Toronto basketball fans treated to Canada’s best this week thanks to NBA scheduling quirk

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The best Canadian basketball has to offer is on display this week in Toronto.

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And no, we’re not just talking about Chris Boucher, the lone bench player the Raptors have been able to count on consistently these past few weeks while the team bench play drags the Raptors down.

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We’re talking about the Canadian-born visitors on Western Conference teams paying their one visit annually to Scotiabank Arena.

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On Tuesday it was Denver’s Jamal Murray, the pride of Kitchener, who came in uncertain to play but, as head coach Michael Malone said upon arrival, there was no keeping him out of this game.

“There was no way in hell he wasn’t going to play tonight,” Malone said. “Even if he’s on one leg, he has 40 or 50 people in the building tonight. This game means a lot to him, obviously, given his Canadian upbringing.”

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Murray had felt some soreness in the knee the game before and didn’t finish that one, but he played a full 40-plus minutes Tuesday night.

Fred VanVleet and the Raptors defence stole some of Murray’s thunder, refusing to give him space particularly from three-point range where he was an uncharacteristic 1-for-8.

Murray, though, is still not all the way back from a devastating torn ACL in his left knee that cost him the latter part of the 2021 season and all of the 2022 season.

But there’s no question that, over the year and a half he missed, Murray has gone from No. 1 among Canadians in the NBA to No. 2.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is in town with the Oklahoma City Thunder to take on the Raptors on Thursday night, has moved into top spot among Canadians in the league.

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Not only is he the unquestioned No. 1 option on the Thunder, but he also has that unique ability to make everyone around him better as the Hamilton native has taken a young Thunder team and helped them grow up in a hurry.

It was thought to be common knowledge that the Thunder would be front and centre in the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes this year, particularly after their second overall pick Chet Holmgren suffered a Lisfranc injury last August, preventing him from suiting up this season.

But led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder find themselves a game under .500 this year in a three-way tie for eighth in the Western Conference and amazingly just three games out of fourth, which would secure a first-round home-court advantage.

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How much of that is a direct result of Gilgeous-Alexander is open to interpretation but there’s no getting around the fact that he’s No. 5 in the league in scoring with 31.5 points a night while the next-highest scoring member of the Thunder is the 16.2 points per game from Josh Giddey.

Scoring isn’t all that Gilgeous-Alexander brings to the table.

Raptors head coach Nick Nurse, who as head coach of Canada’s senior men’s team has had both players at various camps, (injuries have limited his game exposure to Murray to a large degree) still marvels at the defensive job Gilgeous-Alexander did for him in the last-chance play-in tournament in Victoria for the Beijing Olympics. Canada was not successful, but Nurse came away impressed by just about every aspect of Gilgeous-Alexander’s game.

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“He did both sides of the ball about as good as you could have,” Nurse said recently when asked about Gilgeous-Alexander. “When we need offence, he creates it by himself. Tons of driving, guys just standing there with their hands out and hitting right on the money for threes.

“That improved a lot of our other players because of his drawing so much defence. And then just about every game and I know a couple this summer for sure where there’s a 27, 26, 27, 28-point-a-game scorer, he just went and locked ‘em up five, six, or seven points. So, it’s pretty good. He committed, showed leadership, showed great desire and practice and focus, and then he goes out and plays at both ends.”

Murray’s unique skill is his ability to thrive in tough situations. The moment a defender thinks he has Murray locked up, he finds a way to get his shot off. And he’s at his best when the moments are biggest, late in a close game, certainly in a playoff atmosphere, even with the shot clock winding down.

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To have both on the floor this summer as Canada embarks on a World Cup with what should be its strongest roster in tournament history, would push Canada into medal contention, a finish they’ve never accomplished in 14 previous appearances.

The likelihood of both being there for Canada likely comes down to health with Murray the less likely of the two at this point, though certainly not ruling out living up to that commitment he and 13 others along with Gilgeous-Alexander made to the program a couple of summers ago.

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Murray, unlike Gilgeous-Alexander, has NBA championship aspirations this season and that, too, could figure into the decision.

Asked post-game in Toronto on Tuesday night if Canada could win the FIBA World Cup this summer, Murray sounded hopeful if a little non-committal.

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“I believe so. I mean, I’m trying to win a championship first, but I believe so,” he said. “If we lock in in the summer, it will be nice to see all the guys.”

Nurse was asked what he thought of the chances of getting both elite NBA guards on the Canadian team this summer.

“Do I foresee it? I hope so,” Nurse said. “I think that they’re both very committed, they both have been around in the camps and a very good attitude towards playing, etc.

“I guess we just have to wait and see,” he added. “I think Shai’s a really, really good opportunity that he’ll be there, I again just feel like Jamal wants to play, he’s just had a little bit of a rough go here, health-wise. I think that always is going to come into the thoughts and (be a) factor of when it actually happens. How he’s feeling and how this season ends up and all those kinds of things. I think mentally and even verbally, he’s in.”

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