The Toronto Raptors rode the emotion of Vince Carter’s No. 15 being retired to the rafters on Saturday night to beat Sacramento in overtime.
They can use last week’s loss to Denver as motivation when they visit the Nuggets on Monday night.
Denver rallied to beat Toronto in overtime last week for its first win of the season. The Raptors seemingly had the game in hand with an eight-point lead and 1:43 remaining in regulation, but the Nuggets tied it on a layup by native son Jamal Murray and won it in the extra period.
That seemed to kickstart Denver’s season. It has won three of the last four, including a rout of Utah on Saturday night, and has a chance to have a winning record Monday night.
The Nuggets played without Murray, who entered concussion protocol due to a hit to the head in the loss at Minnesota on Friday night. Denver ruled him out Sunday for the game against Toronto.
With Murray out against the Jazz, the Nuggets moved Russell Westbrook into the starting lineup and used Julian Strawther as the backup point guard. Strawther responded with 19 points and helped a struggling bench find success.
The three wins have also calmed the grumbling after Denver opened the season with two home losses.
“We’re definitely finding our identity, and I feel like we’re doing a really good job of keeping things inside our own walls,” Strawther said. “Obviously, there’s a lot of outside noise on what’s going on in our locker room, but we’ve done a good job of just continuing to grow.”
Toronto is trying to grow while dealing with injuries to several key players. Immanuel Quickley (pelvis) and Bruce Brown (knee) sat out Saturday night’s win and Scottie Barnes (orbital fracture) and Kelly Olynyk (back) will miss several weeks.
That has thrust some young players into meaningful minutes, and second-year guard Gradey Dick has responded. Dick is averaging 21 points a game and scored 22 in the win over the Kings to supplement RJ Barrett (31 points) and Chris Boucher (24 points).
Dick averaged just 8.5 points in 60 games as a rookie last season but has taken advantage of his opportunities seven games into this season. He made a key defensive play in overtime on Saturday night and hit a floater in the final minute to extend the lead to three.
That came after scoring 30 against Charlotte and 31 in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night.
“It’s about how you finish,” he said. “You’re going to have your off-nights, but I just try to keep level-headed at the end, make the shots that I could, make the free throws and control what I can control.”
Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic has no problem using Dick or any young player in crunch time, especially missing several players.
“I’m not going to hide him or any other player on our team,” Rajakovic said. “We need to play hard. We need to do what the job demands. There is no hiding in this league.”
