TORONTO — With their offence struggling, their defence shaky, the sliding Toronto Raptors needed some help going into their game against the Sacramento Kings Wednesday – the first of 13 straight contests Toronto has against teams with records at .500 or better.
A win would go a long way.
Well, how about a Fred VanVleet throwback game? Or Scottie Barnes looking like the dynamic force who was so often a year ago, but rarely so far this season?
Would that work? It almost did.
But even a season-high 39 points from VanVleet, who has been slumping recently, and a 27-point, 10-assist double-double from Barnes in arguably the best game of his second season couldn’t overcome the Kings who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back against the rested Raptors.
The 124-123 loss was Toronto’s third straight and dropped them to 13-15 while the upstart Kings improved to 15-12. The Kings counted six players in double figures and got 21 points and 20 rebounds from Domantas Sabonis along with 27 points and 10 assists from De’Aaron Fox to take the win.
Once again the deciding statistic was the Raptors’ inability to score from deep. They finished at 6-of-21 from beyond to continue a weeks-long trend, while the Kings finished 17-of-46. The 33-point difference was too much to overcome even with Toronto enjoying a 15-7 edge in turnovers, and the big nights from VanVleet (who was 2-of-8 from deep) and Barnes.
The Kings, knocking on the door all game, took the lead for the first time in the second half thanks to a 13-5 early in the fourth quarter while VanVleet rested. The surge was led by Sabonis in the paint and a pair of threes by Malik Monk.
The two teams jockeyed back and forth from there. The Kings went up five with a Fox jumper with 1:07 left and were up five again after Harrison Barnes hit a pair of free throws with 31.8 seconds to play. But free throws by the Raptors Barnes and tough lay-up by VanVleet with seven seconds left kept Toronto’s hopes alive, helped by missed free throws by Monk and Fox kept the door open. Toronto had a chance to send the game into overtime on an open three by VanVleet, but it didn’t drop.
With their offence wilting the Raptors’ defence has come under even closer scrutiny, given the way the lowly (by record) Orlando Magic were able to get most of what they wanted in two wins over Toronto on the weekend.
“Well, we’ve got to do it better. We do. We’ve just got to do it better and a little bit longer,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse before the game. “It wasn’t like we didn’t come out and guard the last game. [a loss to Orlando Sunday]. We really guarded. We were really tough. We were really physical and whatever. And we had a really hard time putting it in the basket. We can’t worry about that. We can’t. We’ve got to somehow not let that affect us, especially when we’ve already come out and been guarding for long stretches. Even if we have cold stretches, we have to keep guarding and keep going and figure out some ways to create offence.”
The final verdict? The Kings shot 48.4 per cent from the floor and 37 per cent from three and scored 124 points. So not good enough.
The first quarter couldn’t have gone any better for the Raptors, who needed a good start after some shaky openers of late. VanVleet was determined, picking up where he left off against Orlando when he made a point of pushing the ball into the lane as often as he could. He did mix in a pull-up three, but primarily he attacked the lane with speed and either scored or got fouled, including a nifty drive through four Kings defenders, it seemed to score at the end of the quarter, giving Toronto a 31-23 lead.
The Raptors didn’t shoot well in the early going, but they forced the Kings into five turnovers and didn’t make any of their own to help offset Sacramento’s 5-2 edge in made threes, bolstered by former Raptor Terence Davis hitting three triples – all wide open – on his old club.
The Raptors pushed their lead to 16 with a quick 10-2 run to start the second quarter, but Fox began to roll. He hit a pair of threes and then found Sabonis for a pair of paint scores that cut Toronto’s lead in half in the space of two minutes. The defensive commitment that was apparent in the first quarter seemed to wane.
Barnes’ passing was on point all night, but his defence continues to be sporadic. He failed to help when Keegan Murray drove baseline and the Kings rookie had an easy dunk to cut the Raptors’ lead to three. His triple put the Kings up by one with 1:17 and then a Harrison Barnes blow-by on the Raptors’ Barnes for another dunk kept the Kings in front until a seven-point flurry by VanVleet in the final 63 seconds of the half allowed Toronto to take a 62-59 lead into the break.
The Raptors’ cause got a boost early in the third quarter when VanVleet was awarded two shots on a foul by Fox. It looked like VanVleet was passing but threw an awkward shot at the rim when he got the whistle. Fox argued and got a technical and Kings head coach Mike Brown argued even more and got two and was ejected.
VanVleet made all five free throws – the three for the technical and his two for the shooting foul and Toronto went up 73-64 on the rare five-point possession. Toronto pushed the lead as high as 11, but the Kings were tough to shake.
A 7-2 run late in the quarter cut the Raptors’ lead to one, but then some more vintage VanVleet: he took (and made) a deep three early in the shot clock with 38 seconds left in the quarter to make sure Toronto would have last possession, and they he drove the lane, got fouled and made his free throws with 2.5 seconds left to send the Raptors into the fourth leading 94-88.
The Raptors couldn’t hang on and now have to regroup with the schedule getting ever tougher.
