VANVLEET ENJOYS CAREER GAME AS RAPTORS HOLD OFF THE HEAT
Toronto’s ‘other’ star guard scores 36 points while icing victory with key defensive play
The Toronto Raptors remain undefeated in the bubble, but win No. 2 required even more grit than the previous victory.
Toronto took care of a quality Miami Heat team 107-103 in another tooth-and-nail slugfest between two of the NBA’s most physical squads.
Two days after a monster Kyle Lowry effort, Toronto’s other standout guard, Fred VanVleet, scored a career best 36 points, including seven three-pointers and 13-for-13 work at the free throw line.
Toronto led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter, but the dogged Heat refused to go away and even briefly took back the lead in the fourth.
Up by three with just short of a minute remaining, VanVleet was called for an offensive foul and Miami point guard Goran Dragic — brilliant in the second half on the way to 25 points off the bench — responded by scoring a layup while being fouled. However, Dragic clanked the ensuing free throw — Miami’s first miss of the day after 15 makes — giving Lowry a chance to up the Toronto lead. However, Lowry drove and missed without a call, giving Miami life again.
The Heat tried to run a pickand-roll with Dragic and Jimmy Butler, but the ball caromed off Butler’s hands out of bounds.
Marc Gasol split a pair of free throws, but Miami turned the ball over again when VanVleet poked it loose and Siakam recovered it and iced the game at the line.
VanVleet leads the league in deflections and just has a real knack for that particular art of the game.
“He’s just got great IQ. He anticipates, he’s a step ahead sometimes,” Raptors head coach Nick Nurse said after the game.
“We were switching everything and just kind of being prepared for a slip out, I saw Jimmy (Butler) coming back, you know he likes to base cut there, so just try to be another body at the rim. And then I saw Dragic make the cut, so just tried to beat him to the spot, and I was able to get my hand on it,” VanVleet said of the decisive play.
Canadian Kelly Olynyk was strong for Miami, scoring 17 points, including four three-pointers.
Toronto improved to 48-18. The Raptors face Orlando on Wednesday night.
Siakam added 22 points for the Raptors, including four three-pointers, Lowry had 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists, while Serge Ibaka added 15 points.
Toronto hit half of its threepoint attempts (16 for 32), while Miami put up a whopping 45 attempts, but nailed only 14.
Toronto once again employed a stellar defensive game plan against a premier offensive threat. Duncan Robinson might not be LeBron James, Anthony Davis or James Harden, but he’s a brilliant outside shooter who had been attempting more than eight treys a night and connecting on 45 per cent of them before the game. The Raptors held Robinson to four attempts and one make.
At the other end, this was a far better offensive outing overall for Toronto as compared to the win over Los Angeles, despite the Heat being extremely pesky and aggressive.
The Raptors continue to put one foot in front of the other and move forward in these unusual circumstances. They know how good they can be and every step helps.
“The time that we’ve had before, a couple weeks, just kind of getting ready. It was rough, but I think it’s still rough,” Siakam said of trying to rebuild chemistry and cohesion.
“I think we’re just figuring it out, communicating, and just we kind of know what everyone likes to do and stuff, and we understand each other.”
FELLOW COACHES DON’T PICK NURSE
Nurse is still the heavy favourite to be named the NBA’s coach of the year for his sublime work this season, but his peers opted to go in a different direction.
The NBA head coaches revealed on Monday that after voting by all 30 of them for their
Michael H. Goldberg NBCA coach of the year award, Milwaukee’s Mike Budenholzer and Oklahoma City’s Billy Donovan had tied for the most votes and were co-winners. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Nurse came a vote shy of making it a three-way tie.
Budenholzer won the award last season, as well as the NBA’s version, as did Nurse’s predecessor Dwane Casey in 2018. Don’t expect that to happen again this season, as nobody did a better job than Nurse, and media voters, who select the NBA’s official winner, have overwhelmingly championed Nurse on social media. Regardless, Nurse was gracious before Monday’s game in recognizing his peers.
“Those guys obviously did a great job. You can’t argue with the Bucks’ record and how great OKC did after everybody had lower expectations for them,” Nurse said.
“So those guys are very deserving.”
Nurse took a .714 winning percentage into the game against Miami, the best in NBA history, and he ended up improving it a bit.
I think we’re just figuring it out, communicating, and just we kind of know what everyone likes to do and stuff, and we understand each other.
AROUND THE RIM
Toronto held Miami to 5 for 25 three-point shooting in the first half and only five free throw attempts ... OG Anunoby showed off his improved ball handling skills again at various times and also played some strong defence, doing a nice job on Miami’s rising star Bam Adebayo ... VanVleet scored half of Toronto’s 36 points in the third quarter ... Nurse said Raptors president Masai Ujiri and general manager Bobby Webster had talked to rookie guard Terence Davis about his decision to wear a face mask to the previous game that had a hole cut out by his nose. “Leadership has taken care of that there,” Nurse said.