TORONTO — The day following a scrappy win like Wednesday’s, in which the Toronto Raptors rallied late during a game they had no business being in to beat the Indiana Pacers by three, a black-and-gold wrestling belt is awarded. It goes to an individual who contributed something crucial to the victory. A clutch shot, a timely block, a clever steal — that sort of thing.
Thursday’s belt went to Raptors point guard Fred VanVleet. He started Wednesday’s game in place of the injured Kyle Lowry and, over the course of his 31 minutes, probably wasn’t enjoying himself at all. He went 1-of-12 from the field through the first three quarters. He’d missed all six three-pointers he’d attempted. Entering the fourth, he was a minus-9.
But his fourth quarter was a doozy. He played hounding defence on Pacers star Victor Oladipo, particularly during the game’s final moments, when he helped force a possession-changing jump ball. He was in gaps. He made deft decisions to help off his man when needed. He came down with a big rebound.
And, not to be forgotten, he hit the game-winning three-pointer — one of his three in the quarter — with less than half a minute remaining, giving his team the lead for the first time since the game’s opening minutes. VanVleet received the belt for the other stuff — the plays you can’t find in a gamebook. But he sees it a little differently.
“For me, it’s the shot,” he said after practice on Thursday, the belt resting on his left shoulder. “Let the coaches say it’s for something on the defensive end.”
No matter, it’s an award well earned. The Raptors, playing without three regular starters against a game Pacers team currently fourth in the conference, had to work exceptionally hard for Wednesday’s triumph. All things considered, it would have been easy to fold.
[snippet id=4267701]
Through three quarters, Indiana was up by 10 and shooting over 50 per cent from the field. Meanwhile, the Raptors had gone 4-of-22 from beyond the arc. Head coach Nick Nurse was furiously jumbling his lineups, going all the way down his bench to an 11th man, searching for a spark. It felt a lot like a loss in the making. It would have been easy to pack it in and get them next time.
But the Raptors rallied with a gutsy fourth quarter, in which they held the Pacers to only 11 points thanks to the kind of dogged defending that earned VanVleet his belt. They got away with one, no doubt. Particularly considering an egregious non-call on a foul of Bojan Bogdanovic in the dying seconds, which would have sent the Pacers forward to the free-throw line with an opportunity to tie the game.
But part of being good, part of being the NBA’s best team, is getting away with one every once and a while. Adding luck to legitimate depth and ability. Finding your way to character wins like Wednesday’s.
“Nobody really ever panics. Although we probably had a million reasons to,” VanVleet said. “Good teams find a way to win. And we did that. It wasn’t pretty. We just kept clawing and scratching and fighting.”
Still, expending that much effort is one reason why the team’s upcoming holiday reprieve, which will see the Raptors enjoy three consecutive days off following this weekend’s back-to-back against the Cleveland Cavaliers and Philadelphia 76ers, will be an extremely welcome one.
Everyone’s banged up. Lowry hasn’t played in a week thanks to a thigh contusion and isn’t expected to return until after Christmas. Serge Ibaka sat out Wednesday’s game and is questionable for Friday’s. Danny Green, the only Raptor to appear in all 33 of the team’s games, is playing through a litany of ailments, including an eye abrasion and a sore left knee suffered during a fourth-quarter collision Wednesday.
[relatedlinks]
No NBA team’s played more than the Raptors’ 33 games, and a handful have played as few as 29. The Raptors have also played 17 times on the road, which is within the top third of the league. So, sure, a little break would be swell.
“We are looking forward to it — any days we can have in between games is certainly needed right now,” Nurse said. “It just seems like we’ve been awfully busy. I don’t know what everybody else is doing. But we seem like we’ve been awfully busy. And it’s kind of taken a little bit of a bite out of us a little bit. But we’ll have at least 10 or 11 guys suited up tomorrow and we’ve got to roll with what we can.”
Still, a stretch like the one the Raptors are currently on, which has forced Nurse to get creative with his lineups, and forced part-time players into larger roles with unfamiliar rotations, can have its benefits.
Reserve point guards VanVleet and Delon Wright have had opportunities to run the offence. Pascal Siakam has been seeing extended run at centre, which should be an option down the line when the Raptors want to go small. Toronto’s coaching staff is learning what they have in a G-Leaguer like Chris Boucher, who set a career high in minutes Wednesday and knocked down a corner three almost as soon as he touched the floor.
That all this experience is being gained against tough competition — 10 of Toronto’s last 12 have come against winning teams — doesn’t bother Nurse at all.
“We started developing some chemistry as that game went on [Wednesday]. Sometimes that’s what happens when you’ve got a bunch of new people in new positions and different lineups going,” Nurse said. “When you look at it in totality, it probably makes more sense that you can see the better teams and the better players. It seems to put you in more coverages and just more situations in general.
“You go on the road, or you play a team that’s supposedly not very good, and they’re ready to play the Toronto Raptors because we’ve got the best record in the league. Every team in the West gets up to play us because we’ve got the best record in the East and all that stuff. So, I like it. I think each game presents its challenges and that’s what we’re here for. To try and figure out those challenges.”
