Toronto Raptors’ VanVleet’s big night goes for naught in Utah

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Another winnable game went down to the wire with the opponent coming out on top yet again.

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It’s been that kind of year for the Toronto Raptors.

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There was plenty to like in this game with the Utah Jazz from a Raptors standpoint, from Fred VanVleet’s second career triple-double (both oddly against Utah) and the fact that both Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes also produced double-doubles in the game, but a poor start and ultimately a poor first quarter undid all of that.

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The Raptors fought back gamely from their early issues and had the lead on numerous occasions through the third and fourth quarters, but fell short yet again in a 131-128 loss.

VanVleet was outstanding in this one, setting a career high in rebounds with 12 in addition to his game-high 34 points and 10 assists, but where the Raptors got one truly outstanding performance the Jazz had two.

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First there was seven footer Lauri Markkanen, likely on his way to the All-Star game as the representative of the host team, filling up the scoresheet with 28 points and 13 rebounds. He’s been doing that all year since coming over from Cleveland in the Donovan Mitchell trade.

The bigger surprise on the night was rookie Walker Kessler. Kessler is quickly making the basketball fans in Utah forget Rudy Gobert was ever a member of the Jazz.

All Kessler did was contribute 17 points, pull down 14 boards, seven at the offensive end and, most impactful of all, block seven of the 11 shots the Jazz had as a team.

Kessler’s mere presence at the rim had more than a few Raptors even considering heading to the rim the way he was swatting away attempts.

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And doing this as a rookie had to make Raptors head coach Nick Nurse cringe as he’s got his own shot-blocking rookie in Christian Koloko who, for whatever reason, has never seen the benefit of the whistle that Kessler seems to be getting in Utah.

In any event, Kessler played a very large role in this one, particularly in the early going when he had four of his seven blocks.

Kessler along with Markkanen and Canadian Kelly Olynyk gave the Jazz a huge height advantage over the Raptors and that played into the final result.

But give the Raptors credit for refusing to back down, particularly on the offensive boards where Toronto had a huge 25-13 advantage led by Barnes’ nine offensive rebounds.

It was that kind of effort, along with VanVleet’s night, that allowed the Raptors to keep this one as close as it was.

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Through the first half the Raptors were shooting just under 40% as a team while their hosts were heaving it up at a 56% success rate. The Jazz also had a 9-2 edge in the made threes category and yet Toronto was down just five at the half.

Mr. Energy, Chris Boucher, also had a large hand in keeping the game close with a game-high 16 points off the Raptors bench.

The Jazz, though, were just so much better from outside the arc, making good on 17 of 47 triple attempts to Toronto’s 10 makes on 23 heaves. That and all those blocks, courtesy mainly of Kessler, more than offset the Toronto positives.

With the loss, the Raptors fall to 2-3 on the road trip with two games remaining in Houston on Friday and Memphis on Sunday.

HE’S BACK

Dalano Banton made an appearance coming in for the second quarter Wednesday night in Salt Lake City.

It’s notable because Banton hasn’t played a minute for the Raptors since Dec. 18, almost a month and a half. Banton was sent down to the G-League and had some injury issues as he was about to make his return.

He played just under nine minutes, chipped in with two assists and missed his only shot attempt, a three-point attempt in that second quarter.

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