How many ways can you count to 54? Even the significance of 54 is variable. Yesterday, you might have thought the number as a signifier for when Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio got married (in ’54). Today, it’s the Toronto Raptors’ franchise record for points, set by one Fred VanVleet.
Getting to 54 is a whole other ballgame. You might think it’s just the one way, up from one to two, and onward all the way there. But these things are never linear, even if it looks that way. There’s a world of possibilities along the way.
You can skip count by 3s. Eleven of them, to be exact. That’s a magic number, 11. It’s a championship number. It remains, to this day, the record for number of wins (a perfect number of wins) at the US Chess Championship, set by Bobby Fischer at the 1963-64 tournament. The performance has never been matched, and it was an attacking masterpiece. Eleven, by the way, is also one short of the Toronto Raptors’ record for most made triples in a single game, set by Donyell Marshal in 2005. VanVleet was close. He fired only 14 3s to Marshall’s 19 attempts. And in the waning minutes of Toronto’s 123-108 win, during his final shift of the game, VanVleet attempted five shots, four of which were layups. He knew that the franchise record for triples was within his sight, yet he didn’t break the flow of the offense to chase it.
But 11, even counting in triplicate, doesn’t get you to 54. It gets you close. VanVleet took only nine shots that weren’t 3-pointers. And they were practically free points for him. But setting them up was the trick.
VanVleet’s first five made field goals were triples. He found them in a variety of ways. Pull-ups in transition and out of the pick-and-roll. Stationary catch-and-shoots. From several feet behind the arc. But VanVleet didn’t force anything.
“It was easy. No disrespect to the Magic. But I mean, for most of those I was open. They were in rhythm. They were clean looks. They were within the offense,” said VanVleet. “Just trying to continue to play with a pure heart and let the game come to me, and I was rewarded for that.
Hitting those shots earned VanVleet the defensive attention normally paid to Steph Curry. When the Magic started blitzing him in the second quarter, he threw a floating pass to a short-rolling Aron Baynes, which was picked off by the Magic. The next time down VanVleet tore into the defense and converted a layup after a smooth euro-step. That’s computer-level learning, Alpha Zero-style, in a matter of instants.
“I feel like I can split the blitz every time, but sometimes I can feel like I’m overdribbling, so I’ve been working on getting out of it quick and letting the next guy make a play,” said VanVleet when I asked him about the read.
He turned the threat of his 3-point shooting into layups for himself and, later, when his point total meant a defender couldn’t leave him, into points for others. That’s why four of VanVleet’s final five shots were layup attempts. After 54 points, VanVleet should expect to get blitzed a whole lot more in coming games. He’s ready for it.
“For sure [in the] NBA, this is the most I’ve ever been blitzed, and it’s just a sign of respect and testament to the work I’ve put in and what I am as a player to be getting double-teams at six foot.”
At one point during the game, VanVleet’s race to 54 changed. The Raptors became aware of VanVleet’s night. Observer’s bias started to affect the count upward. As Toronto’s offense worked to get VanVleet the ball as much as possible, Orlando’s defense worked to do the opposite. The resulting collision between rock and hard place was, more than anything else, comical. At one point Kyle Lowry was handling on a four-on-one fast-break, and instead of passing for an uncontested layup he waited to see if VanVleet would pop open as the trailer for a 3. And Orlando’s sole defender chose VanVleet, of course, to cover.
The result was still a VanVleet 3, after a brief pause for a baseline-out-of-bounds play.
VanVleet mentioned after the game that he had to remind his teammates to play for the win rather than his own point total: “I even told the guys, ‘you guys keep playing.’ I could feel them start to look for me to the point where they weren’t looking at the rim any more.”
Even still, 54 points has a number of different meanings. How many records do you want? Most 3s hit by a player this season? Most points ever scored by an undrafted player? Check and check. Highest true shooting percentage ever by a player in a 50-point game? Yes, that one too. And oh yeah: VanVleet finished with a true shooting percentage of 100.1 percent (really!), scoring his 54 points with only 23 shots and 9 free throw attempts.
Perhaps all the more impressive was VanVleet’s defense. It was, for him, normal. Which means: All-NBA caliber. He hustled, got strips, swiped down on shots (three, which were recorded as blocks, a game-high), rotated, and generally acted like a pebble in the puppy chow. Want to count to 54? For VanVleet, at least, you can’t get there without three. Three steals and three blocks both.
“I thought I played pretty good defense, too,” laughed VanVleet. “I know nobody wants to talk about that, but I’m proud of that.”
When the record did fall, the moment snuck up on you. VanVleet converted a layup and then turned a steal into another layup only moments later. You could have looked down at your drink and missed it. But among those connected to the moment, everyone was paying attention.
DeMar DeRozan, previous holder of the franchise record, FaceTimed VanVleet after the game to congratulate him. VanVleet said that DeRozan has cussed him out in previous hot games for falling short. Lowry grabbed the game ball for VanVleet and gave a heartfelt speech in the locker room about the value of hard work. VanVleet’s teammates mobbed him after the game.
For the first time this season, the Toronto Raptors were nothing but joy for 48 minutes. VanVleet was part of that, in his quest for 54, but it was a celebration of the team, of the way the Raptors approach basketball. And VanVleet recognized the wholeness, rather than the singularity, of the evening.
“When you play with a pure heart and a clear conscience and a clear soul, some good things happen for you, and your teammates and your brothers will be happy for you,” he said. “That’s just a family thing. You’ve got to be able to be happy for other people before other people can be happy for you. And that’s all it is.”
VanVleet’s record is the culmination of years of building between him and his teammates, years of trust and love and brotherhood. For the first 20 games of the season, that bond has been ignored. Not broken or anything so drastic, but Toronto’s vibes have been off. So how do you count to 54? It requires more than 11 3s or 23 shots, more than 37 minutes of game time. Fifty-four points is the result of years that VanVleet has spent alone and with the Raptors. And going forward, 54 will mean something different to the Raptors and their fans. As a result, this season might mean something different going forward, too.
