OG Anunoby produces career-best scoring night as Raptors record 15th straight win
Tuesday 11 February 2020 08:27, UK
OG Anunoby heeded his team-mate Pascal Siakam’s advice to produce a career-best scoring night and help the Toronto Raptors record their 15th straight win.
Raptors star Siakam keeps telling Anunoby to improve his offensive output by thinking less on the court.
Anunoby must not have thought much during Monday night's game against Minnesota.
Anunoby scored a career-high 25 points and matched his career-best with 12 rebounds to help the Raptors extended their franchise-record winning streak to 15 by beating the Timberwolves 137-126.
"Most of the time you can kind of see that he is thinking too much and he is not just playing freely," Siakam said of Anunoby. "Every time he just goes out and plays - once you are open shoot it, you are not open drive it - he always has a good game.
"You have got to keep it simple, and he did tonight."
Anunoby connected on 10-of-13 attempts, going 3-of-4 from three-point range, and picked up his fifth double-double of the season.
Toronto are 4-0 when Anunoby scores 20 or more.
"I thought his decisions were really, really good tonight," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said.
Siakam scored 14 of his 34 points in the fourth quarter, Kyle Lowry had 27 points and 11 assists, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson had a season-high 21 and Fred VanVleet added 16 as the Raptors won their 16th straight home meeting with Minnesota.
Lowry returned after missing Saturday's win over Brooklyn because of whiplash, but center Serge Ibaka sat because of flu-like symptoms. Hollis-Jefferson started for Ibaka.
D'Angelo Russell scored 22 points in his Minnesota debut and Karl-Anthony Towns had 23 points and 10 rebounds, but the Timberwolves could not build on Saturday's surprise victory over the Clippers that snapped their 13-game losing streak.
Russell, who did not play against the Clippers because of a right quad contusion, said he had enjoyed his first game playing alongside his pal Towns and the rest of the new-look Timberwolves.
"It was great," Russell said. "Super-excited about this group."
Jarrett Culver, Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez scored 15 apiece for the Timberwolves, who have lost five straight against Toronto.
Minnesota had a season-worst 23 turnovers, leading to 34 points for the Raptors.
"Your turnovers are as good as twos and threes for them, the way they push the ball and the way they can score in the open court," Timberwolves coach Ryan Saunders said.
Toronto were not much better at taking care of the ball. The Raptors committed 20 turnovers, four shy of their season-worst total. The Timberwolves scored 26 points off Toronto miscues.
Anunoby scored 16 points in the third quarter on 6-of-7 shooting, but the basket of the quarter came in the final seconds when VanVleet threw a no-look, overhead pass to Hollis-Jefferson for a fast-break dunk. Toronto outscored Minnesota 32-19 in the third to take a 106-94 lead to the fourth.
Former Raptor James Johnson made two three-pointers as the Timberwolves opened the fourth with a 12-2 run, cutting their deficit to 108-106 with 9:07 left.
That was as close as Minnesota would get. Chris Boucher and Siakam scored to push Toronto's lead back to six points, and VanVleet and Patrick McCaw hit three-pointers on either side of Towns' free throw to make it 120-109 with 5:28 remaining.
