The NBA stands still for no team.
Just two seasons ago at this time, the Toronto Raptors and Golden State Warriors were on what turned out to be a collision course for the NBA Finals in June.
The Raptors won their first title and unknowingly sent one of the league’s great dynasties into a free fall; the Warriors haven’t made the playoffs since.
Kevin Durant tore his Achilles in Game 5 and ended up leaving the Warriors in free agency after two titles in three seasons. Klay Thompson tore his ACL in Game 6, hasn’t played since and will miss his second-consecutive full season after tearing his Achilles before training camp in November. Veteran pieces such as Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Andrew Bogut either moved on or retired.
The Raptors can only blame the business of the league, having lost five players from their championship core to either free agency or trade, with Kawhi Leonard’s decision to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers only days after the championship parade being the first domino.
The old Finals foes may have taken different routes to get to the same place, but here they are in the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season trying to make the playoffs, accepting that their best hope might be through the play-in game in the league’s new expanded playoff format.
And for all that? It’s not going all that well.
The Warriors limped into Tampa on the second night of a back-to-back, having lost six of their past seven games and missing Stephen Curry (tailbone) and Draymond Green (finger). The Raptors, losers of four-straight and 14 of their past 16, were without Kyle Lowry (foot infection); Rodney Hood (hip); Patrick McCaw (knee) and Paul Watson (health-and-safety protocols).
Fred VanVleet left the floor after halftime and didn’t return.
But we’re happy to report that the Raptors won what was an NBA-level scrimmage that was as lop-sided as the 130-77 final score indicated.
The team that couldn’t win for a month started April with the most dominant win in franchise history. Go figure.
For Toronto, it was sweet relief. After going 1-of-13 in March – one of the worst months in franchise history – Toronto kicked off April by opening up a 22-point lead in the second quarter and then pushed that to a preposterous 53 in the third quarter, which ballooned all the way to 60 with 4:30 left in the fourth.
For the Warriors, it was another long night in a tough season for the three-time NBA champs and five-time finalists. Their leading scorer was Andrew Wiggins, but the Vaughan, Ont. product scored 11 points in a competitive first quarter and four in the second and then nothing after halftime.
Gary Trent Jr. set a Raptors franchise record by finishing plus-54, the second-highest in league history since Basketball Reference began tracking it in 1995-1996. He said that in Grade 2, when he was playing up with a Grade 4 club, his team was trailing 98-2 in an AAU tournament so, maybe, the universe does level things out after all.
It was a laugher that was welcome and needed. And, given that it was the first of five-straight games Toronto is playing "at home" in Tampa, the hope would be it starts the kind of roll the Raptors will need to catch 10th place Chicago before they can think about crawling any higher up the standings than that.
It’s a far cry from the permanent residence the Raptors had carved out for themselves on top of the East and dealing with life near the bottom has been a challenge. It’s one thing to have a championship in your sights, another to be gunning for 10th, with eighth likely out of reach.
“When you go through those rough times anything that can just lift our spirits and help us get together [helps], because I think the hardest thing to do when you’re losing is staying together,” said Pascal Siakam, who celebrated his birthday with a season-high 36 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists. “And I feel like that’s something that we try to do. And just continue to work hard and be together, that’s the most important thing.
“When things get tough we can’t fall apart and not have that togetherness. I think that’s what we’re fighting and today kinda showed that, and we just wanna continue to build on that. Obviously it’s just one win, no matter what the score was it’s just one win, and I think we’ve gotta build on that and try to get some wins in a row.”
In the meantime the Raptors are trying to stitch together anything positive they can as they improved their record to 19-30.
“We've been on the floor a lot more lately,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “They've been very good out there. We’re teaching and building and showing the new guys things and they're good. It's nice to see a lot of the little things you're working on see some improvement.
“It's not much of a game tonight but at least there was lots of aggressive defence, there was a lot of help, there was a lot of good block outs, you know, the things that we're working on. So it was good.”
For one night it was all on display. The ball moved, shots dropped. Ignoring for a moment the opposition was an undermanned Warriors club, the Raptors looked like they knew exactly what they were doing and enjoyed every minute of it.
Along with Siakam’s big night, OG Anunoby continued his run of outstanding all-around play with 21 points on 12 shots, Trent Jr. followed up his career-high 31 against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday with 24 points while shooting 6-of-9 from deep.
But Toronto doesn’t seem fated to enjoy even one night without a dark cloud approaching. VanVleet left the game early in the third quarter with a strained left hip flexor. Toronto is off until Monday but if VanVleet is out for any extended period of time – and given that Lowry is forecast to be out for another week, potentially – it could be the opportunity for rookie point guard Malachi Flynn to start building some confidence.
He played a career-high 31 minutes – 20 minutes consecutively after VanVleet went out – and finished with 16 points and five assists, each career-bests.
Flynn had played double-figure minutes in eight of nine games after returning from a five-game absence due to health-and-safety protocols related to COVID. He’d played more than 10 minutes in a game just once in the previous 10 weeks.
There had been progress, but no breakouts until Friday night.
“I think the biggest thing was we need him to get downhill and get aggressive towards the rim and those are the best plays, for me, that he made,” said Nurse. “He took it down there and made some layups, created them for himself and really made good decisions tonight.”
A four-year starter in university and a star in high school, adjusting not only to the NBA but to the inconsistencies in floor time game to game has been a struggle.
“It’s different, it’s something that I never had to deal with before so I mean I’m still learning and figuring out different things,” said Flynn, who added five rebounds and two steals. “It’s continuing growth throughout the season so I just try to stay on that path and do the best I can.”
Flynn will likely be getting all the minutes he can handle in the coming days. If he can seize the moment, it could end up being a silver lining in an otherwise gloomy season.
