10 things: The Raptors will control their own destiny in the playoff race

Here are 10 takeaways from the Toronto Raptors' 103-100 win over the LA Clippers.

One — The Raptors have won five straight to put themselves into a tie for sixth place. The Clippers have been without their best players all season, but they are deep, scrappy, and very well coached so they had an answer each time the Raptors built their lead. But the end result was undeniable: Toronto led from start to finish to complete a rare sweep on a West Coast trip, and will be in position to control their own destiny in the playoff race.

Two — Precious Achiuwa was the unexpected hero. The Clippers had a chance to force overtime with six seconds left after a timeout, and although you can never quite be sure, odds were good that they would try to inbound to their best scorer in Marcus Morris.

The Raptors had Scottie Barnes covering Morris for most of the game, but Nurse gave the assignment to Achiuwa. The Raptors had the chance to intentionally take a foul, but Nurse opted to play it straight up. Achiuwa used his tremendous foot speed to stick with Morris while also being pressed into his chest to deny the three, and even after leaving his feet on the first move, Achiuwa was able to get back up and force an airball out of Morris, who had to lean hard to his left to even see a sliver of daylight.

Three — Achiuwa was impressive throughout. In addition to the block at the end, Achiuwa also secured a clutch putback to beat the clock with under two minutes left, nailed a three after Pascal Siakam had drawn two defenders, and was efficient throughout with his scoring.

Achiuwa made quick and smart decisions with the ball, including a delicate drive through the lane where he angled himself to avoid the charge, while still using his physicality to score at the basket. He also got into the middle of the zone, and instead of trying to force up a closer shot over a bigger defender, he pulled up from 10 feet out for a jumper. He was a perfect 4-for-4 from two-point range, which is a marked improvement from where he was at the start of the season.

Four — Siakam put in a superstar performance against a defence that was geared to stop him. The Clippers put their best defenders on Siakam, doubled him early on, switched to a heavy diet of zone to stack extra bodies in front of him, and Siakam had an answer for all of it.

At first, Siakam was living in the mid-range area and shooting over top of the Clippers' best defenders. When the Clippers switched to zone, Siakam would catch the ball in the post, time his move for exactly when the second line of the defence had to clear the paint to avoid the three-second call, before spinning his way to layups. And in the second half, Siakam sought out switches onto the Clippers' slower centres and had his way with them.

Five — Siakam also continues to reintroduce threes to his game. He is disciplined on these attempts, where he isn't taking them off the dribble and he's not taking contested looks since he knows he can always get a better shot if he takes his time.

But when he's wide open as the trailer, or if his feet are set in the corner and a kickout comes to him, Siakam is letting them fly without hesitation. That's the approach he took during the championship season, when he was getting set up by other players, as compared to the next season when Siakam expanded his game to create threes off the bounce.

Not only does the offence flow better if Siakam is willing to take open threes, it also makes life easier for himself since those are the rare instances where Siakam can get set up by someone else, rather than having to generate his own offence.

Six — Fred VanVleet bailed the Raptors out of so many tight moments. His biggest play came with an assist from the officials, who put VanVleet on the line in a one-point game while deeming that Terrence Mann had pushed him out of bounds on a very 50-50 play. VanVleet missed the second free throw, but the smallest man on the floor tracked down his own miss to get back to the line.

Prior to that, VanVleet also bailed the team out of two late-clock plays in the fourth quarter to keep the Clippers at bay. The first was a 35-foot lob pass to Chris Boucher for an and-one after the Clippers had tipped it into the frontcourt and nearly caused the turnover. The second was also late in the clock, when VanVleet drove into the teeth of the defence and put up a running one-handed push shot from the foul line that rolled in as the buzzer sounded.

Seven — VanVleet pulled off one of the trickiest moves of his career. He got downhill courtesy of a behind-the-back move, and as he crossed through the paint on the drive, VanVleet froze the second defender with an inside-out dribble move that showed the ball for a second, only for him to bring it to the opposite side of the floor to shoot the short pull-up jumper. It takes a lot of craft to score effectively as a six-foot guard.

Eight — An off-night for Barnes nowadays looks like 15 points with four rebounds. Barnes was frustrated with the whistle as the Clippers were allowed to be very physical in bumping Barnes on his drives, but he persevered and delivered crucial plays to close it out.

Barnes cashed a deep three to beat the zone at the start of the fourth, broke up a pass which resulted in an emphatic transition dunk a few minutes later, drove it coast-to-coast despite having veteran defender Nic Batum riding his hip for the full length of the floor, and he won the crucial tip out on VanVleet's first missed free throw which created a loose ball that would eventually be secured by VanVleet. He did make two mistakes down the stretch, one where he looked off Siakam and tried to catch the Clippers by surprise on a drive where he got stripped, and another with the 4-on-3 scenario in the middle of the floor after Siakam was doubled.

Nine — Khem Birch was quietly excellent in his role. Nick Nurse stuck to his strategy of platooning his centres, depending on the matchup, and Birch was able to thoroughly outplay Ivica Zubac.

Birch showed an intent to score in attacking the basket after his defender left to trap VanVleet, which is something that had been lacking from Birch for most of this year. He also came up with five offensive rebounds on a night where the Clippers were actually able to keep the Raptors in check on the glass. Most importantly, Birch was able to keep a lid on Zubac in the post, using his strength to deny Zubac from catching it too deep and then challenging shots with his length. Birch's performances have improved steadily of late, and Nurse's decision to show faith in him during his struggles is really paying off.

Ten — The Clippers showed zone against the Raptors for the majority of the game. It's not a surprise, given that most teams use zone to counter the Raptors' second unit, but the Clippers even used it against Toronto's starters, which is usually a bad idea.

Perhaps the status of Gary Trent Jr. played into it, since he was dealing with a non-COVID illness and shot 1-for-9 from the field, but it's a concern that so many teams have caught onto this strategy. The Raptors lack the shooting to consistently break the zone, and if teams can manage to keep them off the glass as the Clippers did today, it's an easy way to launch a comeback.