John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Raptors Reach .500 Mark as Fred VanVleet Continues His All-Star Campaign Against San Antonio
Step 1: Get to .500
That’s been the top priority for the Toronto Raptors ever since COVID-19 decimated the team last month. Get healthy and start stringing together some wins. The worst of the storm had passed, and it's officially go time. Time to see what this team is really made of.
Well, with Tuesday night’s 129-104 victory over the San Antonio Spurs, that mission was accomplished. The Raptors are back to .500, 17-17, and healthy enough to start heading in the right direction.
“I think it’s a little something,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said of reaching .500. “Let’s put it this way. I think we’ve got some aspirations of us being not .500 or below .500, certainly well above. … I feel like if we’ve got most of our people here we can win more than we lose by a significant amount.”
Again, take these wins with a grain of salt. The Spurs, much like the New York Knicks the other night, were missing some key pieces due to COVID-19 issues. But you can only play the team across from you and if those losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers count against Toronto, then these wins certainly do too.
Whatever success the Raptors have had and will have this season has come courtesy of Fred VanVleet. If Spurs coach Gregg Popovich hadn’t seen enough tape to decide if Raptors lead guard was worthy of All-Star game recognition when I asked him about it pre-game, that certainly should change post-game. VanVleet carved up the Spurs from deep, nailing three-pointers off the catch as he's done all year. Coming into the night he'd shot a league-leading 48.4% on catch-and-shot threes.
"Yeah, I mean, I just say that he's such a good shooter. We've known that, right? It's kind of one of the benefits when we had Kyle and Fred is one of them would be off the ball so one of them could space right while the other one was bringing it," said Nurse who has let Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam bring the ball up recently to allow VanVleet to play off ball. "That's playing to a lot of their strengths, especially getting Freddie off, running the break and I really liked the way (Siakam and Barnes) are getting into the paint and finding not only in guys, but out as well."
After falling behind seven points early in the first quarter, VanVleet quickly snuffed out any hope of a Spurs upset. He had 24 points in the first half alone en route to a 33-point, seven-assist performance that included 12-for-23 shooting from the field.
"I think you recognize when you’re rhythm and you just try to hold on as long as possible because it’s not always like that," VanVleet said. "So I try to keep my floor a little higher, but when you’re hot I think you’ve just gotta be aggressive and ride it out as long as you can."
With three straight 30-plus point performances and four in his last five games, VanVleet has firmly solidified himself as someone who should be getting serious consideration for an All-Star game nod this season.
"What he's doing is incredible for himself and the team," said Justin Champagnie who set a new career-high with 14 points Tuesday. "He's a big part of this team and he's been putting on a show for everbody. He deserves to be an All-Star."
Point Forwards
The Raptors continued to go without a backup point guard Tuesday night, letting Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes run the show when VanVleet sat. It again made for a ginormous lineup full of rangy 6-foot-7 to 6-foot-9 wings that caused all kinds of problems for San Antonio.
Barnes diced the Spurs up for a near triple-double with 11 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists. He got a few extra minutes to chase the milestone when the other starters came out late in garbage time, but the feat was just out of reach.
"It was fun watching him try to get it. It was fun watching him," VanVleet said. "It’s tough, man. It’s not as easy as it looks, so you definitely have to give credit to those guys who go out there and get ‘em."
Unfortunately for the Raptors, the G League has been on hiatus for the past little while with so many players getting called up due to COVID-19 outbreaks, and Malachi Flynn and Dalano Banton haven't had much time to develop.
Watanabe Doing OK
Svi Mykhailiuk and Yuta Watanabe both entered COVID-19 Health & Safety protocols Tuesday morning.
“He’ll be out for a little while but he’s fine as far as I know as of this moment,” Nurse said of Watanabe.
Josh Primo Makes Canadian Debut
Tuesday’s game marked the first time Josh Primo has returned home to take on the Raptors in his brief NBA career. It wasn’t as special as he’d hoped without the over 100 family and friends he’d planned to have before Ontario’s new COVID measures forced Scotiabank Arena into lockdown, but his 20-person cheering second was well represented across from the Spurs bench.
“It’s kinda weird just knowing it’s been my home for so long and I’m coming back now and I’m visiting, the visiting team. I’m the enemy,” he said pre-game.
Primo finished the night with 15 points.
Up Next: Milwaukee Bucks
The Raptors will be right back at it with the second half of their back-to-back Wednesday night in Milwaukee at 8 p.m. ET.
