Mavericks at Raptors
The Toronto Raptors look like an unstoppable force with Kawhi Leonard joining Kyle Lowry and will try to begin the season with a sixth consecutive victory when they host the Dallas Mavericks on Friday. The Raptors won their first five games by an average of 11.2 points despite adjusting to a new head coach and integrating Leonard into the lineup.
Leonard, who came over from the San Antonio Spurs in a trade that sent All-Star DeMar DeRozan away over the summer, is quickly developing a connection with Lowry that is confusing other teams. "Thinking about Kyle Lowry, the way he can run a team," Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters after his team lost to Toronto on Wednesday. "He creates a lot of opportunities for people, he reads the game well. They have great versatility. Kawhi, he can hurt you in the post, he can hurt you off the dribble. They put you in situations in which there’s going to be switching involved and you have to react accordingly." The Mavericks squandered a 26-point lead to the Atlanta Hawks in a 111-104 setback on Wednesday and coach Rick Carlisle was succinct in his assessment. "We fell in love with one pass shots, which was something that we said we couldn’t be seduced into in this game, and our defense eroded," Carlisle told reporters. "It opened the floodgates."
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, FS Southwest (Dallas), Sportsnet One (Toronto)
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (2-2): Dallas has yet to win on the road and knows it will take a better effort Friday than the one the team showed in Atlanta. "We conversed about it with the players," point guard Dennis Smith Jr. told reporters. "We know we've got Toronto ahead of us, we know they've been playing really well. We'll just go out there and compete on both ends." The loss overshadowed another strong effort from rookie forward Luka Doncic, who contributed 21 points and nine rebounds and is averaging 19 points and 6.5 boards.
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (5-0): Center Jonas Valanciunas is coming off the bench as first-year coach Nick Nurse experiments with a smaller lineup but is still finding ways to contribute. Valanciunas collected 19 points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes in a 112-105 win over Minnesota on Wednesday and knocked down 2-of-3 from 3-point range. "I've been working a lot on finding the spacing," Valanciunas told reporters. "It's big guy's job to roll and open up the lanes, but sometimes we try to squeeze in a couple pops. I see an opportunity where I can pop, and there you go, you find some."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Raptors PG Fred VanVleet (toe) sat out Wednesday and is questionable for Friday.
2. Mavericks SF Harrison Barnes (hamstring) has yet to make his season debut and remains day-to-day.
3. Toronto took five of the last six meetings but needed overtime to beat Dallas at home last season.