It was get-well day at Scotiabank Arena, and, man, did the Raptors needs this one.
Having lost three in a row and 11 of their past 14, the doom and gloomers were coming out of the woodwork.
Fred VanVleet had to go the people said. Trade Gary Trent Jr. Nick Nurse is running this team into the ground.
Masai Ujiri went from ‘In Masai we Trust’ to ‘Does he know how to even build a roster?’
Short memories and flat-out ignorance were in abundance.
But a Sunday afternoon tilt against a Portland team that is having some issues of its own and may or may not have spent Saturday night sampling the local scene, was a nice reprieve as the Raptors came out with a 117-105 win.
It didn’t come easy, as nothing this season really has.
A 19-point lead in the second quarter was down to just five at half time.
It got back up to 19 again in the third quarter but was down to just three with about five minutes to play.
Through it all the Raptors continued to battle.
“You take it man,” said a relieved-sounding VanVleet of the win. “Turn one into two, turn two into three. I think just putting one foot in front of the other right now. Just try to build on this. It was good night for us. We had a good practice yesterday. We got better tonight and have to get better tomorrow. We have to come out here later in the week for a hot Charlotte team.”
With the lead down to three points with seven minutes left in the game, it was VanVleet who stepped up and gave the Raptors some breathing room again with back to back three-pointers.
The second make was immediately followed by a Portland timeout and VanVleet, in a rare display of emotion, turned to the crowd and let them know exactly how he was feeling in that moment.
“Competing man,” VanVleet said of his reaction. “Just trying to get a win and, again, laying it all out there on the line, that was a big swing. I just air-balled one, go down, hit one, do the vertical, get another one, they called a timeout, that was a big swing there.”
It wasn’t just VanVleet feeling good after this one.
Scottie Barnes, who was getting some heat for not looking for his own shot early enough in the game came out aggressively from the jump and finished with 20 points on 7-of-12 makes.
Pascal Siakam, who looked a little out of sorts in Friday’s loss to the Knicks was right back in form with 27 points, six assists and four boards in a more typical Siakam game.
The much maligned, and rightly so, Raptors bench had a great start to the game outscoring Portland’s reserves 12-3 in the opening quarter and while they weren’t as solid in their second stint played mostly against the Trail Blazers starters, they still finished the night outscoring Portland’s bench 23-3.
“They responded well,” VanVleet said of the reserves. “Coach gave them a chance and they responded the way you would like to see, so they have to continue to build on that. We need those guys.
“They pretty much won us the game tonight with that (first) run,” VanVleet said. “And they definitely battled again, in the third and the fourth, Damian (Lillard) got hot for a couple of threes there, but I thought they did an incredible job. Our bench was great tonight. And we’re going to need those guys going forward.”
The get-well theme continued into the three-point shooting where the Raptors shot just under 38% for the night from behind the arc, not a great night, but much better than what they had been doing.
All five Toronto starters meanwhile were in double figures.
It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was just what the Raptors’ needed.
The team now plays host to the Charlotte Hornets in one of those mini two-game series beginning Tuesday with the second game Thursday.
More of Sunday’s performance would go a long way to digging themselves out of the hole the previous 14 games has landed them.
VANVLEET WITH A CORRECTION
A story over the weekend had VanVleet’s phone blowing up and he wanted to clear the air.
At the conclusion of his post-game interview, he took that opportunity.
In question was whether or not VanVleet had in fact turned down a $114-million contract extension at the beginning of the season.
VanVleet confirmed he did not.
“It was never made a formal offer,” VanVleet said. “I think we all understand what comes with the contract extension, due to the CBA if you understand how the cap works and how contracts work. There’s a two-year anniversary that sparks the discussion of taking an extension. There was never a formal offer made. It was a mutual decision made by both sides that the smart thing to do would be to wait it out. There was no rush given that I could still sign the extension all the way through the end of the season.
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