TORONTO -- With their offence struggling, their defence shaky, the sliding Toronto Raptors needed some help going into their game against the Sacramento Kings Wednesday – the first of 13 straight contests Toronto has against teams with records at .500 or better.
A win would go a long way.
Well, how about a Fred VanVleet throwback game? Or Scottie Barnes looking like the dynamic force who was so often a year ago, but rarely so far this season?
Would that work? It almost did.
But even a season-high 39 points from VanVleet, who has been slumping recently, and a 27-point, 10-assist double-double from Barnes in arguably the best game of his second season couldn’t overcome the Kings who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back against the rested Raptors.
The 124-123 loss was Toronto’s third straight and dropped them to 13-15 while the upstart Kings improved to 15-12. The Kings counted six players in double figures and got 21 points and 20 rebounds from Domantas Sabonis along with 27 points and 10 assists from De’Aaron Fox to take the win.
Once again the deciding statistic was the Raptors’ inability to score from deep. They finished at 6-of-21 from beyond to continue a weeks-long trend, while the Kings finished 17-of-46. The 33-point difference was too much to overcome even with Toronto enjoying a 15-7 edge in turnovers, and the big nights from VanVleet, who was 2-of-8 from deep, and Barnes, who was 2-of-3, including a big one with 3:10 left, set up by VanVleet.
The Raptors are last in the NBA in three-point shooting since November 5th, making just 29 per cent. The League average is 35 per cent.
“Individual performances don't really matter especially when you don't get the win,” said VanVleet, who is shooting a career-low 32 per cent from deep. “So you know, frustrated for sure. It will be a good film day to see why we're giving up the shots that we've given up: 17 threes, most often they feel like they’re wide open and in rhythm, so we got to fix that it's hard to win that way, when you're given up that many threes and you're not generating or making those on the other end.”
The Kings, knocking on the door all game, took the lead for the first time in the second half thanks to a 13-5 early in the fourth quarter while VanVleet rested. The surge was led by Sabonis in the paint and a pair of threes by Malik Monk.
The two teams jockeyed back and forth from there. The Kings went up five with a Fox jumper with 1:07 left and were up five again after Harrison Barnes hit a pair of free throws with 31.8 seconds to play. But free throws by the Raptors Barnes and tough lay-up by VanVleet with seven seconds left kept Toronto’s hopes alive, helped by missed free throws by Monk and Fox that kept the door open.
Toronto had a chance to send the game into overtime on an open three by VanVleet. He was wide open, though lucky not to be called for an offensive foul for pushing off Fox to get open. He probably had more time than he realized – he put the shot up with 4.4 seconds left – but like so many Raptors threes lately, it hit the rim and bounced long.
With their offence wilting the Raptors' defence has come under even closer scrutiny, given the way the lowly (by record) Orlando Magic were able to get most of what they wanted in two wins over Toronto on the weekend.
They weren’t much better against Sacramento, one of the NBA’s better offensive teams. The Kings shot 48.4 per cent from the floor and 37 per cent from three and scored 124 points, so not good enough.
There were a lot of paint touches by them and then kickouts,” said Nurse. “There was a lot of transition happening as well where they were throwing it ahead and getting some quick looks early, but just probably not guarding the ball was probably the chain reaction that was starting most of that.”
The first quarter couldn’t have gone any better for the Raptors, who needed a good start after some shaky openers of late. VanVleet was determined, picking up where he left off against Orlando when he made a point of pushing the ball into the lane as often as he could. He did mix in a pull-up three, but primarily he attacked the lane with speed and either scored or got fouled, including a nifty drive through four Kings defenders, it seemed to score at the end of the quarter, giving Toronto a 31-23 lead.
The Raptors didn’t shoot well in the early going, but they forced the Kings into five turnovers and didn’t make any of their own to help offset Sacramento’s 5-2 edge in made threes, bolstered by former Raptor Terence Davis hitting three triples – all wide open – on his old club.
The Raptors pushed their lead to 16 with a quick 10-2 run to start the second quarter, but Fox began to roll. He hit a pair of threes and then found Sabonis for a pair of paint scores that cut Toronto’s lead in half in the space of two minutes. The defensive commitment that was apparent in the first quarter seemed to wane.
Barnes’ passing was on point all night, but his defence continues to be sporadic. He failed to help when Keegan Murray drove baseline and the Kings rookie had an easy dunk to cut the Raptors' lead to three. His triple put the Kings up by one with 1:17 and then a Harrison Barnes blow-by on the Raptors' Barnes for another dunk kept the Kings in front until a seven-point flurry by VanVleet in the final 63 seconds of the half allowed Toronto to take a 62-59 lead into the break.
“I just feel like we got to be able to stop the drives,” said Barnes. “I think that’s one of the main things. Be able to stop the drives so they can’t get deep in the paint and get kick-out threes and rotate and rotate and rotate and it just leads to open threes. I feel like when we just guard the ball we are very good.”
The Raptors' cause got a boost early in the third quarter when VanVleet was awarded two shots on a foul by Fox. It looked like VanVleet was passing but threw an awkward shot at the rim when he got the whistle. Fox argued and got a technical and Kings head coach Mike Brown argued even more and got two and was ejected.
VanVleet made all five free throws – the three for the technical and his two for the shooting foul and Toronto went up 73-64 on the rare five-point possession. Toronto pushed the lead as high as 11, but the Kings were tough to shake.
A 7-2 run late in the quarter cut the Raptors' lead to one, but then some more vintage VanVleet: he took (and made) a deep three early in the shot clock with 38 seconds left in the quarter to make sure Toronto would have last possession, and they he drove the lane, got fouled and made his free throws with 2.5 seconds left to send the Raptors into the fourth leading 94-88.
The Raptors couldn’t hang on and now have to regroup with the schedule getting ever tougher.
“I feel like we, just as a collective group, as a unit, as an organization, we’re just trying to stay positive,” said Barnes. “This was a very winnable game, I feel like, we should have won this one tonight.”
No argument here.
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