VanVleet sets Raptors record with 54 points,
Raptors 123 Magic 108
FRIDAY: RAPTORS AT NETS, 7:30 P.M.
It looked easy, effortless almost, even though it was anything but. It sounds inconceivable but Fred VanVleet had the best scoring night in Raptors franchise history on Tuesday night and it felt an awful lot like just another game.
Nothing forced. Nothing pressed. No highlight reel stretches of total domination.
Just a wonderful, amazing, fun evening.
Historic.
VanVleet poured in 54 points — more in any one game by any Raptor ever — in a123-108 victory over the Orlando Magic with a brilliant performance that was as understated as he is.
“He legit was like, ‘Yo, y’all, keep playing, and we just got to keep playing,’ and the way we were playing tonight everybody was looking for theirs, and it wasn’t forced to him,” Kyle Lowry said. ”Everything was in rhythm and in the flow of the game.”
An easy game.
“No disrespect to the Magic but, I mean, for most of those I was open, (the shots) were in rhythm,” VanVleet said. “They were clean looks. They were within the offence.
“I even told the guys, ‘You guys keep playing.’ I could feel them start to look for me to the point where they weren’t looking at the rim any more. I wanted to win more than I wanted 50 points. (I was) just trying to continue to play with a pure heart and let the game come to me, and I was rewarded for that.”
There were signs early that VanVleet was going to have a special night; he had eight of his 10 three-pointers and 28 points in the first half alone.
DeMar DeRozan, with 52 points, and Terrence Ross and Vince Carter, each with 51, were the only Raptors to score 50 in a game before VanVleet went wild in Orlando.
“Congrats to my brotha Freddy V!” DeRozan posted on his Twitter feed, before making a joke at his close friend’s expense. “Kyle old ass couldn’t do it. Glad you did champ! Been telling you!”
VanVleet’s 11 threes were the most by an NBA player this season and his eight makes in the first half were the most by a Raptors player in history. He finished one off Donyell Marshall’s team record of 12.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, VanVleet’s points were the most by an undrafted player, eclipsing the 53 that Houston’s Moses Malone scored against San Diego in 1982.
“I mean it’s incredible to be an undrafted guy and to do that. It really is. It’s incredible,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said.
The astonishing thing was how VanVleet did it all in the normal course of the game; he took the shots that came to him and made them at rate that he never had before. His 54 points came on just 23 shots in just 37 minutes.
“He usually gets forced into a couple late shot-clockers, he’s kind of one of our bailout guys there, but I’m not so sure he forced anything,” Nurse said. “Maybe one or two at the rim, but he’s making a hard drive and that’s what ends up being open. Yeah, that’s pretty good — the 54 points on 23 shots.”
In what will be the quietest excellent night in franchise history, Kyle Lowry’s triple double of 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
More than offence: His astonishing shooting night notwithstanding, VanVleet was his usual defensive self as well.
With the Raptors up 14 points and cruising to the buzzer at the end of the third quarter, VanVleet hustled the length of the floor to strip Terrence Ross of the ball on a layup at the rim.
It was the kind of no-thought hustle play VanVleet makes as a matter of course and shows the kind of all-out competitor he is.
He also had two other steals and was one off his career high with three blocked shots.
“He’s a winner, simple as that,” Lowry said. “He wants to win, and he wants to help his team win at the highest of levels. That’s how he’s been special. He’s been a guy that just plays hard and do whatever it takes to win basketball games.”
Playing with pace: If there was one thing Nurse wanted to see, it was more pace in transition, for the Raptors to get out and run against an injury-ravaged Magic team to wear them down.
It hasn’t been a constant this season.
“I think on certain nights it’s at a higher level than others, but we got room for improvement there,” Nurse said before the game. “We need a little more centre-of-the-floor speed and I’d like to see more throwaheads. I would like to see the guys who get the rebounds or the point guards who bring it getting it up the side as quickly as possible.”
His point was made as the Raptors had 18 fast-break points in the first half.
In the conversation: Orlando was without forward Aaron Gordon, who’ll miss at least a month with a sprained ankle, but he was central to part of the conversation. Lowry was retroactively assessed a Flagrant 1 foul for a box-out he had on Gordon’s in Sunday’s game.
Magic coach Steve Clifford called it a “dangerous play at any level of basketball” before the game.
Lowry had backed into the taller, heavier Gordon to keep him off the boards, a play the league deemed excessive.
“It didn’t look excessive to me,” Nurse said. “It’s not easy for a smaller guy, six-foot-one or whatever, to block out a 6-8 or (6-10) guy with considerably more weight and size.”
“I think (Lowry) goes down there and tries to do the best he can, he’s just trying to make a good, solid, tough play on that.”