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Nick Nurse and Kyle Lowry trying to be as patient in Philadelphia as they were in Toronto

26 October 2024Last Update :
Nick Nurse and Kyle Lowry trying to be as patient in Philadelphia as they were in Toronto

TORONTO — Do we think Kyle Lowry has ever been to Saskatchewan? We do not. Still, it’s neat that the middle of the Canadian prairie provinces just spills out of his mouth.

“When you win big here, it’s not just this city (that gets to celebrate). It’s a beautiful country that you’re going across,” Lowry said before his Philadelphia 76ers lost 115-107 to the Toronto Raptors on Friday. “You’re going to Halifax. You’re going to Vancouver. You’re going to Saskatchewan. You’re going all these places — PEI. It’s not just one city; you’re doing it for a country.”

Lowry was reflecting on life in the city he called his basketball home for nearly a decade. He went from a likely transient malcontent to the organizational heartbeat, arguably the most beloved player in franchise history. As such, whenever his career, entering its 19th professional season, ends, his iconic No. 7 will hang from the rafters of Scotiabank Arena.

It will join Vince Carter’s No. 15. The decision to honour Carter, given his end in Toronto, has been a whole kerfuffle. For his part, Lowry said he gave the Raptors his blessing to retire Carter’s number. There is a subsection of fans who believe Lowry’s number should have been the first to be raised.

“The world — something that a kid can only dream about,” Lowry said of what it would mean if the Raptors retired his number. “But we’ll see if that ever happens.”

It will happen, but Lowry will have to wait for that, among other things. Patience will have to be a necessity for Lowry and his coach in Toronto and now Philadelphia: Nick Nurse.

They are with the 76ers to try to win a title, but it will be a minute until they see if they’re in the right place to do so. Between a languid game against the Raptors and a dud home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, the short-handed 76ers have been overwhelmed.

Paul George, whom the Sixers signed to be the third member of a big three, won’t play until Wednesday at the earliest because of a bone bruise. That is, comparatively, a mild concern. Thanks to “The Plan,” nobody is sure when Joel Embiid, who is trying to manage his knee and be healthy for the postseason, will play his first game. He has already made noise about avoiding both ends of back-to-back games when he returns. Both players are with the 76ers on their two-game trip.

Lowry and Nurse are familiar with such a strategy. They won a title in Toronto in 2018-19, when Kawhi Leonard came to Toronto and played just 60 games and no back-to-backs. Nurse quickly poked holes in the comparison, though: Leonard had missed almost all of the previous season because of a quadriceps injury.

Even with the Leonard trade, the Raptors were bringing seven regulars back from the guts of 2017-18’s 59-win Raptors. Including Embiid, Philadelphia is returning just four players from last year’s playoff rotation. One of them, Lowry, joined the 76ers in March.

“We’ve got, like, 14 new players,” Nurse said. “We know we’ve got a lot of pulling it together and figuring out who we are and all that kind of stuff. I know everybody wants to win yesterday. … I understand it’s not that easy to do. I’ve got to learn them. They got to learn me. We got to figure out who works together well.”

Nurse has shown he can play the long game, but he is the same coach who played his starters more than any of his peers in his last two seasons with Toronto, something that played a part in his firing. The situation in Philadelphia is different; Embiid’s availability, like Leonard’s, will not be up to him.

On the other hand, the longer Nurse was in Toronto, the less patience he showed with players on the periphery of the rotation. If Philadelphia is struggling to hang in the Eastern Conference’s top six and Embiid’s availability is a nightly mystery, can he be conservative with George’s and Tyrese Maxey’s minutes? It’s an open question. George is 34 and has a significant injury history, and Maxey is an undersized guard carrying a big offensive load who was second in the league in minutes per game last season.

“I think you get enough experience over the few years of not having guys, and I always try to make my first response to get really excited about the other guys and see if we can grow them, and then maybe they can help us when it does kind of come back together,” Nurse said. “So I’m doing a lot of that right now.”

Lowry, starting while the two All-Stars are out, is one of the players Nurse has to rely on more right now. At 38, he is not as prickly as he was during his Raptors tenure. Back in the championship season, the Raptors front office had to calm down Lowry before the trade deadline, in part because the transition from DeMar DeRozan to Leonard was moving so slowly.

Lowry is in a different place now. If the Sixers are ever healthy, he won’t sniff 30 minutes per night. He is still capable of making a difference, with a strip of Scottie Barnes leading to Barnes and Raptors coach Darko Rajaković taking technical fouls. He took the ball from an unaware defensive rebounder under his own net and is one of the most gleefully annoying players of all time.

Lowry spoke of being able to help the team mentally more than physically, with guiding Maxey to “super-duper” stardom as one of his biggest responsibilities. Still, this could be his last season. He surely doesn’t want to spend it waiting for something that never arrives.

“Hell no, I ain’t playing that long,” Lowry said when asked whether he will try to match Carter’s NBA record of 22 seasons. “We’ll see, though. … I’m just going to keep taking it day by day. I feel great.”

“He’s pretty moody right now,” Nurse said, smiling. “I’ve been through that before with him as well. … We can kind of ride the waves with our moods back and forth with each other, and we’ll be all right in the end.”

The pair of ex-Raptors must hope the old saying — “good things come to those who wait” — is true in this case. Really, what other choice do they have?

Notes

• After falling hard in Wednesday’s opener, Raptors point guard Immanuel Quickley missed Friday’s game because of a pelvic bone bruise. He won’t play Saturday on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves. RJ Barrett was out again because of an AC joint sprain, but he was scheduled to make the trip, with a chance to play.

• Without those two (and Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk and Ja’Kobe Walter), Rajaković had to go to some of the most spacing-deficient lineups you will see before teams begin overtly trying to lose. They were fun defensively, though, with second-round pick Jonathan Mogbo flashing his athleticism and activity on both ends. At times he needs to slow down, but only more playing time will allow him to do so. In the interim, at least his hustle and length are helping the Raptors. When Jakob Poeltl picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, Rajaković went to Mogbo instead of veteran centre Bruno Fernando.

Mogbo had 12 points, nine rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals in 24 minutes. He was a game-high plus-21.

“He’s just playing with force,” Rajaković said. “When he’s playing with a lot of motor, he really helps the team. He was doing a good job being disruptive, and his length is bothering whoever he is guarding.”

• Never leave your feet to make a pass? Barnes says no. I cannot believe Barnes was able to find Poeltl early, but the guy has some skill. Barnes was excellent, finishing with a team-high 27 points.

• Guerschon Yabusele, best known in this part of the world for helping end Canada’s run in Olympic basketball this summer, basically served as the backup centre to Andre Drummond with Embiid out. He has one part down: the screening. Ochai Agbaji will feel that for a minute. Poeltl opened talks on a formal Canada-Austria alliance with a block of Yabusele.

• Chris Boucher’s greatest NBA skill is not breaking in half on falls like this.

• The teams combined to attempt 99 free throws, the second most in a game since 2010, according to StatMuse. It was the most fouls in any Raptors game. Three Raptors fouled out in the same game for the first time in more than 10 years.

“We can’t control the whistle,” Rajaković said. “And you know, when I talk about the referees, it’s not good for anybody.”

(Photo: Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)

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