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Healthy roster and synergy key to Toronto Raptors’ excellent January

By William Ricks

TORONTO, CANADA - JUNE 10: Kyle Lowry #7 hi-fiives Marc Gasol #33 of the Toronto Raptors during Game Five of the NBA Finals on June 10, 2019 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images)
TORONTO, CANADA - JUNE 10: Kyle Lowry #7 hi-fiives Marc Gasol #33 of the Toronto Raptors during Game Five of the NBA Finals on June 10, 2019 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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Toronto Raptors
Toronto Raptors (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) /

What did we learn?

If there was one thing we learned (or had to re-learn) during this month of January is that when fully healthy, the Toronto Raptors are a deep and scary team. The team has had to play a lot of their reserves during the year because of injuries and the experience many of their young players received has seemed to help immensely.

Toronto is fully healthy and they gave everyone a taste of how great they could be. They were stifling on defence and had a variety of options to score on the offensive end. At this point in the season, the Raptors are second in the NBA in defensive rating and second in opponent field goal percentage and three-point percentage. Their team defence has been their calling card for a while now and with the team at full strength, they have more bodies to give opposing teams different matchups.

To put the variety of offensive options into perspective; six players on the roster average ten points or more a game this season. During their ten-game win streak, six players are averaging 11 or more points per game. The synergy on the team when healthy is unreal and they have taken advantage of the dog days to get the chemistry back.

As mentioned before, the plethora of injuries early in the year caused many role players to have minutes as starters and key reserves. The useful minutes’ players like Terence Davis, Chris Boucher, and others gained while others were injured helped them gain valuable experience. They have stepped up and helped keep the Raptors afloat as they have gotten healthier. This allows head coach Nick Nurse to go further into his rotation and also try new rotations as well. Nurse debuted the “big” lineup this month and it seemed to have good results.

What is even more impressive about the way the team has played, is that they are doing all of this on the road. Toronto has won nine straight in the house of the opposing team which is something they had trouble with before January. Their 9-6 record away from Scotiabank wasn’t terrible, but it was a sore spot. Their record has jumped to 18-7, and they have earned every one of their past nine road victories.

With the team hitting their stride (again) and finally getting healthy, the hope is that they can continue to stay healthy. It is evident how dominant of a squad the Raptors can be when at full strength, so it is in the best interest of Toronto to stay as healthy as possible. If the health can be consistent and the team can continue to play the way they were in January, teams in the East (Milwaukee included) should be on the lookout and start sweating just a little.

There were glimpses of the Raptors’ capabilities when healthy very early in the season when they had that great 14-4 start. Injuries hampered the team for the past couple of months, but the same dominant team has re-emerged now that everyone is back and healthy. That means more depth for Nurse and more potential matchup nightmares for opposing teams. It’s good to have all the boys back, isn’t it?

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