Serge Ibaka comes down with a rebound between Sam Dekker and Ante Zizic at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Oct. 17, 2018.John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
It was not the prettiest coming-out party for the Toronto Raptors, as Serge Ibaka could well attest.
Case in point, the first minute of the second quarter in Wednesday’s season opener against the LeBron James-less Cleveland Cavaliers, when Ibaka laid his big mitts on the ball near the Toronto basket.
In a stride or two, he was rising toward the rim for what should have been a crowd-pleasing slam. But Ibaka’s aim was off, and the ball deflected harmlessly back to the court, where Cleveland’s Tristan Thompson gratefully snared the rebound.
It was just one of those nights for Ibaka, one where he struggled through almost every shot, and every time he challenged for a loose ball, he wound up committing a foul.
When Ibaka finally connected on a three-pointer with just under eight minutes left to play in the fourth quarter, it was his first make in nine attempts from the field.
He finished the game connecting on just two of his 10 shots from the field, fouling out late in the fourth quarter with a grand total of nine points.
Fortunately for the new-look Raptors, they didn’t need Ibaka’s offence on Wednesday night, with five players scoring in double figures as Toronto battled to a 116-104 win in a typically languid early-season affair at Scotiabank Arena.
Afterward, basking in the glow of his first win as an NBA head coach, Nick Nurse said he was not too concerned about Ibaka’s poor shooting night. “I think he played pretty well,” Nurse said.
Nurse has been preaching throughout training camp that versatility will be vital to the Raptors' success. That means Ibaka will be asked to log more minutes at centre than in past seasons, when he has seen most of his playing time at power forward.
In Wednesday’s game, Jonas Valanciunas got the start at centre, while Ibaka was one of Nurse’s first substitutions, taking over for the Lithuanian big man with just over five minutes left in the opening quarter.
He struggled for the majority of his just-under-28 minutes – the most of any of Toronto’s bench players. Despite the meagre offensive production, Ibaka did haul in seven rebounds and blocked three shots.
“I liked the acceptance of JV and Serge to play their roles,” said Nurse.
Asked specifically for his thoughts on Ibaka’s outing, the rookie head coach said that despite the box score, he was happy with what he saw.
“He was on the glass; he had six fouls, and I think five of them were loose-ball fouls,” Nurse said. “It’s kind of one of the things that’s changed for him. He’s been standing around the three-point line not getting much of a chance to offensive rebound. He got his hands on some, he went for a lot more. He had some really nice moves after getting them that just kind of rolled off [the rim].
“I’m not going to get really caught up in the 2-for-10 with him because I thought he played hard, played unselfishly for the team and did a lot of positive things.”
Nurse, 51, made his NBA head coaching debut after serving as an assistant under former Raptors head coach Dwane Casey for the past five years. He’d dreamed of the opportunity ever since he was a junior playing basketball at the University of Northern Illinois, when he realized that he would never be able to make the jump to the NBA as a player.
“Again, I don’t want to make it sound like it’s not a big deal to me,” Nurse said before the game. “But I said it when I got hired, I said for five years, I’ve had 1,000 people telling me I was going to be a head coach in the NBA. And when I got the job, those same thousand people were shocked. And those same thousand people are really nervous tonight, so it’s kind of carried on a little bit.”
The Cavaliers, who swept the Raptors in the second round of last season’s playoffs on their way to the NBA Finals, are obviously weakened by the loss of James, who bolted to the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent during the off-season.
But they were no pushovers, cutting what was once a 20-point Toronto lead to seven at 108-101 with about three minutes left to play.
“Yeah, it’s going to take some time,” said Toronto guard Fred VanVleet, who chipped in with 14 points and five assists. “I thought the two things that were constant were our intensity and our effort out there. The rest of the stuff lacked a little focus out there.
“Turned the ball over a little bit, but those things we will figure out.”
The Raptors next game is Friday night at home against the Boston Celtics.