Norman Powell says he's been dreaming his entire life of playing in the spotlight on the NBA's biggest stage.
There was zero sign of stage fright Tuesday night, when the Raptors rookie swiped the ball off Pacers star Paul George, and took flight for a massive one-handed dunk. The huge play was a turning point in Toronto's Game 5 win over Indiana. And it came as no surprise to his teammates.
"When I first worked out with him in the gym, his mindset, his competitive nature, he didn't care who you were once you were on that court," DeMar DeRozan said of Powell. "And being a rookie coming into the league and not knowing the NBA, but you're willing to lay it all out there on the line with NBA guys, he's had my respect since then."
The 22-year-old UCLA product was a big part of the Raptors' fourth-quarter comeback that has them just one win away from clinching the series. Toronto takes a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series into Indianapolis on Friday.
Powell, whose dunk lit up Twitter — with the hashtag "WeTheNorm" — has played with a veteran's poise in his post-season debut. Nerves? There are none.
"No, I just told myself I put in the time, I put in the work, to go out there and play basketball," Powell said Wednesday. "It's a big stage that I've dreamed of being on my whole life, and to go out there and to prove to people that I belong on this stage, that I belong in the NBA — that's my whole mindset, [since] the day I was drafted."
Just don't miss
Powell, who finished with 10 points, four rebounds and two steals, admitted he briefly considered what kind of dunk to do when he was barrelling toward the basket.
"There were so many different dunks I was thinking about doing," Powell said. "I kind of overthought it and the ball slipped out of my hand a little bit going up for the dunk."
DeRozan joked that Powell "was going to get cussed out if he missed.
"But he made it, he made it."
There were some tense moments at the final buzzer Tuesday when Solomon Hill drained a three-pointer that would have tied the game. The refs reviewed the basket then whistled it off, saying it left Hill's hands a split second too late.
"I knew it wasn't good," DeRozan said. "If you look at the replay, as soon as it went through I was waving it off, because there was no way you could dribble, go right, to the left, pass, gather, shoot...in two seconds. My math's not too great, but I figured he didn't get it."
Biyombo crashes the boards
DeRozan also had high praise Wednesday for big man Bismack Biyombo, who had 16 rebounds — seven alone in the Raptors' massive fourth quarter. Biyombo was getting knocked about under the basket all night, but said he'll sacrifice his body and take the hits so DeRozan and the scorers don't have to.
"Bismack man, first of all, he's a hell of a person. I love him to death, he's one of the greatest teammates you can have," DeRozan said. "He's willing to sacrifice everything for the other four guys who are out there on that court. When you have a teammate who's willing to do that to try to make everything easier for us, whether it's scoring or opportunities to get out in transition by rebounding the ball or getting blocked shots...you can't ask for nothing greater than that."
Biyombo's story is well-told. The 23-year-old from Democratic Republic of the Congo left home when he was 16 to live in Yemen, then eventually moved to Spain to play basketball before he was selected seventh overall in the 2011 NBA draft.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey says Biyombo carries himself with a maturity of a man much older.
"Bismack, where he's come from, everybody on this team has been through something and I think that's some of the fight we have," Casey said. "He's the spirit of our team, he's kind of the soul of our team, he starts the toughness of our team."
As for Game 6, the Raptors are approaching it as a must-win game, hoping to avoid coming out as flat as they did in Games 4 and 5. A series victory would be just the second in Raptors history — they beat the New York Knicks in the opening round in 2001.
"I look forward to Game 7...I mean Game 6," Biyombo said, correcting himself. "We're going to play that game as if it was Game 7 and that's just the mindset."
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét