Miles is going the distance for team

It hurt C.J. Miles to be mired in a season-long shooting slump — hurt him deeply.

He knew he was better than he’d shown. He knew he was putting in the work but getting no reward.

He lost his spot in the Toronto Raptors rotation. He lost a ton of goodwill with the fans. He never, ever lost the confidence of his coach and teammates. That’s all that matters. Miles broke out of his doldrums with a pair of 13-point games this past week, the first time he’s scored in double figures in back-to-back contests this season. He made five threepointers in 11 attempts over two games, was 9-for-19 from the field overall and looked far more comfortable than he has.

Sideline time forced upon him because of a nagging hip injury gave him a chance to refocus, to take his time, to do what he does.

“I think the one thing the injury did, it helped me slow down a little bit,” Miles said Saturday, when he helped the Raptors beat the Grizzlies119-90. “It helped me clear my head. It allowed me to be in the gym, days I was able to work, and helped me focus on (getting) back to the basics — taking a chance to take a breather and not having to try and figure out how I was going to get out of this. That was the biggest thing.”

The social media reaction to Miles’ slump was at the same time predictable and shocking.

Fans wanted him traded, cut, run out of town on a rail. It was typically, sadly, overreactive — and Miles, an active user of social media, had to feel it. But he is also mature enough, and has been around long enough, to drown out the incessant noise.

“I take a lot of pride in the amount of work that I put in and wanting to play well for my team, and I think a lot of people thought that it was outside stuff that was bothering me,” he said. “That was coming from inside — it’s me. I put a lot of pressure on myself because I want to play well. I want to help my team.”

His teammates were supportive. They knew better than many the work he was putting in, the track record he’d established, and they treated the couple of months as they should have been treated — as an aberration.

“This guy has been one of the top shooters in the NBA for 14 years now and people tend to forget that stuff when you have slumps,” guard Fred VanVleet said after Miles’ first big game of the week.

“It’s ‘what have you done for me lately’ kind of mentality, but we’re not treating him like a charity case by any means.

“We know what he brings to the table, and as teammates, as friends and brothers, it’s just nice to see him have a good game.” Whether Miles has done enough in two games to reclaim a spot in the regular rotation is questionable. The Raptors, at full strength, play 10 players each night, and with the way Norm Powell is performing right now, and with OG Anunoby expected back this week after missing time for personal reasons, it might be hard for coach Nick Nurse to find consistent minutes for Miles until the next injury comes up.

But having a veteran waiting in the wings whose confidence has been restored by two solid outings is a pleasant problem to have.