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Finally at full strength, Raptors pick up necessary win over Bulls

TORONTO — For better or worse, this is the Toronto Raptors now. 

Tuesday night marked the first time they’ve had their entire rotation together since they added Jakob Poeltl at the trade deadline. O.G. Anunoby had missed nine games including two after the trade deadline and before the all-star break when Poeltl was playing. Similarly, Gary Trent Jr. was out for two games before the break, and then Fred VanVleet missed all three games since the break after the birth of his third child (Layla, a girl). 

And you know what? There was plenty to like as they grinded their way to a 104-98  win over the Chicago Bulls that won’t get big marks when it comes to appearances but graded out well in terms of participation as just about all the key Raptors rotation players could leave Scotiabank Arena the arena thinking of some of the good things they did. 

None of them involved scoring a field goal in the game’s final 3:27 which made for some tense moments down the stretch, but the Raptors had done enough until then and were sharp enough defensively themselves to survive the drought. 

The Raptors finally pried open a tightly sealed game midway through the fourth quarter thanks to a flurry of spectacular plays by Scottie Barnes (11 points, eight rebounds and two assists). First, he made an impressive finish as a late trailer in transition, muscling through a foul to score. Then he pinned Bulls guard Coby White at the backboard to take away an otherwise wide-open lay-up. He followed up by hitting a cutting Pascal Siakam in transition for a dunk that put Toronto up by six with 7:27 to play. A little later he hit a triple to push the Raptors’ lead to nine with just under five minutes to go.

“He made a couple of plays not many guys in this league can make,” said VanVleet. “Blocks, push the break, the and-1 – he was talking and keyed in and he gave us some good boost, especially that lineup out there without me and Pascal, for him to carry that in the fourth and get us some separation. That really won us the game ultimately, his defence and his playmaking and just putting pressure on the rim.”

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      The game wasn’t entirely over – there was that bit about the Raptors not scoring from anywhere but the free throw line for the last chunk of the game, which almost cost them when Chicago managed an 8-2 run to cut Toronto’s lead to three with 2:32 to play.

      The Raptors then went to a prevent defence, of sorts. After the Bulls' Nikola Vucevic missed a wide-open three that would have tied the game with two minutes to go, the Raptors missed three field goals on the same possession but burned clock with two offensive rebounds and were able to win the foul-shooting competition in the final minute.  Toronto punished the Bulls with a 19-6 edge on the offensive glass category which was the difference in the game.

      The win was Toronto’s eighth in the past 10 games and improved their record to 31-32 as the Bulls fell to 28-34 with their hopes of a post-season shot fade.

      Four of the Raptors starters were in double figures led by Siakam with 20. The exception was VanVleet who was 1-of-11 in his first game since before the all-star break, but he had nine assists, while Trent Jr. – coming off the bench in the new-look starting lineup – had 19 in 28 minutes. Toronto shot the ball poorly – just 40 per cent from the floor and 15-of-42 from three – but they had a 15-4 edge in second-chance points thanks to their edge on the offensive glass and forced the Bulls into 20 turnovers. 

      There are concerns. Even as they’ve been stacking up wins, their offence hasn’t been exactly fluid. Eventually will need to be. 

       “I mean, what did we shoot, 40% tonight and still win? That's not great shooting percentage,” said Nurse. “I think the offence will come here shortly … the cuttings getting better, the passing is getting better and we’ve just got to do the most important part and put it in the hole.”

      Chicago shot 52 per cent from the floor and 40 per cent from three but the Raptors' extra shots (94-71) were the difference. The Bulls were led by Vucevic with 23, while old friend DeMar DeRozan was limited to 13 points and two assists.  He was also subject to a poster-quality dunk by Anunoby in the fourth.

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          Fittingly the game had play-in implications. Not only did 11th-place Chicago come to Toronto trailing the ninth-place Raptors by on-and-a-half games, the two teams were also tied 1-1 in the season series. If the Bulls went up 2-1 they would have the tiebreaker if their records were identical at season’s end, which could determine who got into the play-in tournament or where the game would be held. The Raptors now have that advantage. 

          Similar scenarios are in play later this week when the Raptors travel to Washington for two games against the 10th-place Wizards. 

          “Big games, yep [but] again, us just trying to really zero in on us,” said Nurse.” I don’t think it matters that much where people are in the standings. I mean, it does because they’re right around us and we are inside 20 games to go or something like that but, again, just trying to get us to play to our capabilities ... if we do that and keep getting a little bit better, if we do that then we’re gonna have a really good chance every night we step out there and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

          The Raptors' front office is trying to win at the margins as well. Shortly before the game Tuesday Toronto waived  Juancho Hernangomez and signed veteran Will Barton who had earlier been bought out by the Wizards. Barton, 32, is in his 11th season and coming off a poor stint with the Wizards. It was his first experience coming off the bench after starting in Denver, primarily, in the previous three years, and playing starter’s-type minutes for all of his eight seasons with the Nuggets. 

          He appeared in just 40 games for Washington, starting none, and had largely fallen out of the rotation after being traded there in the off-season in a deal that brought him closer to his home in Maryland. He shot the ball well from distance – 38 per cent from three – but didn’t have anything else happening offensively. In his last year in Denver, Barton averaged nearly 15 points, five rebounds and four assists a game with decent efficiency over 71 starts. He also has 29 playoff games on his resume. 

          “He’s an interesting player. He has played a lot in the league on a team that won a lot,” said Nurse. “He’s an offence creator. He can play screen-and-roll. He can also shoot the 3. Made a bunch of them in his career. Those two things should help us.”

          Barton saw his first action with five minutes remaining in the second quarter of a tie game. He didn’t do too much – one shot, a triple that he missed but Thad Young rebounded for a putback. 

          But in that sense, Barton fit in with the rest of his new team in the early going at least. 

          The first quarter showed some nice promise. Anunoby – largely dormant since missing nine games prior to the all-star break – scored on early post-up and then a triple, while adding a pair of other scores in the second quarter. His defence on old teammate DeRozan was notable. 

          The Raptors led 24-23 after the first quarter with the highlights a couple of nice finishes on the pick-and-roll by Poeltl on passes from VanVleet who had five assists in the first 12 minutes. But Toronto fell behind by as much six in the second quarter as they struggled to hit a shot: they were just 7-of-25 in the quarter and would have been in a worse spot except they forced five Chicago turnovers and had a 6-1 edge on the offensive glass. Still, the Bulls led 46-44 at the half.

          Neither side could gather much momentum after the break and neither could push their lead into double figures at any point. The game was there for the taking until Barnes sparked it in the fourth quarter. 

          But there were plenty of good signs. Trent Jr. was good off the bench early and ended up closing down the stretch with Poeltl sitting as Nurse opted for to have more shooting on the floor. Anunoby looked as engaged on both ends as he has since his injury. VanVleet was back, directing traffic and Barnes made the kind of plays in the fourth quarter he’s becoming known for.

           Nothing was decided until the final minutes, but the Raptors, finally whole, came out on the right end of it, which – given the task ahead of them -- was both welcome and necessary.

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