Team of the decade is a tough call, eh?
The Raptors could either have Lowry and VanVleet operate without space or accept a playmaking downgrade in order to use them as spacers. They opted for the latter, and it worked extremely well Saturday, as McCaw had the game of his career.
“It was great. When you’ve got two scorers like Kyle and Fred who, you just give them the ball and they’re going to make a play, my job is easy,” McCaw said. “Just being comfortable with the ball and making plays. Being on the ball more is definitely something I’ve got to get adjusted to. For me, it’s easy because most of my career I played on the ball so it’s not a huge adjustment. But it was fun. It was great. Definitely a different feel for me. But I’m getting used to it.”
Nurse was creative in how he used McCaw beyond just initiating the Raptors’ basic sets (though McCaw deserves credit for some nice pick-and-roll reads, as well). One such look had McCaw bring the ball up slowly while Lowry and VanVleet ran simultaneous off-ball actions on either side of the floor. It’s not a complicated set, necessarily, but running it so high on the floor and so early in the possession leaves a lot of room for something to break, whether it’s Lowry or VanVleet flaring open, Anunoby back-door cutting to the rim or one of the point guards weaving right into a pick-and-roll against a scrambled defence.
The Raptors also used McCaw in quick-hit actions with the other point guards, trusting him to make quick, decisive passes even if the defence wasn’t too worried about his threat from the wing.
Cleveland Cavaliers at Toronto Raptors, Game 33 preview and listings – cleveland.com
Cavs minute: Tuesday marks the second of three matchups against the Raptors this season. … The Cavs have won four of their last five games, holding opponents to 43.7% from the field during that stretch. … Cleveland grabbed 61 rebounds in its win versus Minnesota on Saturday night. … It’s the most the Cavs have recorded as a team since Feb. 18, 2014. … Tristan Thompson has recorded a team-high 16 double-doubles this season. … Thompson is three blocks away from passing Roy Hinson (430) for sixth place in franchise history. … Rookie Darius Garland has scored at least 14 points in four of the last six games, coinciding with Cleveland’s winning stretch. … Over the last eight games, Collin Sexton is averaging 19.6 points on 48.4% from the field, 3.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.2 steals in 31.5 minutes. … Sexton tallied 25 points in the first meeting versus Toronto. … Kevin Porter Jr. has seven double-digit scoring performances in the month of December after having just two in October and November.
Raptors minute: Toronto will not have leading scorer Pascal Siakam, Norman Powell or Marc Gasol. … The Raptors are 8-7 in December, including just 3-3 over the last six without that trio of players. … Toronto has won four straight at home against the Cavs. … Patrick McCaw, who spent a bit of time in Cleveland last season, has scored double figures in three of six games as a starter. … Over the last six games with Gasol out, Serge Ibaka is averaging 16.0 points and 9.3 rebounds while shooting 53.9% from the field. … Fred VanVleet is tied for third in the NBA in steals. … Kyle Lowry is averaging 20.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 39.3 minutes in December.
Toronto Raptors: Kyle Lowry is taking his game to another level
A lot of Lowry’s buckets in the last seven games are coming out of his own desire and effort, over 59-percent of his made field-goals are coming unassisted. We’ve seen him attack mismatches and hit the rim, pull-up in transition, and take the ball to the hoop in transition. He’s been a revelation on offense.
And, while, his three-point shooting has been sensational, Lowry is doing it while taking – and making – the most difficult three-pointer possible: the above the break three. Lowry has made 26 three-pointers during this impressive stretch, and every one of them has come from above the break.
He’s doing it in a variety of ways too. Against the Celtics, Patrick McCaw had the ball in his hands often, with Lowry working off screens and knocking down threes all over the court. That’s been the case all season, Lowry has been one of the most effective players coming off screens in the NBA.
In 2.1 possessions per game, Lowry is averaging 1.15 points per possession, putting him in the 80th percentile among all players. That’s impressive. Of the 11 players who average more possessions per game, only Paul George and Doug McDermott are more effective.
It’s not just scoring where Lowry has upped his game. He has the desirable trait of being able to pull plus-minutes out of anyone he steps onto the court with, something that was on show against the Dallas Mavericks as the team came from 30 points down to win – the biggest comeback in franchise history.
Lowry and a bench unit consisting of Boucher, Terence Davis, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Malcolm Miller were able to put up 47 points in the fourth quarter and overturn the huge deficit. It was an unfathomable slice of history, and Lowry was leading the charge with 32 points and 10 assists on a 12-for-23 shooting night.
He and Boucher dissected the Mavericks in the pick-and-roll, manipulating space to create for himself and others. Lowry is running 5.9 pick-and-roll possessions per game, averaging 1.05 points per possession. That puts him in the 90th percentile among all players, yikes.
As always, it isn’t just his offensive numbers that sparkle, his hustle is unlike anyone else in the league. Lowry leads the league in charges drawn in the month of December, and is third overall in the league, despite only playing in 22 games. Not only that, he’s fourth in loose balls recovered in December too. His hustle knows no bounds, and it’s clear that he is doing all he can to get the Raptors over the hump and through this injury crisis.
There’s time to rebound, but erratic offence isn’t a good look for Raptor OG Anunoby | The Star
So this season lined up to be a logical platform from which Anunoby would resume his seemingly inevitable ascent toward Siakam-like stardom. And the raft of injuries suffered a couple of weeks back — the ones that have kept Siakam, Norman Powell and Marc Gasol out of the lineup for the past six games — only seemed to set up a scenario where Anunoby, suddenly thrust into a role in which his team required more offensive production from alternate sources, would do what rising NBA commodities do. You know, seize the moment and rifle off a regular drip of signature games that would grow his legend and underline how prescient the Raptors were in grabbing him 23rd overall in the 2017 draft. And also: Raise the stock of the defending champions by virtue of their remarkable organizational ability to transform raw talent into the genuine stuff.
Alas, it hasn’t worked out that way, not so far — and it’s not just Sunday night’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, wherein Anunoby missed nine of his 12 field-goal attempts including all seven from three-point range, that makes that true.
Good luck figuring out which version of the six-foot-eight enigma is going to show up on any given evening — say, for instance, Tuesday’s New Year’s Eve home game against the Cavaliers. Is it the Anunoby who began this season looking like he might make a case to succeed Siakam as the in-house contender for the most-improved trophy? That Anunoby was a dead-eye shooter who, in the opening nine games of the season, made an average of two three-pointers a game while knocking down a team-best 53 per cent of his attempts from deep.
Or is it the Anunoby who has suffered through an ugly December regression? That Anunoby has made a dismal 11 of 54 three-pointers deemed “open” or “wide-open” by the league’s player-tracking system. That’s a 20 per cent success rate on shots in which opposing defences left him standing by himself behind the arc — which can give you the idea that both opposing defences and Anunoby share similar amounts of belief in the player’s ability to connect from distance.
“I think he’s getting really good looks. We have some guys, even Kyle (Lowry) goes through some of these slumps. He’s just in an up-and-down moment,”
A decade to remember: The top 10 Raptors games of the 2010s | Toronto Sun
Feb. 14, 2012
The earliest game to make the cut. Who can forget the night Linsanity came to town as a fairy tale story came to life? Jeremy Lin’s incredible, unexpected run with the New York Knicks culminated with the 23-year-old nailing a stunning three-pointer with 0.5 seconds remaining. How big was the shot? How many times have you seen hundreds of Toronto fans standing and cheering after the home team was defeated? It was NBA theatre at its finest.Lin had earlier hit a tough driving layup while being fouled and then an ensuing free throw to tie the game with just over a minute remaining. Neither team would score again until Lin nailed his three-pointer.
March 22, 2014
Kevin Durant scored 51 points against Toronto more recently than this one, but you can’t top the dramatics of KD’s first outburst against the Raptors. Russell Westbrook had limped off, the game went to not one, but two overtime periods, and Durant got to 51 points by rising up to sink a three-pointer with 1.7 seconds remaining. Toronto had led by eight points with only 49 seconds on the clock, before Durant nailed another clutch three, followed by one by Derek Fisher. When John Salmons misfired on two free throws, Durant had a chance to make his seventh three of the game and of course he didn’t miss. Brilliance.May 4, 2014
The Raptors were supposed to tank after trading Rudy Gay and nearly dealing Kyle Lowry. Instead, they inexplicably returned to the playoffs after a long absence and took a 3-2 series lead against veteran-laden Brooklyn. Alas, the group fell short, when Lowry’s layup attempt was blocked, but the building has arguably never been louder than it was late in Game 7 against the Nets. Earlier that season the Raptors had served notice by beating OKC and Dallas and then East-leading Indiana that something special was afoot. This was the start of everything that would transpire the rest of the decade.
Raptors ready patchwork lineup for Cavs rematch
The Cleveland Cavaliers will face a different starting lineup when they visit the Toronto Raptors for the second time in 15 days Tuesday night.
When the Raptors defeated the Cavaliers 133-113 on Dec. 16, their starting lineup included Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol and Norman Powell. All three are out indefinitely with injuries and will not face Cleveland this time.
Siakam scored 33 points and Powell had 26 in that game against Cleveland.
The Raptors are 3-3 without the trio after losing at home 98-97 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
The Cavaliers went on a season-high three-game winning streak after losing to the Raptors.
The game in Toronto ends a three-game road trip for the Cavaliers, who split the first two games, losing to the Boston Celtics before beating the Minnesota Timberwolves 94-88 on Saturday despite committing 28 turnovers that led to 27 points.
Cavaliers coach John Beilein said he had never won a game that way before. “Never. Ever. Ever,” he said.
“A win is a win,” forward Larry Nance Jr. said. “This one got a little bit ugly and we have to fix some things.”
Kevin Love did not play for the Cavaliers because of a right hip contusion.
“Our defense was everything to us (Saturday),” Beilein said. “If you look at the shooting stats, our contest rate was really high and we got there. They missed a lot of shots, but I think we made them miss a lot of shots. Offensively, there was nothing pretty on both sides, but some days you rely on your defense.”
Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson, who is from Brampton, Ontario, recorded his 16th double-double of the season Saturday with 12 points and 15 rebounds.
“He was relentless,” Beilein said. “He was relentless in rebounding offensively and, particularly, defensively. Protected the rim, had a couple of verticalities and he was the heart and soul of our team in many ways.”
NBA Tier List: Raptors' ceiling undefined heading into new year – Sportsnet.ca
Rounding out the list of teams with a shot are these seven.
The possibility is there for any of these teams to get hot in the post-season and ride that straight to a championship as they all have enough talent to do so, but the problem is, looking at them in the present, each of these teams are either too inconsistent or too banged up right now to make them realistic contenders.
For example, the Los Angeles Clippers look to be every bit as good as their cross-town rival Lakers and, as Christmas Day proved, even better at times. But because of Kawhi Leonard’s load management and just outright inconsistent play they’ve shown so far – even when Leonard plays – it’s hard to know which Clippers are going to show up on a nightly basis.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Raptors are in the camp of “too banged up” for us to know what they might be come the playoffs. The Raptors are a scrappy group that does manage to keep finding ways to win despite the plethora of injuries they’ve suffered this season, but how long can they keep this up?
There’s no definitive timeline on the likes of Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol and Norman Powell, three key pieces of their team. If all three return healthy and look just as good as ever in the post-season, the Raptors will be in good shape. But if that ideal scenario doesn’t pan out, there’s no real knowing just what the Raptors could be.
Raptors' McCaw showing promise and aggressiveness in fluctuating role – Sportsnet.ca
He’s quick, he’s smooth, he’s instinctual, he’s got vertical, his wingspan’s three inches longer than his six-foot-seven height. There’s undoubtedly something to be unlocked there, and the Toronto Raptors are stubbornly committed to finding the key, no matter how squirrelly things get in the process.
And while no player’s development is linear, McCaw’s has been particularly uneven. The series of events that brought him to Toronto from the Golden State Warriors by way of the Cleveland Cavaliers was peculiar and tumultuous enough. And his play with the Raptors over the 12 months since has been anything but consistent.
There was a point not that long ago — like, last week — when many thought McCaw’s role in Nick Nurse’s rotations ought to be decreased, if not terminated altogether. He looked tepid and uncertain at times, flummoxed and disengaged at others. When the Raptors were rag-dolled by the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day, McCaw was a minus-22, somewhat incredibly scoring only two points with three rebounds, a steal and no assists over 32 minutes.
But the master stroke from Nurse three nights later when the Raptors flew south to play the Celtics again was to do the complete opposite of what was expected. He expanded McCaw’s role, not only leaving him on the floor for 43 of the game’s 48 minutes, but rejigging his sets around the 24-year-old, ordering him to run the floor
Raptors Reporter Reveals Untold Story of Vince Carter’s 2000’s Dunk Contest | Heavy.com
Raptors reporter Paul Jones was interviewed earlier this year by Fanatics View and revealed he interviewed Carter just minutes before the start of that dunk contest.
“So, 2000 was the year they brought the dunk contest back; it was the year after the lockout. The NBA was looking for a little sizzle and spice things up. I was covering the NBA All-Star Game for TSN as the courtside reporter for the Saturday, and the Raptors were well represented with McGrady and Carter. They were practicing under a cloak of secrecy back at the Air Canada practice gym, and Vince [Carter] was ready to do his thing. Everybody had seen what he had done during games,” said Jones.
“I interview him right before he went out, and for a guy with that flare and ability, he was… the interview was underwhelming. Vince was not – he didn’t seem like he was going to grab the dunk contest like he did.”
I said Vince this is kind of made for you and as humble as he was deferring to some of the great dunkers in the contest. [Tracy] McGrady, [Jerry] Stackhouse and [Steve] Frances and saying there are some great dunkers in the contest, let’s just go out there see what we can do. After the first dunk, when Isiah Thomas jumped over the table, and Kenny Smith was saying it’s over.”
Things began to change. TFC reached the MLS Cup final in 2016, and finally won in 2017, with a dominant team that rewarded the fan base that had for so long been the beating heart of a franchise trying to grow. The Argos won another Grey Cup in 2017, a stirring win that changed absolutely nothing.
The Leafs executed the tank perfectly in 2015, other than having the highest odds to draft Connor McDavid with one lottery ball to go and missing out. But the next year they got Auston Matthews No. 1, and already had Mitch Marner and William Nylander in the system, and eventually added John Tavares in free agency. The Leafs have lost three straight playoff series, all close, including a couple more Game 7s in Boston, and they are at five complete decades without a Stanley Cup. Maybe this year will be different. It could happen.
But the apex was clear, and the decade saved it to the end. Ujiri knew Kawhi Leonard didn’t want to play here, knew he didn’t plan to stay, and traded for him anyway. The Raptors traded DeRozan and fired longtime coach Dwane Casey, and went for it. Nick Nurse turned out to be one hell of a bench boss.
There were so many moments in the Raptors’ run that people will remember, but the moment after Kawhi released the ball in Game 7 against Philadelphia really should be made into a statue: that moment where everyone was watching the ball in the sudden silence of the arena, because it just began to bounce.
And when they won it all — they really did, and it still feels unreal — this whole city got to celebrate the kind of championship that people had sworn would never come again.
