It was as if all of Nick Nurse’s hopes and dreams for the reconstituted Raptors bench came true in one magical 12-minute period.
It was astonishing and historic and will be the quarter that fans talk about the rest of this season, and perhaps well into the future: Sunday’s magical fourth quarter when Kyle Lowry and four unheralded backups completed the greatest comeback in Raptors history.
Nobody did too much. Everybody ceded to the primary scorer and got theirs without forcing any issues, just like the coach wants.
“We still need to go through our primary guys, and if (the others) can cut behind them and get one — or get a putback, or a rhythm three where people are disrespecting them, or they’re heavy-loading to our primary guys — they can go ahead,” the coach said of the backup brigade of Terence Davis II, Malcolm Miller, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Chris Boucher before Sunday’s game.