Raptors show signs of life in much-needed win over Portland

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It was “get well” day at Scotiabank Arena, and, man, did the Raptors needs this one.

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Having lost three in a row and 11 of their past 14, the doom and gloomers were coming out of the woodwork.

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Fred VanVleeet had to go. Trade Gary Trent Jr. Nick Nurse is running this team into the ground.

Masai Ujiri went from ‘In Masai We Trust’ to “does he know how to build a roster?”

Short memories were in abundance.

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But a Sunday afternoon tilt against a Portland team that is having some issues of its own and may or may not have spent Saturday night sampling the local scene, was a nice reprieve as the Raptors came out with a 117-105 win.

It didn’t come easy, as nothing this season really has.

A 19-point lead in the second quarter was down to just five at half time.

It got back up to 19 again in the third quarter but was down to just three with about five minutes to play.

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Through it all, the Raptors continued to battle.

Scottie Barnes, who was getting some heat for not looking for his own shot early enough in the game, came out aggressively from the jump and finished with 20 points on 7-of-12 makes.

Pascal Siakam, who looked a little out of sorts in Friday’s loss to the Knicks, was right back in form with 27 points, six assists and four boards in a more typical Siakam game.

The much maligned, and rightly so, Raptors bench had a great start to the game, outscoring Portland’s reserves 12-3 in the opening stint for both groups of reserves and while they weren’t as solid in their second stint played mostly against the Trail Blazers starters, they still finished the night outscoring Portland’s bench 23-3.

The get-well theme continued into the three-point shooting where the Raptors shot just under 38% for the night from behind the arc, not a great night, but much better than what they had been doing.

All five Toronto starters, meanwhile, were in double figures.

It wasn’t a perfect game, but it was just what the Raptors needed.

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