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Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse has come under fire from the media on a night when his team fell to the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star tweeted his displeasure with the rotation during the game, pointing out the fact that Nick Nurse was slow to bring his starters back in while the game was slipping out of control:
Eh, I might have come back with all your starters a few minutes sooner, with three days until Game 3 and the game teetering some.
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) April 30, 2019
Arthur might have a point here. There was — and is — plenty of time for the Raptors to rest up for Game 3, and even though this was not a must-win game, the loss cost Toronto home-court advantage.
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Nick Nurse didn't bring star forward Kawhi Leonard back into the game until there was 8:37 remaining in the fourth quarter, even though he was easily the Raptors' most effective player on both ends of the floor for the entire game. Nurse also sat Marc Gasol and Danny Green for almost half the quarter, two important starters who could have helped swing the tide and ultimately the final result. Neither Gasol nor Green shot well — both made only one field goal apiece — but they still worked well with Leonard, Pascal Siakam, and Kyle Lowry, the three Raptors who played generally well on Monday.
Nurse is taking more flak per usual because his reserves played terribly. The Toronto bench scored only five points the entire game and shot a combined two of 11 from the field. In short, they were thoroughly outplayed by the Sixers' bench unit and should have been replaced far earlier.
It's easy to call a head coach out in hindsight. There's no way of being certain of what would have happened had Leonard returned earlier, or Gasol and Green had played more key minutes. Nurse will surely reevaluate his late-game decisions and make some tweaks in order to be ready for Game 3 on Thursday.
