10 Things: Raptors’ Siakam leads with superstar performance by every measure – Sportsnet
2. Pascal Siakam stepped up and led the team to victory. With Fred VanVleet noticeably limited, Siakam led the charge on offence with a stellar 35-point effort while dodging foul trouble in 32 minutes. Siakam had it going all game, scoring from all areas of the floor, often while facing multiple defenders, but he saved his best for last. Siakam methodically sought out Lauri Markkanen to attack at the end of the game, knowing full well that the seven-foot Finn could not stay in front of him.
The first time down, Siakam used his signature spin move for a fadeaway jumper over Markkanen. The following possession, Siakam got a step on Markkanen again, pulled the extra defender to him, and laid it off to a cutting Scottie Barnes for a layup. And to cap off the night, Siakam pulled up for three to empty the bench for both sides. Whether it was the output, the circumstances or the fashion in which Siakam dominated, this was a superstar performance by every measure.
We are only three years into the era of the Play-In Tournament, but it’s easy to understand why it might annoy some. It is likely that one of the Raptors or Cavaliers will win 46 games or so, and there’s still a chance that their season could come down to having to beat a team with Kevin Durant on it; and failing that, having to win a game over a mediocre team like Atlanta or Charlotte. Each can easily put up 125 points in any game.
After 82 games of good to very good basketball, you’d prefer your fate not be tied to such fickleness. With a couple of notable exceptions, a few more on Toronto than Cleveland, the guys playing on Thursday night were playing one of the biggest NBA games of their lives.
“There is a playoff feel to this game,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said beforehand.
Let’s fall back a bit from that precipice. There was not the typical nervous energy radiating from the fans in the stands that you get in the playoffs. There wasn’t the same rigorous preparation, although Cleveland came pretty steadfast in not allowing Fred VanVleet to get his shot off. Toronto is perhaps not caught up in the drama of avoiding the Play-In Tournament.
Raptors take big step to avoid play-in tourney with win over Cavaliers – Sportsnet
It took a little while for the Raptors to find their offence against the Cavs, who have the NBA’s fourth-ranked defence, but eventually they did in the form of a 15-0 run that gave Toronto a 25-17 lead to start the second quarter. The spark came from Siakam, who is making a push for some post-season recognition of his own in the form of being named to an all-NBA team.
He started the Raptors run with a corner three, scored in transition after a steal by VanVleet and scored again when Barnes found him in transition with a gorgeous no-look pass on the break as Siakam put up 12 in the opening quarter.
The Raptors were just getting started. With Anunoby back starting the Raptors bench instantly got little deeper and better. It showed in the second quarter as Boucher provided an instant jolt of energy and Young some veteran smarts. The pair combined on a wing three for Boucher to start the second quarter — the first of 11 points in the period for Boucher — while Young scored eight points as the two were a combined 8-of-9 from the floor.
Anunoby made his presence felt early too. In addition to his ability defend everyone from Garland to Mobley, he provided a dose of perimeter shooting Toronto has been missing so badly, having shot just 32.4 per cent from three in his absence, the second-worst mark in the league since the all-star break. Anunoby hit his second and third triples of the half in the final three minutes of the second quarter as Toronto started the third with a 58-48 lead.
A big part of the Raptors’ early success was keeping a lid on Mobley and Garland, who combined for just seven points on 3-of-10 shooting. Barnes had seven points on his own and showed his playmaking chops with some high-end passes for scores in transition and the half-court.
The Raptors built on what the established in the first half and can hope that a key win at a key point of the season can be the foundation of their run to a playoff spot and beyond.
Raptors Game Recap: Siakam drops 35, Anunoby returns, Raptors take down Cavs 117-104. – Raptors HQ
After nearly an entire season of the Raptors feeling a guy or two short, Thursday night felt like one of their greatest displays of depth to date — amazing considering they once again didn’t have Gary Trent Jr., a man without whom they were 2-8 coming into the game with Cleveland. Between Young, Boucher’s 17 points and eight boards, some nasty Precious Achiuwa defense and 10-day man Armoni Brooks, the Raptors saw one of their most productive bench efforts of the season. Brooks, in particular, seems to be playing his way into a standard NBA deal. Nick Nurse is a fan.
“I just think it’s the willingness to take the shot. The balls coming to him a lot, he turned down one he shoulda shots but otherwise he was taking them – and he’s a really good shooter,” Nurse said of his low-usage, high-importance role when he’s on the floor. Though admittedly, it’s Brooks’ defense that seems to have his coach a little more giddy.
“He’s quick, he’s springy, he can change directions… there’s some real athletic ability there defensively,” Nurse said. Brooks finished with six points, three boards, an assists, two steals and a block in 19 minutes.
With the win, the Raptors not only clinched no worse than the final East play-in spot with their 41st win, but they drew even with the Cavs for the all-important sixth-seed and final berth into the playoffs proper. Kyrie Irving likely won’t be able to play in Toronto in a hypothetical play-in contest, but surely the Raptors don’t want to take a chance in a one-off game with Kevin freaking Durant. Losing on Thursday, with the tiebreaker already secured by Cleveland, would have made that most dreaded of outcomes extremely likely; now, it’s not just sixth that’s in reach. Chicago has a brutal closing schedule and sit just one game ahead of the Raptors for fifth after getting waxed by the Pelicans in their own Thursday night game.
With seven of the last nine at home, Siakam looking every bit a contender for one of the All-NBA forward spots, and this lanky, smothering roster looking something closer to complete by the day, there’s no reason why this team should be stuck playing a one-off crapshoot in a few weeks time.
Raptors move one step closer to securing playoff berth with big win over Cavs – TSN.ca
At 41-32, they matched the Cavaliers’ record and moved into a virtual tie for sixth place and the final guaranteed playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. Chicago’s loss in New Orleans later in the evening meant they also pulled within one game of the fifth-place Bulls. While Cleveland and Chicago both own the tiebreaker with Toronto, by way of winning the season series, the Raptors’ hopes of avoiding the play-in and controlling their own playoff fate are very much alive.
There was plenty at stake on Thursday night, enough for Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff to reference the game’s “playoff-type feel” roughly 90 minutes before tip off. Interestingly, the Raptors downplayed it.
When it was all said and done, Nurse admitted that he could feel a bit of an atmosphere at the start, as both teams fought through some early jitters. Once things settled down, he didn’t think it matched the intensity or the physicality of their recent road wins over first-place Phoenix, or a couple of MVP frontrunners – Nikola Jokic in Denver and Joel Embiid in Philadelphia. And maybe that was the difference. They were prepared for it.
“It was a big game but I think every game is a big game,” said Pascal Siakam, who was brilliant in the victory, leading all scorers with 35 points on 12-of-20 shooting, which included a career-high tying six three-pointers. “All these games count, so when we go out there that’s our mentality: try to win every single one of them.”
In a game between two of the league’s most promising young teams, which featured a couple leading candidates for Rookie of the Year in Toronto’s Scottie Barnes and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley, it was the Raptors’ poise, polish and experience that came through.
The club’s longest tenured players provided the steadying hands. Siakam picked the Cavs’ defence apart, attacking mismatches around the rim, finding open teammates on the perimeter, and shooting off the dribble. Fred VanVleet, who’s been dealing with a nagging knee injury, managed the game quietly until Siakam went to the bench with four finals early in the fourth quarter, at which point he took over. Chris Boucher’s energy helped them recover from a slow start, and OG Anunoby – returning from a 15-game absence due to a fractured finger on his shooting hand – knocked down four threes, scored 14 points and gave them a boost defensively in his 26 minutes.
Meanwhile, Thaddeus Young – the 15-year vet who was acquired at the trade deadline with games like this in mind – showed his value in 15 quality minutes off the bench.
Anunoby gives Raptors sixth sense in battle with Cavs | The Star
Anunoby and Scottie Barnes took care of most of the defence, Pascal Siakam tied his career high with six three-pointers as part of a 35-point performance and the Raptors were impressive in pulling away from Cleveland down the stretch to win the first of four straight games at home.
Anunoby finished with 14 points in 26 minutes and made four three-pointers.
“The biggest thing that I noticed was (Anunoby was) making some plays defensively, just execution-wise,” Nurse said. “He’s got the experience of going through some stuff (and he’s) used to taking those shots out there, too. They were there for him early so he could get loose.”
The Raptors got a huge boost from a four-man bench brigade. Chris Boucher, Precious Achiuwa, Thad Young and Armoni Brooks combined for 43 points and 19 rebounds.
“Listen, I told the guys before the game, Chris and Precious and Thad, ‘They have to feel you when you hit the game … just your speed and your length and your rebounding, we need one of those relentless nights on the glass from you guys,’ ” Nurse said.
Raptors forward OG Anunoby, being fouled by Cleveland’s Cedi Osman, had 14 points in 26 minutes in his first game since before the all-star break.
Barnes, meanwhile, began the night guarding centre Evan Mobley, then checked point guard Darius Garland, and spent some time covering shooting guard Caris LaVert. He also brought the ball up the court as the de facto point guard and threw his usual assortment of no-look passes to teammates spotted up to shoot or in transition to the rim. It was the kind of all-over-the-floor game that has put Barnes in the thick of the rookie-of-the-year conversation.
“Point centre,” Nurse joked before the game about Barnes’s position. “No, I’m just kidding, I’m just kidding. We already have an all-star point guard on our team.
“He’s really versatile. I wouldn’t define it as any position.”
The same might be true of Anunoby, who can guard multiple positions and adds an extra layer of physical play to the Raptors.
Anunoby hadn’t played since before the all-star break because of a non-displaced fracture of the ring finger on his right hand. His return was mildly surprising but he had been getting on-court work in for a couple of weeks, and hand specialists said his fractured right ring finger was healing on schedule.
He played with a wrap on the finger and didn’t seem out of step at all, taking his usual spot in the starting five.
“Shooting, dribbling, catching, those are the main parts (of pain management),” Anunoby said. “Defence, trying to get a steal, rebounds. I feel it all the time. (But it was) just knowing the season is about to end soon and knowing the playoffs are going to start and wanting to get a rhythm before the playoffs started.”
Raptors Show Playoff Readiness With Victory Over Cavaliers – Sports Illustrated
Let’s just say it couldn’t have been a coincidence that the Raptors decided to wait until the Cavaliers were in town to honor Scottie Barnes for his February Rookie of the Month award. The chase for the Rookie of the Year between Barnes and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley was certainly on Thursday night. At one point, it got so heated Raptors fans began chanting “Scottie’s better” while Mobley took first-half free throws.
To be fair, they may have been right.
Barnes is a wizard with the ball in transition. There are passes he makes on a regular basis that just defy belief. In the first quarter, he froze Caris LeVert with a no-look pass to Pascal Siakam for the full-seed transition bucket. He then followed it up with a wild sequence in the second quarter in which he threw another no-look pass to OG Anunoby, got the ball back, and then found Boucher in the corner with a strike leading to a pair of Raptors free throws.
While Mobley was certainly impressive with 11 points, eight rebounds, a poster-worthy one-handed slam over Boucher for the and-1 finish, and a block of an Anunoby three-pointer, Barnes was seemingly everywhere for the Raptors. He ran in transition, grabbed six rebounds, tallied four assists, and finished the night with 11 points including a two-handed slam just moments after Mobley’s impressive dunk.
Mobley might still win the Rookie of the Year, but the Raptors can’t be upset with anything Barnes has done this year.
Raptors move one step closer to playoffs with win over Cavaliers | Toronto Sun
There was no question the Raps were the more physical team on this night.
With the win, the Raptors and Cavs are now tied for sixth in the conference. The Raptors, though, would have to finish ahead of the Cavs to get the higher seed as Cleveland has already won the season-series between the two teams with wins in the first three times they faced one another.
And with the Chicago Bulls losing on Thursday night in New Orleans, both the Raptors and Cavs are now also just a game out of fifth.
The knockout blow for Toronto came with most of the Raptors’ starters on the bench as a lead that seemed to hover between six and 10 for most of the night ballooned to 13 with about seven minutes remaining as 10-day signee Armani Brooks, Precious Achiuwa, Chris Boucher, Thad Young and Fred VanVleet got the Raptors a little breathing room.
All had a hand in the separation, but it was primarily VanVleet — who continues to struggle with a knee issue — that took this one home.
VanVleet had all of three points through three quarters, but with the Cavs coming hard, it was the all-star and the bench unit that held them off, led by seven points from VanVleet.
Brooks — who is getting more and more minutes as his second 10-day contract continues — had two big threes in the frame, much like he did a few games ago in Philadelphia to help the cause.
Then there was Pascal Siakam, the steadiest of all Raptors this season continuing to do what he has been doing since the start of the December.
Siakam, despite playing in foul trouble most of the second half, finished with 35 points and a career-high-tying six three-pointers on the night.
He also chipped in with five rebounds and six assists for the kind of all-round impact he has been talking about for the entirety of the season.
Games left for Raptors, Nets, Bulls, Cavs in NBA playoff hunt | The Star
The seventh-place team plays the eighth with the winner of the one-game play-in advancing to the playoffs. The loser plays the winner of 9 vs. 10 to determine who gets the last playoff berth.
While Toronto has the most home games of those four teams with eight, the Raptors have a difficult schedule with games against first-place Miami and the surging Boston Celtics left.
Chicago has the toughest schedule, with six games against teams over .500, plus a matchup with the L.A. Clippers and New Orleans.
The Bulls also got blown out by the Milwaukee Bucks 126-98 on Tuesday night, and are now 0-16 vs. the top three teams in each conference.
The loss marked the start of a five-game stretch on the road — a weak point for the Bulls, who are 16-20 away from the United Center this season. They have lost seven of their last eight on the road.
As the Bulls prepare their young roster for the post-season, former Raptors superstar DeMar DeRozan said this four-game stretch will be a key to toughening up the team’s mentality.
“Sometimes it takes somebody to get hit in the mouth and get knocked down to get upset, kind of fight back and come out swinging,” DeRozan said. “You’ve got to have that mentality before you get hit. You’ve got to be the one that comes out swinging and show that and be desperate.
“We can’t wait throughout the games where we look up and we’re down 10, 15 points and try to rally back. Because it’s too tough of a situation.”
The rest of this road stint for the Bulls features only one team — the Cavaliers — who are currently in playoff position. But that relative advantage could be offset by the Bulls’ inability to win on the road.
