Fred VanVleet’s value extends well beyond his shot — but the shot is nice – The Athletic
When VanVleet pulled up from the top of the key and dropped in a 3, the relief was palpable. VanVleet ended up dropping in a trio of 3s as part of his team-high 26 points to lead the Raptors to a 114-99 win in his first game back from a sore knee that had sidelined him for five straight games and bothered him since before the All-Star break. He finished with a game-high plus-19 rating.
“It’s not spacing, it’s shooting,” VanVleet said of the Raptors’ issues when he was out. “It’s basically the same (with or without me): You just gotta make shots. The style of play we’ve been playing for most of the year was attacking the paint, post-ups, seals, different things like that. So it’s been different having those driving lanes kinda closed down when guys are posting up or running the lanes on the break, playing three bigs and three (centres) and two (forwards) sometimes. So it’s definitely been an adventure.”
Yes, even in this age of positionless basketball, guards are still important.
VanVleet’s shooting is the most obvious thing he brings, and it’s even more clear when Gary Trent Jr. is struggling. Just the possibility of someone, anyone, hitting a 30-footer to save a possession going nowhere is particularly valuable to this team. It’s apparent how much else he does that the Raptors don’t have enough of. Josh Richardson swatted his layup attempt at the rim, but he got deep enough into the paint that the lane was clear for Chris Boucher to follow it up with a putback. As good as Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes are, they are not sneaking into the crevices of a defence. VanVleet isn’t a super-threatening passer in the lane because of his height, but if the Raptors are spaced out well enough, the threat of his ability to kick it out creates midrange opportunities for him. Even as the Raptors struggled to hit from deep early on, his march to the free-throw line kept them ticking along. He hit nine out of his 10 free throws, and the Raptors hit 26 of their 28. They have struggled from the line recently.
When VanVleet was playing with the injury, he wasn’t able to do as much defensively as he normally does. His impact on that end has likely taken a bit of a hit this season given the offensive load he has had to carry. Still, he notably fights under screens, which at least puts pressure on opposing playmakers, which produces turnovers. He has several ways to assist on that front, which is crucial to the Raptors’ overall play.
Still, it’s the offence that most needs him. VanVleet hurt himself in New Orleans just before the break. In the Raptors’ next nine games, including that one, they had an offensive rating of 104.9, better than just Orlando and Portland. Against the Spurs: 121.4.
After trip through coaching history, Nurse carving own path with Raptors – Sportsnet
Just behind VanVleet was rookie Scottie Barnes, who finished with 20 points and eight rebounds. Nurse consistently punished the Spurs’ single coverage by having Barnes dribbling into post-ups that a variety of San Antonio defenders were powerless to defend.
The Raptors also got 29 points from their bench before garbage time.
After a sluggish first half, the Raptors finally broke out of the shooting slump that has plagued them since the All-Star break as they went 11-of-30 from three and 7-of-16 in the second half – you knew it was on when Precious Achiuwa was knocking them down from deep.
The win improved the seventh-place Raptors to 35-30 as the Spurs, who are scrambling to qualify for the play-in tournament in the Western Conference fell to 25-41.
The Raptors have been trying to find their way through the weeds lately, coming into the game 2-5 since the All-Star break and 3-8 in their past 11. VanVleet’s return sparked a flagging attack – the Raptors had the 28th-rated offence over their past four games with VanVleet sidelined – and got an important boost early on.
The All-Star point guard had eight points in his first eight minutes and his presence seemed to spark Pascal Siakam, who had 11 points in the first quarter, as well as the slumping Gary Trent Jr., who had six as Toronto jumped out to a 34-29 lead.
But the Raptors’ shooting struggles reared their head again in the second quarter. Toronto has the worst True Shooting percentage in the league since the All-Star break at 51.6 per cent. They had a five-minute scoreless drought just prior to half and went into the break shooting just 4-of-15 from three – a familiar issue.
But they fixed that in the second half – they matched their first-half total for triples with four in the third quarter – and it got their offence rolling.
“We made shots,” said VanVleet who was 3-of-8 from deep. “We didn’t shoot it great tonight but still was able to get 11 threes in – that is all the difference right there. It’s gonna be tough to win consistently in this league if you can’t make threes, so, just gotta make shots, that’ll give the spacing that we need and being able to get out in transition, get stops, and get some easy ones.”
In a funny moment (for me) me to start the game, Murray had a nice lefty layup to open the game, and Sean Elliott said, “A determined drive for Dejounte early.” My first thought was he stuttered while trying to say “Murray” before quickly realizing he did in fact mean “early”.
The Spurs looked out of sorts to start the game. After that first basket from Murray, the Spurs missed four of their next five shots, none of which came within the rhythm of the offense, and had three turnovers. The third one — a steal by the Spurs getting poked away in the open court for a VanVleet layup and 10-4 deficit — forced a Pop timeout. The Raptors weren’t much hotter, and both teams combined to miss the first 11 threes of the game before Johnson hit one with four minutes left in the first. That three kicked off seven straight points for him and 15 overall in the first half, and the Spurs offense got a little better from there, and they ended the quarter down 29-34.
The offense continued to open up more for the Spurs in the second quarter, and an 8-0 run tied things back up after they had been down by as much as eight at 45-45, and later they would get their first lead at 53-52 since they were up 2-0. Most of the first half was a battle of the first-time All Stars, with Murray putting up a very efficient 15 points on 6-9 shooting, and VanVleet scoring 21 on a less efficient 6-14, but he took advantage at the free throw line, hitting 7-8. The Spurs led at the half up 61-58.
Murray was lost for a seven-minute stretch in third quarter after banging heads with Khem Birch. Murray was left with a bleeding forehead, and Birch lost a tooth, which could be seen flying out on camera. (Derrick White can relate.) Birch stayed in for another minute before being subbed out, while Murray returned in the final minute of the quarter after getting the gash on his head closed.
The third quarter was extremely streaky. An early 8-0 run by the Spurs to get their largest lead of the game of seven forced a Raptors timeout, and they responded with 9-0 run to retake lead. Scottie Barnes had 12 points in the quarter, and after the game was tied at 75-75, the Raptors went on a 14-4 run (during which it felt like the Spurs had a momentum-swinging series with a Josh Richardson block leading to a big time Johnson dunk, but a weak technical on Richardson from Ed Malloy on the next play quickly ended that), and the Spurs ended the quarter down 91-84. As we all know, they have not won a game this season when down heading into the fourth quarter…
…and the Spurs didn’t look too eager to change that trend, with the Raptors opening an 11-point lead to start the fourth, forcing a Pop timeout after they stole a lazy inbounds pass for the transition dunk. The Spurs struggled to create any good looks against the Raptors’ swarming defense, in no small part because Toronto was backing off of Tre Jones, and he refused to take any open shots. The Raptors kept gradually pushing the score up, and Pop emptied the bench with 2:40 left. His record-breaking win will have to wait.
Toronto Raptors beat San Antonio Spurs in VanVleet’s return, 119-104 – Raptors HQ
The last three games gave us a window into the Toronto Raptors world without Fred VanVleet in it. I didn’t care for it too much.
The lack of shooting was obvious throughout, but the Raptors also missed VanVleet’s presence and ability to take over games for short stretches. Though Malachi Flynn impressed as a backup, the loss of Fred created a trickle down effect to the bench, creating a lack of offensive production throughout the lineup. That this added up to a three-game losing streak created heavy consternation, from criticism of the coaching to the front office to the players and everything in between. (Can we all relax a little bit?)
It was great news, then, when TSN’s Kayla Grey revealed early today that VanVleet was healthy, rested and ready to return to action as Toronto visited the San Antonio Spurs — a team they had beaten twice in a row dating back to Tampa.
VanVleet came out and played the perfect game, all things considered. In a modest (for him) 34 minutes, which included a lot of hockey substitutions to keep him fresh, Fred racked up 26 points on 7-for-15 shooting, including 3-for-8 from three, along with six rebounds and two assists.
Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes chipped in 20 points each, the latter scoring 18 of his total in the second half, as the Raptors beat the Spurs going away, 119-104.
Keldon Johnson led the Spurs with 27 points (10-for-19 from the field) and Dejounte Murray continued a strong stretch of play, even in a losing effort, with 25 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in a near triple-double.
VanVleet’s start was indicative of how the rest of his game would go. While the Raptors starting lineup continues to lack spacing, especially when they go up against a savvy interior defender like Jakob Poeltl, Fred was able to make up for it with intuition. He improvised a pair of layups over help defense to give Toronto an early 10-4 lead, forcing the Spurs to take the first timeout.
VanVleet’s return lifts Raptors, puts off Popovich party | The Star
VanVleet, who missed five games with a knee bruise, provided a measure of order in his return, scoring 26 points and adding a couple of assists and six rebounds as the Raptors snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Spurs 119-104 and denying San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich the chance to take over sole possession of first place on the NBA’s all-time winning list.
While it was far from a perfect Raptors performance — the Spurs shredded Toronto’s interior defence most of the night — there was a sense of normalcy to Toronto’s offence that had been missing for about a week.
Scottie Barnes had two points in 16 first-half minutes but 10 in the third quarter and 20 overall, and Pascal Siakam added another 20.
But it all started with VanVleet and his steady hand on the rudder. He has a way of getting the Raptors organized offensively that puts everyone in the right place at the right time and the shot distribution makes more sense. He helped Gary Trent Jr., who had 17 points and made a couple of three-pointers.
“I just think (Trent’s) rhythm gets thrown off, the spacing gets thrown off, or whatever,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said beforehand. “He should hopefully have a little better rhythm and feel out there with Fred alongside him tonight and a little more of somebody else (that the defence has) to stay a little closer to.”
The solid offensive effort allowed the Raptors to stay in touch in transition defence; the Spurs got nothing of substance on the break and only their ability to score in the paint kept the game close.
Raptors Knock Off Spurs as Fred VanVleet Scottie Barnes Star – Sports Illustrated
What a difference Fred VanVleet makes.
If the last five games didn’t already prove his value to the Raptors, his return Wednesday certainly did. It’s not even that he’s a three-point threat from almost the moment he crosses half-court, it’s just the way he contorts opposing defenses, taking on double teams, splitting defenders, and creating the kind of chaos Toronto’s offense needs to score. He opened the game with six of Toronto’s first 10 points, all while showing off his much-improved inside scoring.
“It’s a concerted effort on his part from the summertime to this year,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said of VanVleet’s improved inside scoring. “There’s some coverages and certain teams you play where that’s the play, and we tried to get him more involved in doing some of that stuff and he getting better and he’s worked really, really hard at it … and you start to see some of the dividends from that.”
Even when the Spurs started blitzing him, he found a way to navigate the pressure, either passing out of the double team or wiggling his way through the defenders inside. It allowed him to lead the Raptors with a team-high 26 points on 7-for-15 shooting.
“He’s a leader on this team. He’s on us non-stop on the floor about getting stops, getting to our spots. It makes it easier. It opens up a lot more space. He’s a general out there on the floor,” said Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes. “So it helps us all when he’s out there on the floor with driving lanes being more open. When he’s there, his presence is just really big for our team.”
