C.J. Miles has been around long enough and seen enough to know that sometimes the ball’s just not going to go in the basket. That’s not why he’s been frustrated that his shooting has been off the last 10 days or so. No, the frustration comes with how the Toronto Raptors forward is missing too many three pointers of late, how he’s going through “a little funk,” as he calls it. The shots look good, they feel good, they leave his hand right on line. Then they go halfway in the basket and bounce right out, hit the back rim and bound right back towards him, good shots just not made. “I’d rather shoot an airball because then I could be like, ‘Okay, I know why I missed it,’” Miles said. The ups and downs of a shooter’s life are best explained by looking at a 10-game stretch for Miles heading into Tuesday’s game at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves, which Miles missed due to right knee sorenss.
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In the five previous games, he had made just nine of 29 attempts for a paltry 31 per cent conversion rate from beyond the arc. In the five games before that, he’d been relatively torrid, making 16 of 40 long-range shots for a 40 per cent clip. There wasn’t a lot different in the looks he was getting; most were good, some were rushed. But the “little funk” can come up at any time and the only way out of it is to keep firing away. “It’s never going to go in until you shoot it,” he said.
And now on the next one
The Raptors did give up almost 50 per cent shooting because they were a bit soft in the first half (“like tissue” was how Dwane put it in a quote that didn’t make the story ) but when it came time to buckle down, they did.
That was a rather entertaining game, a solid performance by the locals against a good, young team that plays hard and can present some matchup difficulties.
Kinda blew it when I asked Dwane post-game about the “switch” to have Serge Ibaka guard Towns and JV guard Gibson because, as he politely pointed out to correct me, that’s what they’d done 10 days ago in Minnesota, which I had either missed or forgotten.
Anyway, the gist of it was that Ibaka had done an excellent job and look more engaged that he has some nights. Six rebounds, 15 points and a tremendous late-game blocked shot that kind of demoralized the Timberwolves for a minute or two, those are solid numbers and Casey hit on the reason rather quickly.
“I thought Serge did a heckuva job, an excellent job man-on-man, rebounding, blocking shots. When you do all those things, the offence is going to come, the offence is going to fall into place. He made a great kick-out pass to the corner, all those things are going to come if you do all the dirty work and the hard things in a hard way.”
Ibaka’s toughness – and he can be ornery out there – is going to be a huge component to whatever playoff success these guys have.
Gotta be tougher
I know Jakob Poeltl had a couple of very important put-back baskets early in the fourth quarter when the Raptors took control of the game and he’s got a knack for getting his hands on missed shots in traffic that can’t be taught.
But.
On plays when he gets the ball inside of three or four feet, I think he’s got to more often be stronger, take the ball one-step to the rim and dunk rather that putting up a short jumper or a little floater.
He had one like that in the first quarter, I believe it was, where he threw up something of lazy shot when he might have gathered, taken a hit and tried to finish more strongly.
That’ll come when he gets stronger, and it’s a nit-pick on that particular play, but it’s an area that can use some improvement from the impressive young big man.
That was some day
Yeah, we mentioned Fred VanVleet quite a lot in the game story because he was so integral to the finish.
But think of it again:
Dude plays a game Sunday evening, his partner goes into labour just after a late dinner, the daughter – Sanaa Marie VanVleet – is born over night. Mother and daughter are doing okay but he’s got to be around, obviously, and misses practice Monday and Tuesday’s shootaround and gets to the arena about an hour before tipoff and onto the court about 10 minutes before the game starts.
Plays his butt off ‘cause that’s what he always does and tells us later that he’s had maybe four, five hours of sleep.
The ability to handle life’s responsibilities and still be professionally accountable to his teammates and bosses can be a difficult combination to pull off. He did.
Much to admire about that kid, there is.
A wee bit more, got to pack, get to an 11 a.m. 905ers game and then, Air Canada and the weather willing, hit the road.
Some major league good vocal work from these folks, no?
The six-foot Fred VanVleet going for a crucial rebound against the seven-foot Karl-Anthony Towns in the dying seconds of a tight NBA game. Who ya got? The smart money might be on Towns but the winning money was on VanVleet. The diminutive Toronto Raptors point guard came up with what coach Dwane Casey called a “picture perfect” box-out to preserve his team’s 109-104 victory over Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night.
Raptors guard Fred VanVleet finished with 10 points, including a clutch three-point play in the final five minutes. ( Christopher Katsarov / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
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“Just box out, get lower than him, get into his knees and try to push him out, push him out farther,” VanVleet said, making the extremely difficult sound perfectly easy. VanVleet, whose fiancee gave birth to a child early Monday morning, arrived on the court about seven minutes before the tip off and ended up playing nearly 23 minutes. He finished with 10 points, including a clutch three-point play in the final five minutes, and he was the trigger-man on Toronto’s most important offensive possession.
Up two points with 61 seconds left, the Raptors did not run a play specifically designed for either DeRozan or Kyle Lowry. They isolated VanVleet on Jeff Teague, he easily beat him along the baseline and fed DeRozan for a floater in the lane. DeRozan led the Raptors with 23 points. “Exactly what we want,” Casey said. “Just keep moving, a little bit longer, a little bit longer, a little bit longer, let the ball find who it’s going to find. “I tell the guys all the time, if you execute and move and execute your play, the ball will find the right person. And it did.” Much has been made about Toronto’s offensive execution late in close games — they tend to revert to letting their most prolific scorers handle the load — and it’s been a contentious issue. There is no doubt DeRozan or Lowry should get ball, it’s how they get it if there’s time to run some set.
DeMar DeRozan shrugged off another slow start to finish with 23 points. ( Christopher Katsarov / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
“I think there's so much pressure on those guys at the end that maybe if we get a different ball-handler from time to time . . .,” VanVleet said. “It doesn't mean they still can't take the shot, but maybe let somebody else initiate every so often. “DeMar made a great cut, (I) found him, and obviously, you know, he can do the rest.” The Raptors also got a boost from Norm Powell, who played 20 minutes after C.J. Miles was a late scratch with a sore right knee. Powell scored just eight points but he had an arena-energizing dunk in the third quarter and a huge three-pointer as Toronto rallied in the fourth. It was the kind of juice the team needed during a somewhat lacklustre victory over a Minnesota squad that had fallen apart late to lose a game in Atlanta on Monday night.
Powell, who admitted to a season of ups and downs, said “it felt good to go out there and just play (and) build confidence . . . just continue to believe in myself.” Wiggins, who kept the Timberwolves close with a three-pointer with about a minute left before missing later, had made it a regular occurrence to scorch the Raptors; he was averaging 25 points per game against Toronto and dropped 29 against them 10 days ago in Minneapolis. “Guys always play well against their hometown team or have a little extra and he has extra, extra when he plays against us,” Casey said. “He’s almost like a different player. “He’s already a talented player so we have to make sure he doesn’t get a rhythm, doesn’t get going. We’ve just got to be prepared for that type of motivated effort from him.” Wiggins was far from a factor early in the game, missing his first six-field goal attempts before he banked in a couple of mid-range jumpers. He finished with 15 points on 7-for-22 shooting.
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TORONTO — If Fred VanVleet was tired after the birth of his daughter Sanaa Marie, it didn’t show.
Arriving at Air Canada Centre an hour before tipoff and on a few hours of sleep, VanVleet had 10 points in 21:19 of play as the Toronto Raptors rallied to a 109-104 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday.
VanVleet was especially big in the fourth quarter, turning Minnesota’s defence inside out on an assist to DeMar DeRozan and boxing out Timberwolves centre Karl-Anthony Towns — who is nearly a foot taller than him — on one of the final possessions of the game.
"I’m only taking questions addressed to me as ‘dad.’ Y’all have to talk to me different now," said VanVleet. "People who have kids or who have gone through the process of having kids, they know. They know. It all just blends together as one big day."
DeRozan finished with 23 points and eight assists and Kyle Lowry scored 15 with nine assists as Toronto (34-15) rallied to a win. Centre Jonas Valanciunas had a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. CJ Miles, typically the Raptors’ best player off the bench, missed the game with soreness in his right knee.
Jimmy Butler led Minnesota (32-22) with 25 points, five rebounds and six assists. Canadian Andrew Wiggins scored 15 with eight rebounds as the Timberwolves lost their 14th straight game at Air Canada Centre.
It looked like Minnesota would snap that skid, leading 27-19 after the first quarter, then 57-51 at halftime.
"In the first half we were soft as tissue," said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. "We really didn’t have a physicality, wasn’t into who we were guarding.
"We were kind of watching and guys were sashaying in and laying the ball up and there was no resistance at the rim."
An honest chat in Toronto’s locker-room during the intermission helped them toughen up.
"We got together as a team and we just felt like we could do a little bit more," said VanVleet. "We had some good conversations about things we could sharpen up but overall about better effort, more fight, more hustle in the second half and close this team out."
Norman Powell picked Wiggins’s pocket and had a breakaway jam to open the fourth and tie the game 80-80. After back-to-back field goals, Pascal Siakam’s free throw gave the Raptors an 83-82 lead, their first since the opening quarter.
A pair of free throws from Delon Wright and a putback dunk by Jakob Poeltl made it 87-84, then a three-pointer by Powell added to Toronto’s lead and forced another timeout. Poeltl tipped in another basket when play resumed, but a free throw by Tyus Jones made it 92-85, followed but a short jumpshot by Taj Gibson.
On the next Minnesota possession, Lowry was charged with a three-point foul on Butler. The sell-out crowd of 19,800 chanted "Ref you suck!" and boos rained down on the court as Butler made two-of-three free throws.
Valanciunas made a jumpshot and Toronto stopped Minnesota at the other end to keep building its lead. As the Raptors pushed their advantage, the game became more physical, with DeRozan getting fouled for two free throws. Towns dunked but VanVleet made a circus layup and drew a foul to get an extra point and a 99-91 lead with 4:05 left to go.
"Congratulations to him on the birth of his baby girl," said DeRozan. "I think when you’re in moments like that, it doesn’t really matter what kind of sleep you get. You’re just kind of playing on a high after welcoming a human being into the world."
Jeff Teague drilled a three-pointer on the next play, with Serge Ibaka replying with a hook shot. DeRozan again went to the line, making two free throws to chants of "M-V-P!". Gibson made a jump shot and the Raptors couldn’t score on the ensuing possession, with Towns dunking to cut the Raptors’ lead to five.
Towns made an impressive no-look pass to a wide-open Wiggins, who sank a three-pointer to make it 103-101 with 1:01 left to play. VanVleet drove to the net but passed out to DeRozan who sank a nine-foot jumpshot. Wiggins missed his 26-foot shot and Ibaka grabbed the rebound, with Butler fouling DeRozan.
The Raptors all-star made both of his free throws and Valanciunas grabbed the rebound on Minnesota’s next possession, sinking both of his free throws when he was immediately fouled. Butler made a three-pointer in the final play of the game but it was too late.
