Raptors lose heartbreaker to Thunder as buzzer-beater waved off

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Losses don’t come more heartbreaking than Wednesday’s 110-109 Raptors defeat at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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One of the worst quarters of the season was enough to sink the Raptors — but only by the slimmest of margins.

After rookie Justin Champagnie had given the Raptors a two-point lead with 18 seconds remaining, Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander found Mike Muscala for a wide open three-pointer. But the drama wasn’t done. Not. Even. Close. Fred VanVleet missed a layup in the dying seconds, but Champagnie somehow managed to tip in the rebound as time expired.

The question was did he release the shot in time. The celebrating fans thought so, but after a review, the call of a made basket was overturned and the only people celebrating were wearing Thunder colours.

Gilgeous-Alexander shook off a tough first half and led the way with 26 points, while Lu Dort added 22 for the 8-16 Thunder.

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Toronto dropped to 11-14, despite 24 points from Gary Trent Jr., 23 from Pascal Siakam and 19 from VanVleet, who erupted in the fourth to give them a chance after a rough first three quarters.

Everything looked great for the Raptors early on, even though the team was without its two top centres, Khem Birch, who has a knee issue, and Precious Achiuwa, who was a late scratch due to shoulder inflammation.

Siakam started the game 7-of-8 from the field and had 16 points at halftime. Trentcaught fire in the second quarter and had 19 and the Raptors were ahead by 10 points, despite Dort’s 16 points and strong defence.

But Gilgeous-Alexander hinted at what was coming by immediately scoring out of the break. Two years after the pride of Hamilton came to town and dropped 32 points and a game-winning shot on the Raptors, he unleashed a 16-point barrage in the third, propelling a stunning 25-3 Thunder run that flipped the game.

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Some boos could be heard as the quarter ended with Oklahoma City ahead 87-76.

The game appeared to be finished, but there was still much more entertainment to come.

OKC COACH LOVES HIS CANUCKS

Head coach Mark Daigneault is in a challenging situation with the endlessly rebuilding Thunder, but two bright lights are his Canadians, Gilgeous-Alexander and Dort.

Gilgeous-Alexander sat 20th in scoring entering the game, while Dort was up to 17.3 a game with much better shooting numbers than what he displayed in his first two NBA seasons.

“It’s impressive. I don’t think his defence has dropped off and, with his offence picking up, he just brings it on both ends of the floor,” Daigneault said of Dort pregame.

“Defensively, he’s become a luxury for us. There’s a lot of perimeter players in the league that can keep you up at night and we’ve got a guy that’s an elite matchup against those guys. And that’s not to say that he shuts them down, but he makes them earn everything and he’s tough to play against because he just keeps coming and he’s also got great physicality and he’s a great athlete.”

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VanVleet saw that immediately, with Dort basically attached to his hip for the game.

“For us to be able to know, exactly, what we’ve got and we can just throw him onto one of those guys and know that they’re gonna have to earn everything while he’s on. That’s an every-night problem that we have a solution to,” Daigneault said.

Gilgeous-Alexander leads all Canadians in scoring, even though his shooting numbers have dipped, and he’s as dangerous as it gets in terms of being able to penetrate.

Daigneault also likes what he’s seen from Hamilton’s Gilgeous-Alexander when it comes to being a leader.

“He’s got a great blend of iron-clad self-confidence — like, he’s incredibly confident in his own skin and as a person, he’s not looking left and right for how to act or how to think, he’s his own man — but he also balances that with great humility,” he said.

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“It’s not really about him. He’s very unassuming, he’s not in your face. The energy that he brings to and interaction, or to a room, is incredibly authentic — there’s a ton of integrity to it. He’s just a rock-solid person. He is who he is. But there’s a lot of people like that and there can be an air of arrogance about them and he’s got, like, no pretence.”

Daigneault pointed out that Gilgeous-Alexaner is only 23 and Dort just 21, “so, not only do they have those qualities but they have a runway and their best years are ahead of them and there’s still a lot of things they can improve on.”

BARNES A SIAKAM FAN

Social media seemed to love Barnes calling Siakam his favourite player earlier this week when they were at a Raptors 905 game.

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Whether Barnes actually counts Siakam as tops, or just one of a handful he is high on isn’t clear, but he played along anyway when asked about it.

“That’s my favourite player. I was in the stands, I saw him, I just wanted to touch his hand, it was a good moment for me,” Barnes said at practice Tuesday before elaborating more seriously on what he likes about Siakam.

“The amount of hard work and effort he puts in every single day. He comes to the gym extra early, and then when you see him on the court, he’s just really good, is able to get to his spots and score, he’s also a great defender,” Barnes said.

“Every day, he comes in, works hard, he’s a good example for us young guys.”

Barnes says he watched a lot of film of Siakam before joining the Raptors — “How he works his way in post-ups, does so many little different things so he can be able to score the ball” — and is trying to improve his foul-drawing ability by studying Siakam’s skills in that area.

“The way he gets to the paint — probe, probe, probe, pick his spots of where he wants to shoot it, no matter if it’s a turnaround (jumper), being able to finish over any shoulder, just trying to get to the rim and score,” Barnes said.

@WolstatSun