Raptors Respond To Nick Nurse's Ejection With Comeback Victory

The Toronto Raptors clawed all the way out of a double-digit second-half deficit once Nick Nurse left to clinch victory over the Memphis Grizzlies

Part of great coaching is knowing when your team needs a spark.

Maybe it's just a coincidence or maybe Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse knew he needed to get mad. It was just two nights ago that Nurse joked about not getting a technical against the Atlanta Hawks. Maybe, he said, he should have thrown a tantrum in that game. Maybe it would have made a difference. Instead, he saved that moment for Monday night, getting tossed late in the third quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies.

To that point, the Raptors had done everything possible to frustrate Nurse. They surrendered 70 points in the first half and were trailing 94-85 when he got ejected with 3:02 to go in the third. Once he left, the Nick Nurse Raptors showed up, coming all the way back thanks to a 43-19 run and playing inspired basketball to clinch a 128-113 victory in Memphis.

"There's two ways that you can look at it. If you like Nick and it's a great ejection and we were great after that and if you don't like him all we needed to do was get rid of him and we're better off without him," Fred VanVleet joked after the game. "I like him and I thought he was defending us."

There was some confusion about why exactly Nurse was thrown out of the game. He said he thought he only had one technical at the time because the box score at half showed Pascal Siakam having received a technical. That technical appeared to be switched to Nurse in the second half. Therefore when he drew the technical in the third quarter he was forced to exit the game.

"Obviously, you always want coach to be on your side fighting for you," Pascal Siakam said. "Coach gets a tech like that I think it gives everyone a boost."

It wasn't just Nurse the Raptors played without. Just seven minutes into the night Kyle Lowry was forced to exit the game with back spasms. Without their leader and their coach it may have taken a little while for the young guys to figure out the Grizzlies' offence, but when they needed to get stops early in the fourth quarter, they did.

"It looked they just started getting a lot more active," said Nurse who watched the final quarter of the game alone in the visiting locker room. "Just really in and out, started mixing a few blitzes in there on [Ja] Morant, pull it in, get hands on some balls, some of the passes they were trying to throw to Jonas [Valanciunas.]"

From there it was all Siakam and VanVleet.

Siakam broke out of his 3-point shooting funk to nail five 3-pointers. It was the first time he nailed multiple 3-pointers since January 14. But it wasn't all the outside game from the 26-year-old star. He finished the night with 32 points to go with six assists.

VanVleet added 22 second-half points, finishing the night with 32 to go with another stellar performance from Norman Powell who chipped in with 29. 

Had it not been for Valanciunas the Raptors would have cruised to a victory, but with Aron Baynes struggling and Chris Boucher unable to matchup with the size of the former Raptor in the first half, Toronto found themselves in tough against the Grizzlies' centre. Eventually, Boucher made some headway against Valanciunas in the second half, it still wasn't enough to stop him from recording season bests in both points and rebounds, dominating the paint with 27 points and 20 boards. 

Up Next: Washington Wizards

The Toronto Raptors will have the day off before returning heading to Washington DC to take on the Wizards on Wednesday. It'll be a battle of the NBA's only two Japanese players as Toronto's Yuta Watanabe takes on Rui Hachimura.