Fred VanVleet didn’t need to dip into his Twitter mentions to know that his name was mud among the overzealous Raptors’ fanbase.
Following a second attention-getting loss to the Orlando Magic on Sunday, VanVleet did his best to calm the troubled waters.
His message was blunt. Yes, all of the Raptors needed to do more, and it started with himself. VanVleet, like many of his teammates, was not shooting the ball with the kind of success the fanbase had become accustomed to and he wanted to make sure everyone knew that he knew that as well.
He all but promised it wouldn’t last and for the most part, on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Arena, it didn’t as VanVleet put up a season-best 39 points, albeit in a 124-123 loss to the Sacramento Kings
“It’s just frustrating to lose in general,” VanVleet said post-game. “Individual performances don’t really matter, especially when you don’t get the win. Frustrating for sure, but it will be a good film day (Thursday) to see why we are giving up the shots we are giving up. They had 17 threes and most of them felt wide open and in rhythm.”
The Kings had a few more locked-in shooters on the night than the Raptors and when VanVleet returned from his normal start-of the-fourth-quarter rest with about seven minutes left in the game, he did so with his team facing a deficit. His next four shots all missed as he tried to will the team back into the lead, but to no avail.
When Pascal Siakam went cold as well down the stretch, the Kings took advantage and wound up handing Toronto its third loss in a row and sixth in the past eight games.
Early on, the Toronto defence looked much better. At times the shooting, with the exception of the three-ball, looked better, too.
But as has been the case during these recent struggles, those brief flashes of improvement were offset by longer stretches of inconsistency.
The defence in particular lagged after an impressive start. Toronto held Sacramento to 23 points in the first quarter but a 36-poimt second and fourth quarter by the visitors sealed Toronto’s fate.
Leading the way for the Kings was point guard De’Aaron Fox who had 27 points, but right behind him was a 24-point effort from Malik Monk off the bench. All four other starters were also into double digits in scoring.
Toronto had three other players in double-figures besides VanVleet, including Scottie Barnes with 27.
Barnes, like VanVleet, looked much more like himself on the offensive end, but shared in the defensive breakdowns over the final three quarters.
“I feel like we, just as a collective group, as a unit, as an organization, we’re just trying to stay positive,” Barnes said of the mood on the team at this fragile point in the season. “This was a very winnable game, I feel like, we should have won this one tonight,.
“But we’re just trying to stay positive, get back at it tomorrow. We’ve got to see what we can do to fix things and just get better every day.”
WIN WHAT YOU CAN
The possession battle is always an important one to win, but even more vital when the shots aren’t falling as they are right now for Toronto.
A team that is life-and-death to score the basketball needs as many opportunities as possible. On that front the Raptors were doing everything they could in the early going.
For just the second time in franchise history, they got through the first half without committing a turnover. The only other time in team history came seven years ago in a game against Brooklyn.
While protecting their own, the Raptors were still digging in at the opposition and creating some for themselves.
In the half, Toronto turned Sacramento over eight times for 10 points off-setting some of that three-point Kings edge.
By game’s end, however, the difference in points off turnovers was just a plus-5 advantage for Toronto.
EX-RAPTOR RETURNS
Former Raptor Terrence Davis got the start in place of Kevin Huerter who is out with a sore ankle and delivered giving the Kings 19 points and a real boost in the three-point game where he was 5-for-12.
The Raptors and Davis never really rekindled after the latter was brought up on third- degree assault charges in a New York incident with a girlfriend following the 2020 season. The charges, a total of seven of them, were eventually dropped but Davis and the Raptors parted ways when he was dealt to Sacramento for a second-round pick at the 2021 trade deadline.
FIRED UP
Kings head coach Mike Brown didn’t make it to the end of this one.
The normally calm and cool Brown had to be held back going after officials when his point guard Fox was whistled for a technical early in the third quarter.
Brown was on his way to the referee who made the call to argue when he was hit by a technical of his own, further infuriating the Kings’ bench boss who then got a second and with it an ejection.
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