TORONTO — With about four minutes remaining in the first half Tuesday, the Toronto Raptors coughed the ball up on a fast break. It was LeBron James — playing like more of a free safety than a power forward — who got a hand on it, disrupting Kyle Lowry’s feed for a trailing DeMar DeRozan, pouncing on the ball and seamlessly starting a break of his own in transition.
From the other side of the court, Fred VanVleet pivoted, sprinted towards the speeding James and threw all of his generously-listed six-feet and 195 pounds in front of that freight train. But, as he does, the six-foot-eight, 250-pound James saw the play developing a step earlier and swung the ball to a teammate as VanVleet bounced off him like an insect would your windshield.
Undeterred, VanVleet chased his man under the basket and, as a three-point shot went up, threw his recently-sprained right shoulder into the No. 23 on James’s back and tried to bulldoze him away from a potential rebound.
It’s not easy to rattle this generation’s greatest player — Lance Stephenson’s performance art aside — but clearly James was displeased with VanVleet’s persistence. The pair tangled underneath the basket before James delivered a two-handed shove to the Raptors guard after the whistle, which provoked a similarly aggressive response from VanVleet, who had to be restrained by both Lowry and DeRozan.
“Restrained…” VanVleet said the following day with a laugh, subtly allowing that he was more than a little out of his weight class. “You know, he pushed me — I was just trying to get my push back, that’s all. Nothing crazy.”
[relatedlinks]
Sprained right shoulder and all, this is the kind of competitiveness VanVleet is hoping to bring to his team’s second-round clash with the Cleveland Cavaliers, which began in less-than-ideal fashion for the Raptors with a 113-112 overtime loss in Tuesday’s series opener.
He probably shouldn’t be playing right now at all, still only three weeks removed from suffering the injury in Toronto’s regular-season finale. But, after sitting out most of his team’s first-round victory over the Washington Wizards, VanVleet’s done all the watching he can stomach.
While the undrafted 24-year-old is still looking to find his shooting rhythm, VanVleet has found his own unique ways to be effective. He was imperative to the revival of Toronto’s second-unit in last week’s series-clinching victory in Washington, and he did plenty of unsung little things throughout Tuesday’s game that helped put his team in position to lose in such heartbreaking fashion. But, when his head hit the pillow long after Game 1 ended, he wasn’t thinking about any of that.
“I mean, I wasn’t the only one who had looks,” he said, “but I kind of felt like the weight of the world was on me.”
Late in the game, VanVleet missed a pair of three-point attempts — one with the score tied near the end of regulation, one at the end of overtime with Cleveland up one — that could have drastically altered the way we’re talking about this series today. Both shots afforded him plenty of space. Both were shots he’s made before and will make again. Both are shots he couldn’t get to fall Tuesday.
“Two great looks that he feels good with and we feel good with,” said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “We’ll take those shots every time down.”
The look at the end of the fourth was as open as it gets. There wasn’t a defender near. VanVleet just shot it heavy. The overtime look was tougher. It was from practically the same spot, but Jeff Green rotated out and put a late hand in VanVleet’s face. This time, he shot it short.
[snippet id=3636937]
VanVleet actually remembers the contested second one feeling better coming out of his hand than the first, but that doesn’t change the fact neither dropped. It doesn’t change the fact he thought about it all night. And it doesn’t change the fact he won’t hesitate to take the same shots again.
“You think about it. It’s natural. I’m a human being,” he said. “But I have a pretty good grasp on it. I’ve got thick skin. I’m going to take those shots every time. And if you don’t want me to take them, don’t put me out there, don’t pass it to me. Because it’s going up if I get it and that’s the right shot.
“When you make them, you’re the hero. When you don’t, you suck. That’s what makes making them that great. The pain of missing them and the agony of having to sit through the night and sit on that until the next chance to go out there and play. Those highs and lows of the game is what makes the game so great.”
The second opportunity came after VanVleet spent a long stretch of the fourth quarter on the bench, begrudgingly watching the action while Raptors trainers worked on his shoulder. Would VanVleet be shooting better — he’s now 2-of-11 from three-point range in the playoffs — if he wasn’t playing hurt? Of course he would. But he is hurt. And he still believes he should have sunk those shots, sore shoulder or not.
“Not any more than it did in Washington or the last two weeks,” he said, asked if his shoulder was affecting his shooting. “I’m used to it. It’s just one of those things. Do I wish I wasn’t hurt? Yeah. But I’m not looking for any excuses. I take and make those shots. And those ones didn’t go in for me.”
And say what you will about VanVleet’s night — nine points, two assists, 2-of-7 from the field in 15 minutes — he put it on the line, even when he wasn’t sparring with James.
Not long after he checked in at the beginning of the second quarter, VanVleet brought the ball up the floor off a Cavaliers bucket, saw a lane and didn’t hesitate, driving on Jordan Clarkson who absolutely hammered him directly on his right shoulder, sending VanVleet crashing to the floor under the basket. He dusted himself off and hit both free throws.
A minute later, he drove on Clarkson again and went crashing to the floor on his injured shoulder again, as the ball dropped, capping a personal 4-0 run that extended Toronto’s first-half lead to a dozen.
[snippet id=3360195]
Running the Raptors offence to begin the fourth, VanVleet was fouled on a drive in transition, before Clarkson sent him to the floor once more, this time with no call. VanVleet landed hard on his right shoulder and stayed down for a beat. When his teammates converged to help him up, he extended only his left arm.
“You take hits throughout the game — I fell pretty hard there in the fourth quarter,” he said. “That kind of accelerated the pain a little bit there.”
But he soldiered on, and, after setting up Delon Wright for a three, VanVleet provided teammates with a couple more golden opportunities they failed to convert. There was a perfectly weighted pass to a cutting Jakob Poeltl, who couldn’t finish at the rim. Then there was a great find of C.J. Miles, who was as open as he’s ever going to be from range, and bricked it.
And on the possessions when Wright served as the primary ball-handler, you could catch VanVleet darting around the perimeter, drawing a defender with him, which opened up space in the paint for his teammates to work with.
These are the things that don’t show up on a box score. These are the opportunities the Raptors had to win Tuesday night’s game that aren’t as glaring as VanVleet’s pair of misses. And this is why Casey and the Raptors will roll with VanVleet as long as he’s healthy enough to take the floor.
The misses sting, no doubt. But a lot of Raptors missed a lot of good opportunities down the stretch. Whether that execution improves or not come Thursday will have a lot to do with how the series looks when it moves to Cleveland this weekend. And if VanVleet has it his way, the ball will be in his hands again.
“Both were great looks, great passes, wide open. Can’t ask for better opportunities than that,” he said. “Just didn’t go in. But, it’s over with. That was yesterday. And, you know, same situation coming up, I’ll step right in and shoot them again.”