Photo Credit: Matt Azevedo/MattAzevedo.com
Raptors 905 98, Windy City Bulls 92 | Box Score
Assignees: Bruno Caboclo, Fred VanVleet (905), None (Bulls)
As Fred VanVleet received the inbound pass, Spencer Dinwiddie arrived right under his chin, chest-to-chest, arms outstretched. Early in the third quarter, it was a little strange to see a point guard defending in the backcourt so aggressively, but Dinwiddie had just turned the ball over and was hell-bent on swinging the possession back his way. VanVleet bumped Dinwiddie back, then proceeded to grind his way across half-court just in time to avoid a violation. Still hounding, Dinwiddie was whistled for a foul.
The two point guards separated, no trash-talk to be heard but with a seemingly quiet respect, two boxers knowing full well the bell is only sounding the end of a round. Immediately prior to this exchange, VanVleet had responded to a Dinwiddie and-one with a three, and much of the second half would play out with two of the best guards the D-League has to offer battling it out.
VanVleet would ultimately win the battle, edging Dinwiddie 25-24 on points, 15-13 in the fourth quarter, and, more importantly, with Raptors 905 improving to 3-0 with a 98-92 victory over the upstart Windy City Bulls.
“It wasn’t really a mono e mono thing for me. I was just trying to win the game,” VanVleet said. “He made some great plays down the stretch, and I was able to make a couple buckets to close it out. We made the last run as a team, so I was glad to pull it off.”
It may not have meant much to VanVleet at a personal level, but it’s exactly the type of scenario the Toronto Raptors are hoping to see him thrive in. Up against a more experienced, NBA-tested guard, VanVleet not only led his team to victory but found the delicate balance between engaging in the tit-for-tat while also keeping the offense moving as a whole. That he shot 9-of-22 almost makes his outing even more notable for the purposes of projecting, as he shook off a tough start by looking for teammates, then going back into attack mode. He changed as the game presented different opportunities to him, and he did much better after a similarly shaky shooting start than he did just a few days prior.
“I kinda started it last game the same way, and I stopped attacking ’cause it wasn’t going my way. Today, I just was like ‘forget it, I’mma keep going until something good happens,'” he said. “The game kinda stalled out there at the end, and I just stayed in attack mode.”
That mentality made for an entertaining second half, even as the 905 saw what was once a 22-point lead cut down to as small as five late in the game. Entertaining for some, that is.
“Wasn’t that much fun watching Dinwiddie, but it was fun watching Fred. Dinwiddie got it going, he has a great ability to get his feet in the paint and finish. And again, a guy who picks his spots at the right time,” head coach Jerry Stackhouse said. “Two really tough guards that have a bright future in my mind.”
Despite VanVleet’s success in the second half, he wound up with a team-low minus-9 that isn’t at all indicative of his play but rather of the strength of the 905 bench. Depth was always going to be an edge this team had, and over three games against three expansion teams that lack it, it’s played a major factor. The starters can essentially play an opponent’s starters even and expect to be closing out a lead on most nights, because few teams can match bench players – let alone entire second units – with the 905. Through three games, the 905 bench is outscoring opposing benches 157-63 (the 905 are admittedly using their bench about 50 percent more than opponents, but that gap is still enormous when controlling for minutes).
The 905 closed the first quarter on a 14-1 run, almost all of it with five bench players on the floor, a particularly notable stretch that put them in control the rest of the way and highlighted the primary takeway through three games: That this team can really defend. Stackhouse didn’t want to discuss holding teams to under 100 points in three consecutive games, and he shouldn’t – the breakneck pace of the D-League understates the difficulty of that bench mark. And while Stackhouse prefers opponent field-goal percentage (the Bulls shot 40.7 percent, nudging the team’s mark to 37 percent on the year), he may want to cozy up to defensive rating, too, where the 905 rank first by a long shot with a mark of 87.2 points allowed per-100 possessions
“If we can find a way to hang around those numbers throughout the course of the year, I think we’ll be OK,” Stackhouse said. “We’re giving up some second-chance opportunities and we’re beating ourselves with turnovers. We’ve gotta get that turnover number way down.”
If the 905 could manage to not surrender 20 points off of 18 turnovers (nine of them live), the defense would have an easier time getting set. In other words, the league’s best defense so far isn’t entirely happy with how they’ve performed, and they see room to get even better.
“I think once we get where we wanna go, we’re gonna put a lot of people on notice,” Stackhouse said when told Bulls coach Nate Loenser had high praise for his team.
As for VanVleet going 1-0 against Dinwiddie?
“We’re 3-0. That’s all that matters for me as a point guard,” he said.
Notes
- It was “School Day” with the 11 a.m. start, and the Hershey Centre was appropriately loud. The team was expecting about 4,600 students in attendance (the listed attendance was 4,486). For context, the team averaged just shy of 3,000 fans last year, with 3,200 and 2,400 showing up for the first two games of this season.
- Negus Webster-Chan was surprised to learn (from me – oops) that he was getting the start before the game, and seemed genuinely humbled considering he’s gotten this far out of open tryouts (the team loves his size and shooting). He’s also quickly becoming a fan favorite – he estimates he had 30 friends and family at the preseason home game, something closer to 50 at the opener, and a few less for the early Sunday start. The kids appreciated him being introduced as from Scarborough, too. He paid it back their way by knocking down a pair of early triples.
- OK, Bruno Caboclo’s ovation was louder, though. Caboclo was even covering his ears during timeouts, the kids were so loud. Bru-Tang is NOT for the children, it turns out. Nor is he for 11 a.m. starts – he played quite well defensively and grabbed 10 rebounds in 20 minutes but shot just 1-of-9, was 0-of-5 on threes, and had a pair of avoidable turnovers.
- I caught up with Edy Tavares before the game. He told me his wingspan is 7-foot-11, not the reported 7-foot-9, and that he can touch the rim flat-footed (his standing reach was last listed at 9-foot-10). I also shook his hand and can best describe his closed fist as Christmas ham-sized. Tavares is still trying to get up to speed with the system – he just arrived in Toronto on Tuesday – but said the presence of Caboclo and Yanick Moreira, who both speak Portugese, has really helped.
- Here’s Coach Stackhouse on Tavares’ performance in his second day with the team: “For having one day of practice yesterday, I thought he caught on. He has really good basketball IQ of knowing the stuff that we’re trying to do. A lot of it is just ‘run to the block, and we’re gonna try to get it to you, big fella.’ So it’s kinda simple for him.” Stackhouse admitted that the team is a little limited when he’s on the floor because he doesn’t know all of the sets yet, but he’s excited where Tavares will be with two more days of practice before the team’s next game.
- The next game goes Saturday at 2 p.m. when the 905 hostDemetrius Jackson and the 4-2 Maine Red Claws.
