Bruce Brown returns to Raptors lineup

Bruce Brown intercepted a pass and streaked down the court, driving past some token defence from Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson for a one-handed slam dunk.

TORONTO – Bruce Brown intercepted a pass and streaked down the court, driving past some token defence from Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson for a one-handed slam dunk.

Brown’s Toronto Raptors teammates burst off the home team’s bench, cheering for the veteran forward.

“It’s just because they didn’t think I can jump, because I haven’t jumped really, or they haven’t seen it, and then they didn’t see it the last year,” Brown said, adding he knew he would dunk as soon as he crossed half-court.

“I told them I could do it and I was like, ‘if I get the chance to, I’mma dunk it.'”

It was Brown’s first dunk in eight months as he scored 12 points and had three rebounds off the bench in his season debut on Sunday as Toronto lost to Atlanta 136-107. He’d missed the first 31 games of the Raptors season as he recovered from arthroscopic knee surgery on Sept. 20, a process that took longer than he expected.

“I thought I was gonna be out like six to eight weeks but some things didn’t go my way,” said Brown. “There was a lot of swelling in there for a while.

“Things happened, and then I was supposed to come back, like, three, four weeks ago, but there was still swelling there, so they told me to take my time.”

Brown averaged 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.3 blocks over 34 games with the Raptors last season. He was traded from the Indiana Pacers to Toronto on Jan. 18 as part of a package for all-star forward Pascal Siakam.