Serge Ibaka back but defeated
By Guillaume Mahot
The 2019 NBA champions were surely expecting anything else with these two (big) returns from injury. After several weeks out of the floor, emblematic point guard Kyle Lowry and Spanish Congolese center Serge Ibaka made their comeback for the Toronto Raptors, a real benefit for the franchise although their substitutes, like Norman Powell, perfectly did the job in their absence. The thing is, Nick Nurse’s team lost their last two games whereas they had won the seven previous ones. Not the kind of effect they were wishing.
Toronto first lost at home against Miami 110-121 last Wednesday before losing again, against the Rockets this time, by 109 points to 119. Last night’s defeat was also at home, which makes it a little bit annoying in the successful beginning of season that has been achieved by the Raptors so far. Besides, Lowry and Ibaka’s comebacks are not supposed to undermine the franchise, even if we should consider the quality of the opponents as well.
Cameroonian forward Pascal Siakam scored 24 points and took 9 rebounds yesterday while Nigerian forward OG Anunoby added 9 points. The good performances of Fred VanVleet (20 points) and Norman Powell (14 points) did not enable to offset Houston’s ones, especially James Harden (23 points) and mostly Ben McLemore (28 points), his record in career. Furthermore, 53 points were brought by the trio Tucker-Westbrook-House for the Rockets of Mike D’Antoni.
Ibaka (10 points) and Lowry (19 points) contributed for the Raptors in a game where the Canadian franchise finished with better statistics than Houston in some sectors, but lost the game in the end. The Raptors shot better (43.2% vs 40.8%), had more blocks (5 vs 2) and more steals (14 vs 11). The difference came from the rebounds, 45 for Toronto and 54 for Houston. The winners took ten more shots than Toronto too.
After this difficult episode at home with those two defeats, the teammates of Marc Gasol will travel to Philadelphia of Cameroonian star Joel Embiid next Monday.
Africa Global News Publication
