Raptors match best start in franchise history with win over Timberwolves

Kawhi Leonard played the hero as the Toronto Raptors improved to an NBA-best record of 5-0 a with a 112-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, matching the team’s best start in franchise history.

The Raptors' new superstar scored a dazzling 35 points on efficient 15-of-23 shooting, recording his most impactful buckets in the moments when the Timberwolves looked like they were about to flip the game on its ear.

Kyle Lowry had 13 points and delivered 10 rebounds. Serge Ibaka had 15 points and seven rebounds while platooning the centre spot with Jonas Valanciunas, who added 16 points and nine boards off the bench.

The Raps went with the same starting five for back-to-back games for the first time this season, going with Lowry, Leonard, Ibaka, Danny Green and Pascal Siakam.

The Timberwolves came into Wednesday’s game sitting sixth in the NBA in points per game (119) and had had scored 130 points in two of the four games they’d already played. The visitors struggled to make buckets early in the game. But at two separate points in the contest, they were able to jerk the momentum away from the Raptors and threaten for the lead, including the final minutes of the night when they pulled to within an uncomfortable five points of the lead.

Leonard revealed more glimpses of his wide-ranging repertoire, eluding Jimmy Butler on shrewd driving layups, zipping passes, creating steals, protecting the rim and shooting a pair of threes.

Raptors fans serenading the new Toronto megastar with chants of M-V-P has already become a regular thing.

“I feel good. We’re on the right track,” said Leonard. “We’ve won every game so far and we just gotta keep going.”

Fred VanVleet was unavailable to come off the Raps’ bench due to a sprained big toe. The Raptors eased Delon Wright into his first game of the season, now recovered from an adductor injury. Coach Nick Nurse said Wright tightened up after five minutes of playing time, so the team played it safe and sat him down. Lorenzo Brown was called from the end of the Raptors’ bench to take the additional ball-handling minutes for the reserves.

Leonard even spent some time heavier minutes on the floor than usual with the bench players.

“That’s a little different because Kyle’s not on the floor, and then, we were missing Fred tonight in that second unit, so I got the ball in my hands a little bit more,” said Leonard. “We pretty much knew coming into training camp the style of coaching he was gonna have, so it’s nothing shocking to me the way he’s changing up the lineups.

There were two standouts for Toronto’s bench on Wednesday that tickled the home crowd. Valanciunas, who seems not deterred in games he comes off the bench rather than starting, hit a pair of 3-pointers within his 16 points Wednesday, and added two assists. Norman Powell showed more signs of a possible comeback season with a 10-point night, including a wily lay-in while falling down.

The Raps clamped down on Minnesota’s star centre Karl-Anthony Towns, who shot a clunky 5-of-17 for just 14 points and was jeered by Toronto fans for a late third-quarter airball. Butler led Minnesota with 23 points, and Derrick Rose troubled the Raps for 16 points.

Andrew Wiggins didn’t suit up for the Timberwolves on this visit to his hometown, due to a thigh injury suffered in Monday’s win over the Indiana Pacers. He did, however, meet the media in Toronto earlier Wednesday. The top overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft was pressed about why he didn’t play in Canada’s World Cup qualifying games in the summer.

“I had a lot going on at that time, a lot of personal reasons,” said Wiggins. “I want to play in the future, but I can’t tell the future. I’m going to try to play, but we’ll see what happens.”

Wiggins was also questioned about the rumoured animosity between him and Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler, who reportedly had a rant directed at the Canadian in an early-season practice. Wiggins’s brother Nick had also tweeted “Halleluja” in response to a news story that Butler had requested a trade out of Minnesota.

"We’ve always been cool. Even after all that stuff happened this summer... even the first time I seen him during training camp and we talked, there was never no problem," said Wiggins of Butler. “People on social media make things bigger than what it is. From the inside looking out, we know it’s not that big but from outside it looks like ‘oh, something big is going on’ but it ain’t nothing.”

The Raptors close out their three-game home-stand Friday versus the Dallas Mavericks.