell dreamily safe. Toronto found a rhythm only slowly. Especially Kyle Lowry finally woke up and brought his colours back to six points with two threes just before the break. After the change it was DeRozan who got warmer with some jumpers, so that the Canadians could equalize towards the end of the third quarter.

The Raptors’ defenses also attracted attention. Beneath the basket Jonas Valanciunas and Serge Ibaka defended intensively. The Second Unit followed this up and with a 7:0 run the Raptors were all of a sudden ahead with 6 points after a three-way from Norman Powell. With the starters, however, the butler’s guests once again fought back against it. A three-way from Wiggins brought Minnesota back to two points a minute before the end. DeRozan countered this with a floater. The Wolves didn’t think of anything after that and Wiggins had to take a distance throw out of necessity, which only clapped on the ring. DeRozan and Valanciunas brought home the game from the line.

DeRozan was the Canadian top scorer with 23 points (6/18 FG, 10/11 FT). Five other Raptors players scored double-digit points, including Lowry (15.9 Assists), Valanciunas (18.11 Rebounds) and the strong Jakob Pöltl (12.6/7 FG, 4 Rebounds, 2 Blocks). The Wolves also had six players in double digits. Butler (25) led his colours, while Wiggins (15.7/22 FG) and Towns (11.10 Rebounds) were disappointing. Coming from the bank, Gorgui Dieng (14.6/7 FG) played a good game.

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Jonas Valanciunas. The Lithuanian showed one of his best seasonal performances. He dominated the matchup with Towns over long distances and took two important rebounds in the crunchtime. He also excellently undercut some drives from Teague and Butler. Even Towns could hardly overcome the dunes in one-on-one.

Andrew Wiggins. Did he want to prove something in his homeland? At the beginning, his cast selection was just terrible. Long twos in transition, fadeaways from the baseline. Later it got a bit better again, but one or two airballs crept in. His number of throws could also have been much worse, because of two wild throws with board. Also weak: The partly invisible Karl-Anthony Towns, who reminded us in the fourth quarter that he played at all.

Somewhat surprisingly, this time Butler only had to check out the best opponent of his opponent in the final phase. Since the star had to fight with knee problems, Jimmy Buckets was allowed to rest in the corner against Anunoby and Norman Powell in the corner and had to bite into the matchup late DeRozan. Since the bank of the Wolves did a good job, the break was even a little longer. In the fourth quarter, Thibs brought Butler back in quite fast, so that Butler had to walk 38 minutes in a back-to-back.