Grades following Toronto Raptors 121-113 win over Steph Curry and the Warriors

A+. Nick Nurse coached an excellent game on Thursday night. In Serge Ibaka’s return from a three-game absence, Nurse worked him right back into the starting lineup and bought him some time to rest early on using a mixture of zone defence and Chris Boucher. Nurse empowered Norman Powell to take 20 field goal attempts with it being clear that he was the hot hand. He played Matt Thomas, Boucher, and Hollis-Jefferson a total of 22 combined minutes and used zone defence most of the time the bench unit was on the floor. Nurse even deserves some credit for trusting Siakam in the fourth quarter despite him shooting terribly. Nurse ran to small-on-big screen plays that sealed the game for the Toronto Raptors. First, he had Lowry screen fro Siakam creating a one-on-one against Andrew Wiggins. On the next Raptors’ possession, Nurse has Powell screen for Siakam to get Damion Lee on him. He continues to think outside the box regularly and that is a big part of the reason he is the best coach in the league.. Head Coach. Toronto Raptors. NICK NURSE

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS. B-. You just knew the Warriors were going to play well in Steph Curry’s long-awaited return and they certainly put a fight at the Chase Center. The Warriors were extremely cold to start, shooting 37.9% in the first quarter. Things got better for them as the game went on and Curry got more into a groove. Curry finished with 23 points on 6-for-16 shooting, so he clearly has a ways to go before he is fully back but his playmaking was right where it left off. He racked up 7 assists and only 1 turnover in his 27-minute stint. Rookie Eric Paschall was again great for the Dubs and showcased his playmaking skillset himself with a team-leading 8 assists. Even with Curry, many were expecting this game to be nowhere near close so credit to the Warriors for fighting until the very end and especially to Kerr for going to a zone defence to (successfully) slow down the Raptors and make a run. But at the end of the day, giving up 34 fastbreak points is a completely unacceptable thing at any level of basketball and their lack of defence in transition was easily their downfall.. (14-49). Western Conference

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