TAMPA, Fla. – The Toronto Raptors backcourt was on front row and center in Friday night’s 122-111 win over the Houston Rockets. Norman Powell led the Raptors with 30 points, while guard Kyle Lowry recorded a triple-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse, five assistant coaches and forward Pascal Siakam entered the health and safety protocols for COVID-19 on Friday. The team was coached by assistant Sergio Scariolo, a veteran international coach who has coached the Spanish national team for more than a decade.
The Raptors grabbed the lead for good on a 13-2 run early in the second quarter that was powered by seven points from Lowry. Powell’s layup finished the run and gave Toronto a 51-40 lead with 7:12 left in the first half.
Houston trailed by as many as 23 in the third quarter before Victor Oladipo and John Wall got hot and after Oladipo hit a pair of floaters early in the fourth quarter, the Rockets were in the hunt and trailing 95-88 with 9:23 remaining.
Powell, who finished with 10-of-15 from the floor and four threes, came up late in the clutch with eight points.
Oladipo lead the Rockets, who lost their 10th game in a row, with 27 points and John Wall scored 21.
Three Stars of the Game –
1) Kyle Lowry (20/11/10) – Lowry was solid across the boards throughout his 33 minutes. His three-ball early in the second quarter was a a huge reason why the Raptors were able to steadily erase an early eight-point deficit and his 10 assists aided in Toronto being able to use 29 assists to accentuate 40 makes.
2) Norman Powell (30/3/1) – Powell hit four threes and his nine first quarter points gave Toronto a steady first quarter effort as he had 16 of his 30 points by halftime.
3) Victor Oladipo (27/5/4) – This was Oladipo’s second game back after missing the previous four due to injury. He scored 12 of his 27 in the fourth quarter as his presence allowed the Rockets to put themselves in position where they had the ball twice late, down six.
It was over when – The Raptors’ bench got involved in the fourth quarter after the Rockets had cut the score to 95-88. Chris Boucher, Yuri Watanabe and DeAndre Bembry each had a basket in a 1:04 stretch that pushed the raptors’ lead to 101-90 with 7:42 remaining. Powell made a pair of free throws that pushed it to 106-94 with 5:37 to play.
Blast Off – The Rockets have lost three in row after winning seven of their previous eight, including six in a row Jan. 22 – Feb. 1…Houston has been outshot in 10 of the past 12 games after outshooting the opposition in each of the six prior games.
It’s A Rap’ – The 91 field goal attempts for the Rockets were the most for a Raptors’ opponent since the Bucks took 93 shots in a 115-108 Raptors loss on Jan. 27… Powell is averaging 21.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists in his 20 starts and is shooting .51.6 percent from the floor and .and 44.7 percent from three.
They said it: “We had to read just tasks, timing, schedule, so we had to go a little bit on the fly, but the players did a great job and the remaining coaches, the few guys that were left.”
– Raptors assistant coach Sergio Scariolo, on losing coach Nick Nurse and five assistants to COVID-19 protocol.