Everyone knows how taxing the grind of the NBA is on players physically, but it can also take a mental toll. Particularly when injuries and losses pile up the way they have this season for the Toronto Raptors.
Immanuel Quickley was felled for the third time on Monday, missing the game against the Golden State Warriors due to left hip soreness.
The team’s starting point guard has been plagued by injuries, first a pelvis issue suffered after a bad fall on opening night kept him out for eight games. Then it was an elbow injury after just two games back, costing Quickley 22 games. He had only been back for six and had looked off apart from a great performance in the first one.
Overall, Toronto has lost more man-games to injuries than all but two other teams (New Orleans and Brooklyn), so it’s understandable if frustration has set in. Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic said he tries to send his players a message that will resonate when injuries pile up: “The biggest thing is understanding what is in our control and what we cannot control. And this is one of those things that is in our control, unfortunately,” Rajakovic said.
“But just to comprehend that and to accept that, that there are some things that you cannot control and that you’ve got to focus on some other stuff that you can control, which is your recovery, what you do, preparation for the games, and all of that, is (somewhere) that that focus needs to be. And we talked to (Quickley) this morning. Obviously, he’s disappointed that he cannot go out there and have continuity with the group and play. But hopefully this is nothing long term.”
On a broader point, Rajakovic added that the Raptors provide plenty of mental help support. “It’s a very important topic. Mental health is something that gets more and more present as players and people step up and talk about it and (the) importance of it. You can always take some measures how to help yourself, how to help the team,” he said. “We do have a mental performance coach. We have a sports psychologist who is working with the team that’s always available for players. It’s something that we always take very seriously and I think there is a lot of value in it.”
Winning always helps too, and the Raptors pulled off a 104-101 win Monday, leading to a happy locker room.
RARE TREATS
Over the 30 year history of the Raptors only a handful of visiting players have captured the adoration of the crowd the way Stephen Curry does. The Golden State superstar, the best shooter in the history of the game, always gets a huge ovation — except maybe when he was the villain when the Raptors faced the Warriors in the NBA Final — and he entered Monday as the highest-scoring visitor at Toronto, averaging 29.3 in nine regular-season games (just ahead of former teammate Kevin Durant’s 28.6 and Allen Iverson’s 28.4).
Curry also ranks third in playoff points per game at Toronto (29.3 despite Nick Nurse’s Box and One), behind LeBron James (32.1) and Paul George (31.5).
Curry had said at practice Sunday that the Scotiabank Arena (formerly Air Canada Centre) is a special building for him to play in and he always eagerly anticipates his trip to Toronto. Curry spent part of his childhood roaming the hallways and getting up shots on the court and in the old Raptors practice court on the 300 level when his dad Dell Curry was finishing up his NBA career, spending his final three seasons in Toronto as arguably the club’s first big free agent signing.
The younger Curry had actually not played at Toronto since Game 5 of the Finals until being healthy for a Warriors win last March. He scored 25 in that one, but had been averaging only 22.6 points a game this season, his lowest since 2012-13 (other than his five-game 2019-20 season) before nearly getting there in three quarters alone on Monday.
Meanwhile, teammate Andrew Wiggins, an 11-year NBA veteran out of Vaughan, was playing only his fifth game at home and first as a member of the Warriors. He hadn’t played at Toronto since 2018 and he’s still looking for his first victory (his longtime team Minnesota has not won at Toronto since January of 2004, one of the NBA’s most amazing current streaks).
Wiggins did say afterward “It’s been a long time, since 2018, so it’s always fun playing here. It’s one of my favourite places, arenas to play in. Having my family and friends (on hand).”
Wiggins had 20 points, including a game-high four three-pointers.
AROUND THE RIM
With Quickley out, Rajakovic stuck with Jamal Shead off the bench and started Davion Mitchell at point guard. Mitchell didn’t score, but played tough defence on Curry and had six assists and zero turnovers.
Meanwhile, Shead, who was knocked as a non-shooter heading into the draft, hit his first two three-point attempts, making it seven straight through the last three games, before his next attempt was blocked. Shead then hit his fourth attempt. He’s won a great run from beyond the three-point arc following a 1-for-12 slump … Chris Boucher has been playing some of the best basketball of his career lately and Rajakovic joked it’s because he’s started drinking espresso (Rajakovic is a big fan). “We needed that. He won us the game,” Scottie Barnes said of Boucher.
@WolstatSun