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Fred VanVleet stars, but the Raptors fall to the Pacers, 114-97

Coming off of 24 extremely good minutes of basketball — perhaps the best of the season for the Toronto Raptors — the team disappointed against the Indiana Pacers.

Sabonis feasted on the offensive glass and in the post, and Toronto had little option but to swarm him — leaving his teammates plenty of space to score.

He was back cut multiple times and made some mistakes with his closeouts, giving up uncontested baskets to a Pacers’ team that seemed to score fine without any extra help from the Raptors.

Having one of Khem Birch, OG Anunoby, or Yuta Watanabe — all sizeable frontcourt players who can protect the rim and clean the glass — would have breathed life into the rotation.

Barnes was one of Toronto’s most important offensive machines, churning out points when on the court, and he finished with 17, on top of plenty of other spending stats.

At one point, VanVleet set a screen for Siakam, who rejected it, jetted into the paint, and dumped it off to Achiuwa, who was skulking along the baseline, for the dunk.

to simply score in isolation at will, and on nights when his jumper is off, as it was against Indiana, there’s not too many points to score when Toronto’s stars are on the bench.

Rosters that score by committee can only handle so many absences; “next man up” only works when there’s enough overlap of skills on the roster that absent players can be replaced.

That’s no individual’s fault, and it’s especially painful when there are so many individual defensive talents on the roster.

Most importantly, Nurse said before the game that he expects Anunoby to be back “any day now.” Wins should follow.

…Read the full story

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