Maybe it was a node to the toll the city of Miami can take on visiting teams, maybe it was a hunch, but giving McCaw – a clever free-agent signing over Christmas – 26 minutes to bring his unique brand of all-out energy proved to be a wise choice by Raptors head coach Nick Nurse.
The numbers weren’t completely silent. McCaw used his season-high in minutes to chip-in a season-high three triples on three attempts and finished the game with 10 points, three rebounds and two assists. “The biggest thing that I always get concerned of, especially down here, is the energy to start the game,” said Nurse. “They play with tremendous energy in general, and down here especially. They like to have [Justise Winslow] run the point, and we thought Patrick’s speed, we’d stick him in there and try to disrupt that from the start and that would give us an overall jolt, maybe slow them down a little and get us going. It was big. And he shot the ball on top of that, which is an extra bonus.
For the St. Louis native, three triples and four shots overall is a waterfall for one of the least willing shooters on the roster – his usage rate of 10.7 per cent is lowest on the team by a wide margin.