Raptors pull out all the stops and secure a must-win against host Knicks

Article content

It was a game the Raptors felt they had to have, and it was evident in the play of just about every man wearing the red and white yesterday that the message hit its mark.

Article content

Name a Raptor that took the floor on Monday afternoon and he had a role in making sure this one didn’t get away. And don’t kid yourself, there were a number of opportunities for this game to go the way of too many of the others this year and do just that.

Article content

Instead, a 123-121 OT win on Martin Luther King Day at the Mecca in New York saw contributions from everyone in the lineup, but none bigger than the 33 points from point guard Fred VanVleet, who has heard an inordinate, and frankly unfair, amount of criticism from the fanbase over the past month or so.

Article content

Questionable to even play due to recurring lower back issues, VanVleet didn’t just lace them up for the afternoon tilt, he put the Raptors on that wonky back and carried them.

Down five with two minutes to go in this game and looking like the Raptors were headed for another loss, VanVleet drained a three and then hit a mid-range jumper to get his team back on even terms.

Article content

The Raptors actually had a lead in the dying seconds of this one and should have closed it out but after a missed Scottie Barnes free throw, Mississauga native RJ Barrett was somehow allowed to go from his own basket to the other end, basically untouched, for the game-tying and overtime-forcing flush.

It was the kind of moment that has sunk this team in the past, but on this afternoon there was no giving in, only overcoming one hurdle after another until the win was secured.

In the extra time and even having lost Pascal Siakam for the final minute and a half when he picked up his sixth and disqualifying foul, the Raptors kept their wits about them and pulled it out.

O.G. Anunoby, who had missed all five of his three-point attempts was huge in the overtime frame hitting two corner three-pointers to give the Raptors some breathing room.

Article content

Anunoby finished with just 10 points and struggled for large chunks of the game keeping the red-hot Julius Randle in check but when his team needed him most Anunoby was there.

Siakam, for his part, drew a ton of attention from New York defenders and settled for just 20 points in the game, but had nine big assists and played some incredible one-on-one defence down the stretch to keep the Knicks at bay.

VanVleet was coming off one of the worst games of his career in Saturday’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks and rebounded in a massive way with those 33 points, eight assists and five boards as he did a little bit of everything in this one.

There will be little time to celebrate this one as they head directly to Milwaukee from New York to take on the Bucks.

Article content

Truth be told, the Raptors don’t have the wiggle room to waste any energy on celebrating. They are going to need a number of more victories and certainly a lot more of the energy they showed in this one if they have any hope of crawling out of the deep hole they have dug for themselves.

But a win in New York is a good place to start. For one, it’s a road game where the Raptors had won just five times in 18 previous tries.

But the big takeaway from this one was just the amped energy and pace the team played with in securing the victory.

It can’t be the last time we see this.

NO TIME TO MISS

VanVleet’s season to date has been more trying than he would like.

His shot has been as inconsistent as it has ever been while his inability to stay healthy has been equally inconsistent.

Article content

But a day after the team listed him as questionable for Monday’s afternoon tilt with the Knicks, VanVleet was there to answer the bell promptly at tipoff.

It really speaks to the finnicky nature of back woes. You can’t predict from one day to the next how good or how bad it’s going to feel.

But it could be something else too.

VanVleet over his career has been a guy who has played through plenty of injuries. The thought going into this year after VanVleet’s injury woes in the playoffs last season when his team needed him most was to be a little smarter in the regular season and perhaps err on the side of caution a little more when it came to taking nights off

The fact that VanVleet and the team made the decision that he play yesterday speaks to the precariousness of their position at this early point in the season that the team finds itself.

[email protected]