The Toronto Raptors‘ climb up the Eastern Conference standings has been aided considerably by them playing teams they’ll be competing with for playoff seeding as the season moves into its final third.
They’ve been able to take care of business in their own yard.
On Monday night the Raptors kicked off a three-game road trip and a stretch of eight road games in nine games with a visit to Charlotte, a team started the night a game-and-a-half behind the sixth-place Raptors and in ninth place.
The meeting with the Hornets bookended an eight-game stretch against four Eastern Conference opponents that they played twice each.
The Raptors took full advantage and came into Charlotte looking for their seventh win in eight games and got it as they held the potent Hornets to 12.6 points under their season scoring average in a 116-101 win.
The win extended Toronto’s winning streak to six games – their second six-game streak since Dec. 31st – and firmed up their hold on sixth place.
It was another brilliant outing from Pascal Siakam, who missed out on being named to the Eastern Conference All-Star game by the coaches last Thursday and then took another snub before the game Monday when Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball was named by the NBA office as an injury replacement for the Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant.
It was defensible only in that the Hornets probably deserved at least one representative in the in-season showcase, having been in the playoff/play-in mix all season, but Siakam is playing better basketball than Ball right now because he’s playing better than almost anyone.
He’s turned into a 6-foot-9 point guard who can attack mismatches in the paint like the power-forward he used to be. He gives VanVleet a break off the ball when they play together, and he can lead the second unit when VanVleet sits.
Midway through the fourth quarter Siakam forced his way into the paint and bounced a pass out to VanVleet, who knocked down the easy spot-up three. It pushed the Raptors’ lead to 12 and marked the third time Siakam had found VanVleet for a triple.
It made for a relatively easy night’s work for VanVleet, who added 20 points and five assists and shot 6-of-11 from deep, while Gary Trent Jr. added 24 points and shot 4-of-11 from deep as the Raptors shot 15-of-35 from beyond the arc — a major differentiator as Charlotte just 9-of-39 from deep.
All five Raptors starters ended up in double figures as OG Anunoby sealed the win with a three and a pair of dunks in the final moments on his way to 20 points and nine rebounds, while Scottie Barnes added 15 points and eight rebounds.
But leading the way was Siakam as the reigning Eastern Conference player-of-the-week finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, out-playing Ball who had 17 points and nine assists, but also seven turnovers.
Pascal the point guard could be a thing.
“You see there are even times when Fred is out there now, and we’ve got him off the ball and Pascal is bringing it up, “said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse before the game. “There’s certainly more surface area to scratch, and it’s mostly aligning sets differently and being able to run similar sets with the pieces moved. So, you can almost run the same play one time for Gary and one time for Fred. That’s kind of where we can do some more things, I think. We’ll see where it goes.”
“[But] I think the biggest thing is it doesn’t look like he’s confused. He looks confident,” said Nurse. “He’s gonna run the play and make sure everyone’s organized and get it started. There’s no hesitancy. There’s a lot of confidence there. And that’s really important in that role.”
The Raptors’ winning ways are well-timed. The NBA trade deadline is on Thursday, but rather than have distractions ruin the Raptors vibe, it’s almost the other way around. Because most of the Raptors trade scenarios involve Goran Dragic – who hasn’t been with the team since November – and a future draft asset, the team doesn’t have to worry about the locker room being upended. It should be addition without meaningful subtraction.
“I don’t sense a ton of buzz or a lot of chatter from the team or our players or anything,” said Nurse. I think we’re just trying to get these guys here to focus in, and I think they’re doing a really good job of it right now.”
Never better during the opening moments against the Hornets. It could have been that the Raptors finally had the benefit of two full days rest after playing five games in seven days, including four overtime periods, or it could be that Toronto is simply a justifiably confident group, after their 5-0 week, but Charlotte was in trouble early.
The Raptors came out bombing. They knocked down five threes in the opening quarter on nine attempts with three different shooters assisted by four different passers. That combined with the sticky-fingers defence that has become part of the Raptors identity – they forced Charlotte into six turnovers that translated into 12 Raptors points and a 9-2 edge in fastbreak points as they jumped out to a 35-21 first-quarter lead.
The Raptors extended it from there with help from their still-under-construction second unit. With VanVleet on the bench Nurse has been rolling out a five-man lineup featuring Dalano Banton and Siakam sharing point guard duties with OG Anunoby, Chris Boucher and Scottie Barnes as an active backline that can switch any kind of attack the Hornets wanted to try.
The Raptors started the second quarter on a 9-2 run to push their lead to 22, peaking with a Boucher steal at the sideline that he took the other way for the slam.
The Hornets were able to chip away at the Raptors lead from there, though Toronto enjoyed a 56-41 lead into the half-time break.
The Hornets pushed back, predictably, and the NBA’s second-most potent offence sprinted out to a 9-1 to start the third quarter. But the Raptors got a steal and a dunk from Trent Jr. out of a timeout, and a flurry of our triples pushed Toronto’s lead back to 14.
But Charlotte is fighting for playoff seeding too and wasn’t about to let the Raptors beat them for the second straight game. They turned up their defensive pressure, were rewarded with four Raptors turnovers and were able to cut Toronto’s lead to five to start the fourth quarter trailing 80-75.
Toronto was able to manage its business down the stretch and could be in good position to extend their win streak further as the team heads to Oklahoma City and then Houston – teams at the bottom of the Western Conference playing for lottery balls more than victories.
