10 things: Norman Powell slams the door on Nets

Here are 10 takeaways from the Toronto Raptors’ 104-99 win over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 2 of the 2020 NBA playoffs.

One — Tight: The Nets showed great resiliency in bouncing back after a lopsided performance in Game 1. Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn made a number of adjustments, specifically with his defense, that flummoxed the Raptors for most of the night. Toronto trailed by 14 to start, went back down 10 in the third quarter, and had to ultimately earn the win on the final possession. Brooklyn threw its best punch, and the Raptors narrowly escaped with a 2-0 series lead.

Two — Redemption: Kyle Lowry made two costly defensive errors that allowed Brooklyn to close the gap. First, he overhelped on the baseline and left sharpshooter Joe Harris open in the corner for three which cut the lead to six. Then after a missed shot by Fred VanVleet, Lowry turned his head and lost track of Brooklyn’s other shooter in Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, who cut it to three. But in classic Lowry fashion, he made up for it. Brooklyn inbounded to Harris with 15 seconds left on the clock with a chance to tie, except Lowry was draped all over him. He stayed down on the pump fake, took away all of Harris’ space, then pressured the hand-off to Garrett Temple, who promptly mishandled the ball leading to a breakaway dunk for Norman Powell. That’s real accountability from your leader.

Three — Tricky: Brooklyn changed its defense after giving up 134 points in Game 1 to a switching scheme designed to keep guards out of the paint. The Nets had 7-foot center Jarrett Allen at the top of the floor at all times, and dared the Raptors to attack the mismatch. This was mostly aimed at quieting Fred VanVleet, who had 30 points and 11 assists in Game 1, and it worked to a point. VanVleet didn’t score in the first quarter and wasn’t able to drive and kick to find open shooters. But as the game went on, the Raptors found holes in the defense, and managed to create just enough offense in spite of their 9-of-35 performance from deep. Expect the Nets to remain in this coverage going forward, and likely against Boston in the second round, because the Raptors’ weakness is one-on-one scoring.

Four — Measured: Pascal Siakam was the first to crack Brooklyn’s switching scheme, as he scored 14 points in the first quarter. A lot of his success came when he received the pass around the elbow before getting to work against a smaller defender. Especially when Allen was out of the game, Siakam was able to drive deep into the paint and either finish strong or draw the foul. As the game went on, the Raptors’ guards took over, and Siakam feel out of favour in the offense, but it was a good performance on the whole. The best part was that Siakam wasn’t pressing for his own looks. Instead, he moved the ball around and was committed on defense. He came up with a key defensive rebound at the end to secure the win.

Five — Slash: The downside to having Allen switch so much is that he isn’t available to protect the basket, and that’s why Powell feasted with 24 points off the bench. Powell recognized that his outside shot wasn’t falling, so he was insistent on getting to the hoop. Powell used Rodions Kurucs as a dunk prop in the first of his two poster dunks, and was consistently able to slice through the gaps in Brooklyn’s defense. Powell has gotten so good at finding the angle, and driving hard through the lane for the finish. The Nets have no answer for him on the perimeter, especially since he’s largely going against their bench players in Chris Chiozza and Tyler Johnson. And as always, the more time Powell shares with the starters, the better.

Six — Elite: The sign of a great player is that they can adjust to whatever the defense throws at them. Sure, the Nets took away the pull-up threes that sustained him in Game 1, but VanVleet is the complete package. He read the defense and made the adjustment. VanVleet drove hard to the hole and finished off an assortment of reverse layups, came around screens for the catch-and-shoot three, and found his chances to still pull up from three when the defense mixed up their signals. VanVleet wasn’t as efficient, but he got the Raptors out of their second-half rut, and set them up for the finish.