The Rap-Up: Toronto Raptors Games for March 7 – 13 – Raptors HQ
As the Toronto Raptors enter the home stretch of the regular season, there is reason for optimism, despite the last bout of injuries.
In every season of Masai Ujiri’s tenure, the Raptors have “won” 11 to 13 of their final 18 games (Winning, of course, meant losing during the Tampa season that turned into a mini-tank that landed the next Giannis perfect rookie to fit the team’s core). Here’s how the team has performed during the final stretch of each season under Ujiri:
2020-21: 6-12
2019-20: 13-5
2018-19: 12-6
2017-18: 12-6
2016-17: 13-5
2015-16: 12-6
2014-15: 11-7
2013-14: 11-7
Toronto should get (somewhat) healthy fairly soon (fingers crossed), as Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby have joined the team during this Westcoast road trip. I highlighted the prospects of Toronto winning a large portion of their remaining games and stand behind that glass-half-full approach, assuming no more major injuries befall the team (a tall task, I know).
If the Raptors continue the trend and win at least 11 games to end the season, that puts Toronto in the driver’s seat to host the play-in, or possibly into the 6-seed, depending on how other teams perform. That would also give Toronto at least 45 wins — an incredible number considering pre-season predictions didn’t have the Raptors even approaching 40 wins (more on this below).
Gary Trent Jr.’s shooting woes glaring on injury-riddled Raptors | The Star
When healthy, the Raptors are a different team than they are right now. VanVleet not only fills the role of facilitator, but he gives Nurse another threat that creates room for Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes to slash and roam. Anunoby often assumes the most difficult defensive assignment while providing even more offence.
With Trent thrown into the mix, the Raptors go from a poor shooting team to one that should have enough to survive. The same cannot be said when the rotation is thrown out of whack and bench players like Svi Mykhailiuk and Yuta Watanabe struggle to fill in the gaps.
That doesn’t leave much margin for error as the Raptors attempt to keep their hopes alive for the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. A play-in game would be even riskier for the shooters because of the inability to make up for an off-night.
As the underdogs in this race, the Raptors will have to be at their best to pull off an upset and steal a seed, or a round. The good news is VanVleet should be back soon from a sore knee, possibly as early as Wednesday night in San Antonio, and Anunoby might return about a week later from a fractured finger.
The potential is there to make for an interesting final month of the season. The Raptors need VanVleet and Anunoby to make that happen and they also require Trent’s outside touch. If all three things occur, this team should have an interesting finish to the year. If they don’t, the trip to the playoffs might be short-lived.
Raptors Don’t See Easy Reason for Gary Trent Jr.’s Woes – Sports Illustrated
In Trent’s last six games, he’s shooting 29.1% from the floor and 22.2% from behind the arc. It’s been bleak. But digging deeper into the numbers, not much has changed besides the results.
Trent’s recent shot selection has been almost identical to his pre-All-Star break numbers. If anything, he’s taking a higher percentage of his shots have been catch-and-shoot looks since the break than before. Sure, the absence of Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby has meant defenses can key on the 23-year-old shooting guard a little bit more, but he’s still getting off his fair share of so-called “Open” and “Wide Open” attempts, as categorized by the NBA’s tracking data.
From Raptors coach Nick Nurse’s perspective, Trent’s shot selection and decision making look pretty much the same as they did before the break.
“He got some good clearance (on his shots),” Nurse said Sunday night. “I thought he made pretty good decisions and it felt to me like when he shook his guy down and stepped back that he was going to make them tonight, which is certainly progress for sure.”
Ultimately, it’s just a funk for a player who naturally runs a little hot and cold. He’s neither the player he was in late January when he was averaging 32 points per game and shooting 51.7% from behind the arc over a five-game stretch nor the player he is now when things appear to have fallen apart. It’s just a matter of sticking with it, taking the shots, and getting right.
“Control what you can control, put in the work, go to the gym, continue to shoot,” Trent said. “Whatever happens, happens.”
Mitchell: Raps have little room for error as they try and stay in the hunt – Video – TSN
Having lost three in a row and now three games back of Cleveland for sixth in the East, how does Toronto manage this tail spin they are in? How much room for error is there moving forward as they juggle injuries? Sam Mitchell joins SportsCentre to discuss.
VanVleet’s expected return just what the doctor ordered for Raptors | Toronto Sun
At least with VanVleet back, the Raptors offence should start to look a little more multi-dimensional.
Without VanVleet, the offence for the most part was Siakam slithering through the paint and creating for himself or dumping off to open shooters around the rim or Barnes either putting opponents in the rim as he steamrolled defenders or hitting mid-range hooks and floaters.
Gary Trent Jr., perhaps receiving some of the attention teams previously threw at VanVleet, struggled badly in all but one of those games.
Both the Raptors’ three-point game and their pick-and-roll game were mostly uneffecitive without VanVleet in the mix.
The question that has to be answered is how effective can we reasonably expect VanVleet and the Raptors to be after an 11-day absence.
So far this season, not including the five-game absence he is just coming off, VanVleet has missed a single game on three separate occasions — two games in late January to address the same right knee issue and two games during the Raptors’ COVID-19 outbreak. The two games he missed during his bout with COVID-19 actually turned into a nine-day break, which would be similar to what he is coming off this time.
In his first game back after that absence, VanVleet put up 31 points in a 116-108 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. He had nine assists, just a single turnover, two steals and four rebounds as well.
VanVleet was a below-average 10-for-27 from the field and just 4-of-13 from behind the arc, but he obviously had an impact.
His next longest absence was a six-day, two-game breather in late January. VanVleet came back from that one in time for that triple-overtime classic with the Miami Heat that the Raptors won.
In that game, VanVleet played a season-high 54 minutes, contributing 19 points, eight assists and four rebounds to the cause though, like following his other longish-term downtime, his shooting was a little shaky going just 7-for-22 from the field. He was also a solid 5-for-14 from distance, however.
What it all means is it’s not at all unreasonable to expect VanVleet to come back and have an impact as he normally does in any game he plays. Shooting rhythm might be a bit off as has historically been the case after longish layoffs, but VanVleet will likely find a way to make the Raptors better.
