Raptors’ closing bench lineup in Nuggets win should be here to stay

Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors pulled off an insane comeback against Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets in Denver, as a dominant fourth quarter helped seal their victory. Even with starters like Gary Trent Jr. and Precious Achiuwa not in the game, the much-maligned bench stepped up in a big way.

6-9 Dalano Banton and 6-9 Khem Birch came off of the bench to pair with a trio of 6-8 standouts in Chris Boucher, Thad Young, and the white-hot Scottie Barnes. Nurse was hoping that the lineup would cause chaos and confusion by irritating Jokic, and that’s exactly what happened.

Toronto wanted to get Pascal Siakam back in the game, but how could Nurse take this lineup out when they were performing so well? The combination of length, switchability, and timely shot-making helped this group take off and secure the team’s third straight win.

Nurse has been mixing and matching lineup combinations all season long intending to get some production out of his shallow bench. The win against Denver showed that if he mixes and matches the right pieces, he cab create a terrific defensive lineup that should be used early in the fourth quarter going forward.

Toronto Raptors: Nick Nurse should use this bench lineup more.

The strengths of this lineup are twofold. First, they gave Toronto more than enough length to deny Jokic in the post. Second, they were interchangeable enough on offense to where they could exploit favorable matchups against a Nuggets bench that has been similarly disappointing this season.

Everybody brought something to the table. Barnes was so dominant as a point forward that he was a few rebounds shy of a triple-double. Banton was getting to the rim easily, while Boucher’s nine offensive rebounds and 19 points can’t be praised enough.

Young, who has now closed out games in the fourth quarter multiple times in his short Raptors tenure, was making all the veteran glue guy plays this team expected him to make. Even the struggling Birch managed to come alive by putting in a nice rebounding session.

Holding Jokic nearly scoreless in the fourth is a testament to this group’s effort and hustle.

The Raptors shouldn’t expect such a standout performance every night, but there are signs that the bench is trending in the right direction. With three of their rotation players either injured (OG Anunoby, Malachi Flynn) or not 100% healthy (Fred VanVleet) lineups like that one will need to come through in the clutch.